Give me five mins and I’ll show you a few exercise ideas to avoid osteoporosis
Submitted by guest writer, Michelle Aultman
Nearly ten million Americans have osteoporosis, and another 34 million have low bone mass, (osteopenia).
A disease with out symptoms, osteoporosis affects about 20 percent of men and 80 % of women.
Since bones gradually become weaker, they may break at a minor fall or, if left untreated, even from simple things like a sneeze.
The commonest fracture sites can be hip, wrist and spine, although any bone in the body might be affected.
A diagnosis of osteopenia or osteoporosis may be scary, leading lots of people to avoid exercisse due to fear it’ll cause fractures.
The simple truth is that people with low bone mass should make sure to exercise regularly.
Being active is shown to not only help prevent osteoporosis, but slow bone loss once it’s already begun.
Before beginning a workout program, you should check with a medical expert for guidelines, as level of bone loss determines exactly what workout is best.
Physicians can assess density of bone and fracture risk by scanning your body with a special kind of X-ray machine.
In conjunction with exercise, treatment may include dietary modifications and/or estrogen replacement therapy.
The more you know about this condition, the more you can do to help prevent its onset.
To build strength and bone mass, both weight-bearing and resistance training exercises are ideal.
Weight-bearing workouts are those that require the bones to fully support your weight against gravity.
Examples are walking, jogging, stair climbing, dancing or using an elliptical exercise machine.
Non-weight bearing exercises include biking, swimming, water aerobics and rowing.
Weight-bearing activities such as walking as little as 3 times weekly can benefit the bones.
Resistance training places mechanical force (stress) on our bodies, that might increases density of bone.
Start by lifting light weights, moving in a slow and controlled manner, increasing resistance as you become stronger.
It is highly recommended that individuals with osteoporosis avoid the following types of activity:
* Step aerobics and high-impact activities like running, jumping, tennis.
* Activities that involve rounding, bending and twisting of the spine.
* Moving the legs sideways or across the body, specially when performed against resistance.
* Rowing machines, trampolines.
* Any kind of movement that involves pulling on the head and neck.
Exercise Tips:
* Even if you do not have osteoporosis, you must consult your medical provider before you begin a training program.
* Make sure you warm-up before starting and cool-down at the end of every exercise session.
* For the best benefit to your bone health, combine a number of different weight-bearing exercises.
* As you build strength, increase resistance, or weights, rather than repetitions.
* Be sure you drink plenty of water whenever exercising.
* Vary the types of exercise that you try each week.
* Combine weight bearing and resistance exercise with aerobic exercises to help you increase your general health.
* Bring your friend along to assist you continue or in addition to this, bring your family and encourage them to be healthy.
* Add more physical activity to your day; take the stairs vs. the elevator, park further way, and walk to your co-worker’s office as an alternative to emailing.
Put LIVE into action!
L – Load or weight-bearing exercises make a difference to your bones
I – Intensity builds stronger bones.
V – Vary the kinds of exercise as well as your routine to keep interested.
E – Enjoy your exercises. Make exercise fun so you will continue in to the future!
Certain factors boost the probability of developing osteoporosis.
While some of these risk factors are controllable, others aren’t.
Risk factors that could be controlled are: Sedentary lifestyle, excess intake of protein, sodium,
caffeine and/or alcohol, smoking, calcium and Vitamin D deficiencies and taking certain medicines.
Body size (small frame), gender, family history and ethnicity are risk factors that cannot be controlled.
Women can lose about 20 percent of their bone mass in the five to seven years after menopause,
driving them to more subject to osteoporosis.
It is never too soon to start thinking about bone mineral density.
About 85-90 % of adult bone mass is acquired by age 18 in girls and 20 in boys.
Nutrition and Exercise for Healthy Bones in childhood and Adolescence
Much of the reserve of healthy bone is built in youth and before age 30.
Women might be more subject to an inadequate foundation process at this time than men.
Sufficient calcium intake,a comprehensive diet with a lot of fruit and vegetables and
load-bearing exercise are the keys to solid bone growth when you’re young.
Then, with continued exercise into old age –- and this benefits men as well — bone density decline could be kept to a minimum.
Although women are the main focus of data about osteoporosis and low bone density (osteopenia),
some men are also seriously afflicted by this problem.
Even if you do each of the right things while becoming an adult and into adulthood, your inherited characteristics –- your genes -–
can present you with bones that are susceptible to osteoporosis. This is even greater reason to maximize your lifestyle to prevent poor bone health.
About the writer – Michelle Aultman writes for the <a href=”http://www.ellipticalmachines.net/”>elliptical workouts for weight loss</a> blog, her personal hobby blog focused entirely on suggestions to prevent osteoporosis trough home fitness.
Writer’s note: The information provided on this post are designed to support, not change, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health practitioner.
Michelle Aultman has not business intent and does not accept direct source of advertising coming from health or pharmaceutical companies, doctors or clinics and websites.
All content provided by her is based on her editorial view and it’s not driven by an advertising and marketing purpose.