Osteoporosis is common in Australia. In 2017-18, 3.8% of the population were diagnosed with Osteoporosis, an estimated 924,000 Australians. It’s a condition where the bones become fragile, weak and brittle, leading to a high risk of fractures from minor bumps or accidents.
Osteoporosis is most common in older women, affecting 1 in 4 women aged over 75.
Where does exercise fit in?
Exercise that is bone building (osteogenic), is very important from early childhood to early adulthood as it provides stimulus to lay down a solid foundation. As we age, we naturally lose bone due to the ageing process.
Exercise has been scientifically proven to help in the treatment and management of Osteoporosis by slowing the decline or increasing bone strength. It is also powerful in the prevention of osteoporosis!!
The bone remodelling process takes approximately 9-12 months to occur, which means in order to see improvements in bone strength, exercise should be maintained for at least a few months.
What type of exercise?
There is some very specific guidelines around the type of exercise that can help maintain bone density. There are 3 main types of exercise that we need to be doing to help protect our bone. This includes:
- Progressive resistance training: exercising the muscles against some form of resistance e.g. weight training, where this is progressively increased as strength increases.
- Impact loading: vertical and multidirectional jumping, bounding, hopping, stomping etc. This type of exercise should be relatively high impact to induce high bone strains and be performed rapidly.
- Balance training: static and dynamic exercises that challenge or reduce our stability on our base of support e.g. standing on one leg.
How much exercise?
The research has extremely strong evidence for the effect of exercise as medicine for osteoporosis and osteopenia. However the DOSAGE is essential. So how much should we be doing?
- Progressive resistance training: 2 days per week at a high to very high intensity
(8-9 out of 10 difficulty) - Impact loading: 4-7 days per week with at least 50 jumps per session
- Balance training: 4 sessions per week with 30mins of a variety of balance exercises per session
We do try to incorporate these principles into our strength and cardio classes but if you feel like you need some more specific prescriptions for you, please do not hesitate to ask how we can help!!!
