Yahoo Lifestyle The One Simple Workout Move an Endocrinologist Is Begging People Over 50 To Do for Bone Health
Your 50s are a crucial decade for bone health. After age 50, bone breakdown outpaces bone formation, accelerating the speed of bone loss. This doesn’t mean you’re doomed to have brittle bones as you age, but it does mean you have to be proactive if you want to prevent bone loss.
Your workouts can play an important role in preventing both muscle and bone loss as you age, but it’s important to know what type of exercise supports your body in this specific way. In fact, there’s one exercise move in particular that endocrinologists wish people would do more because it’s so beneficial for bone health.
Related: This Is the #1 Sign of Healthy Bones, According to Endocrinologists
The Best Type of Workout for Bone Health
Certainly, no matter how you like to stay active, you are benefitting your body. But if one of your health goals is maintaining muscle mass and strong bones, resistance training is the best type of workout to prioritize. “All exercise is good and the more you do it, the better it is for your bones—and for longevity! Since my patients tend to be postmenopausal women, and therefore in a time of their lives when they are losing muscle along with bone, I strongly encourage adding resistance training to their exercise regimens. So many people walk, do yoga and garden—it’s not enough! To retain, and even gain, muscle is really beneficial for bone health,” says Dr. Janet Rubin, MD, an endocrinologist and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Scientific research backs this up, showing that resistance training truly is beneficial for maintaining bone density. Scientific researchers recommend strength training three times a week to maintain strong bones.
Dr. Amber Wheeler, MD, an endocrinologist and advisor for Hey Freya, also says that resistance training is important for bone health and adds that exercises aimed at improving balance, endurance, strength and flexibility are especially beneficial because they help build strength while supporting control and maintaining proper balance. “As adults age, they tend to lose muscle strength, which places them at increased risk of falls and fractures,” Dr. Wheeler explains. She says that resistance training includes the use of free weights, your body weight, or equipment such as resistance bands to strengthen muscles and bones, but adds that exercises like pickleball, dancing and tai chi can also help with maintaining balance and supporting control.
The Best Exercise Move for Bone Health
With all this in mind, there’s one exercise move that Dr. Rubin says it is especially beneficial for bone health and it does not require any equipment: the plank. “It’s simple and can be done even with spine osteoporosis,” she says. If doing a plank is inaccessible to you right now, she says you can reap similar benefits by doing a plank against a wall while standing. Below are the instructions for how to do a proper plank, strengthening your bones in the process
Plank
1. Get down on all fours, placing your hands under your shoulders. Put your palms flat on the floor and rise up to your toes.
2. Hold this position for as long as you can. Aim for 15 or 30 seconds to start and over time work your way up to one minute or even longer.
3. To modify the move and make it easier, bring your knees to the floor while holding your plank. To modify the move and make it harder, dip your hips to the left and then to the right as you hold your plank.
The plank isn’t the only workout move Dr. Rubin recommends for bone health. She also recommends squats because they strengthen bones in the spine and lower body and are also a functional movement; when you pull your body up from sitting down, you’re using the same muscles as when doing a squat.
Exercise Moves to Avoid If You Want to Protect Your Bones
When it comes to exercising for bone health, it’s just as important to know what types of exercise moves to avoid as it is to know which ones to do. If you are over 50 and have weak bones, Dr. Wheeler recommends avoiding exercise moves that twist the waist or back. “These exercises can [increase the] risk of compression fractures or broken bones in the spine,” she says. Examples of these types of exercises include sit ups and any yoga poses with spinal twists, which Dr. Wheeler says should be modified.
When you’re strength training, Dr. Rubin says it’s important to protect your back when you’re lifting weights off the floor. Instead of using your back, she says it’s better to squat down to pick them up. Like Dr. Wheeler, Dr. Rubin also says that any exercises that twist the spine should be avoided. “The spine should be neutral or extended during exercise,” she says.
It’s empowering to know that you have the ability to get stronger as you age, not weaker. “In this century so many of us will get into the 80s and 90s and it’s important to be functional to make these years happy,” Dr. Rubin says. “We have to put in the work. Exercise is the work. Do the exercise to be strong.”
Up Next:
Related: These 11 Vitamin K-Rich Foods Are Key for Healthy Bones and So Easy To Add to Meals
Sources
Dr. Janet Rubin, MD, endocrinologist and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Dr. Amber Wheeler, MD, endocrinologist and advisor for Hey Freya
