Building our Bones!

It's that time of year when the skeleton gets the most attention!

So let's take a look deep inside at our own skeletons.

Did you know that 1 in 2 women and up to 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis?

You might think, “I can wait until I'm 50 to take action!” However, the bone loss begins in our 30's- which seems young! Thankfully, it's never too late, as our bones do re-generate and re-model based on our food and activity choices.

So, what are some ways you can build stronger bones through activity? Bones like to compress to stay strong and these are a few ways to achieve that compression:

💀 Walking: According to Dr. Loren Fishman, “The cells that build bones, the osteoblasts, require a certain amount of continuous pressure for 12 seconds before they start the bone-building process,” he explains. “Without that pressure, there will not be any bone building. Therefore, strange as it may sound, slowing down your walking, so that instead of alternating feet two or three times in 12 seconds, actually staying on one foot for that length of time or longer is likely to [hone in on] the femur (thigh bone), where the worst fractures take place.

💀️ ️Moving in all ways- such as jumping rope, tennis, pickleball, hopping, running. The more variety in your steps (side to side/front to back), the better rather than choosing one direction as the only form of joint compression.

💀 Weight lifting.

💀 Yoga & Pilates work by joint compression in balancing, planking, jump board, pushing and pulling on the reformer, push ups. 

Unfortunately, if swimming and biking (like me!)are your favorite forms of cardio, they are great on our joints, but they don't get compressed, thus not great for building bones.

What is something you might add this week for more joint compression?

I'm happy to answer any questions you have on this and Maria can help with foods that may help, as well.  

Happy Halloween and happy bone building!