Exercise to strengthen bones (for osteoporosis)

Please share the weight bearing exercises you have learned to help osteo. I am already very active but fear a bad fracture. Thanks!

Hi @jsmtgal and @sadiejones, you can check out appropriate exercises for osteoporosis by googling Carol Michaels and Sara Meeks. American Bone Health also has a resource, Exercises for Bone Health, which you can Google. My husband broke his hip recently and many of those exercises are ones the physical therapist gave him to strengthen his hips.
I've added light weights and also use exercise bands to increase resistance
It's important to remember no forward bending of the spine - so many of the poses in Yoga and exercises in Pilates can cause vertebral fractures.
Walking is supposed to be good as well.
Wishing you the best, Teri

Hi @johnbishop and @callalloo, another Connect member bought a LifePro Vibration Plate Exerciser that she was very happy with. I looked it up - if I recall it weighed about 30 lbs., but I could be wrong. I think it takes a while for these to work as a review of studies had most participants on the machines twice a day for 15 minutes at a time for a year. The Marodyne LIV was developed in conjunction with NASA and costs about $1600, last time I checked. The Eilison Bolt and the LifePro both have programs that they claim increase bone density. Let's hope!

@marcd: I hope this gets to you - posting about things that do or do not help with improving bone density. I see the discussion about vibrating plates, not sure about the effectiveness. Regarding basic, “easy”, exercises, I, like many older people, have several issues that prohibit some recommended activities. With chronic Sciatica, a right knee TKR, and semi-chronic right hip bursitis, any jogging/jumping or other joint stressing activity is a no-no. Sciatica is under control with daily exercises, bursitis comes and goes, but generally I’m in very good shape. Disappointed that walking, even if done with intensity as in 15 - 16 minute/mile does not help. Swimming - I don’t quite meet the threshold there, either. Usually 2 40minute sessions/week. Does really hard yard work (as in spreading mulch, digging up plants, hand-pruning dozens of azaleas, etc.) count at all? I’ll check out some of the specific exercises someone mentioned, but again - most people with osteoporosis are not spring chickens, and may be limited as to what they can do. Oncologist suggested perhaps starting with ankle weights, but again, there’s the knee issue. And several discs in spine that have atrophied. Any insights?
PS: weighted vest: any recommendation as to how much weight to use? I’m 5’5, 130 lbs, so would 10 lbs. be appropriate?

thank you Teri

This is just a thought but there are other ways to "bear weight" than carrying heavy things or carrying extra body weight when walking. We can only do what we can do, of course, but, if I recall correctly (and I wouldn't put money on it) the military helped develop isometric exercises as an easy, equipment-less, quick-conditioning form of resistance training.

A physical therapist I know has a client who rebuilt her fitness, during lockdown, by exercising against her wall at home, including doing leg presses against the wall while lying on her back. And using the wall for other resistance exercises.

I recently spoke with a woman who swears she reversed osteoporosis and, at 86, still has maintained the mild osteopenia she recovered in her 70s. She used ankle weights on one leg, while standing and holding onto a table for safety, and making circles with the weighted leg. Then switched the weights and exercised the other leg. She thinks that that exercise was what helped the most to keep femur density renewing. That's anecdotal and she could be wrong as to which factor helped her the most, but is a reminder that there are a lot of ways to exercise.

A study I read dealt with how muscles alert bone to, in a sense, tell it to prepare for needing to rebuild, prepare for load-bearing. I'm sure that bone growth isn't that simple but I think that that argues for using any muscles that we can, especially the large muscles, in any safe way we can. Ignore what we can't do (yet) and just keep moving and doing as all movement is some kind of exercise.

Thanks, John!

Margaret Martin is a great resource for safe exercise. I have her book, and she has a website and videos. https://melioguide.com

I kept safe doing tai chi for many years. COVID interfered with that unfortunately.

Hi @ellerbracke, Carol Michaels and Sara Meeks have good exercises for osteoporosis posted on YouTube. American Bone Health also has a resource, Exercises for Bone Health, which you can Google. My husband broke his hip recently and many of those exercises are ones the physical therapist gave him to strengthen his hip.
I've added light weights and also use exercise bands to increase resistance.
My rheumatologist told me a weighted vest could cause spinal fractures - so I gave the one I had, 10 pounds, away.
I came across an article a while ago that said women who gardened had less osteoporosis. I think you have to be careful, not to bend the spine forward, twist too far or lift something too heavy weight. The guidance I've read is no more than 20 lbs.
A review of studies involving whole body vibration therapy can be found in "Whole-body vibration exercise in postmenopausal osteoporosis", Magdalena Weber-Rajek,et al which you can google. All the best.

Thanks for the Weber-Rajek heads up. When I get one of the vibration plates, I'm going to proceed carefully but the tech just sounds interesting. Some people in photos online are using them while seated to stimulate circulation in the lower legs so it looks as there are myriad ways the technology might be beneficial though I'm keeping @windyshores caution about already-fractured discs, etc,. in mind.