Best Exercise for Osteoporosis

Did you know that bone mass decline begins as early as age 40? It’s a scary fact to know but it is one those things in life where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You can so easily prevent osteoporosis by doing exercises for bone health and changing your diet a bit.

Calcium and vitamin D are what help prevent osteoporosis and debilitating fractures. Fragile bones tend to break more easily. Calcium which is found in dairy products and other products may be fortified with calcium such as cereal, increase bone density. Vitamin D which our body makes by itself when we expose our skin to sunlight, helps us absorb the calcium we put in our system.

Most women do not get enough calcium or vitamin D so you might want to ask your doctor about supplements. The recommended daily dose is 1,000 to 1,400 mg of calcium and 800 to 1,000 IU of Vitamin D. Now, onto exercises for bone health.

When you do weight bearing exercises, your bones have to work and so they get stronger just like your muscles do when they work. You can do weight lifting exercises with light weights ( 1 lb, 3 lb., 5lb, or 8 lb. )or you can do exercises that use your body weight as the “weight.”

If you have a chair, a curb, the bottom step of staircase or a sturdy foot stool you can do the easy “weight bearing” exercises.

Sit to Stand – Sit upright in a chair (your best posture – back straight), keeping your feet shoulder width apart. Push your heels into the ground and stand up slowly, back straight, without using your arms. Stand for one second, then gradually lower your body back to the sitting position (don’t use hands). Repeat this exercise 10 times. The slower you stand up the harder your body has to work. So you can increase your level of intensity by how slow you stand and sit back down.

Step up – Standing, place your right foot one a curb, bottom step of a staircase or a sturdy foot stool. Then lift your left foot onto the stop too. Step back down, leading with your left foot. Repeat 10 times, then do 10 repetitions starting with your left foot.

These are 2 easy exercises for bone health and will probably help your posture too since you must keep your back straight.

Though lean proteins and whole grains are wonderful for other parts of your body they are usually highly acidic and excess acid breaks down bone. To keep your bones strong add fruits and vegetables to your diet because they are alkaline (opposite of acids) and will balance the acid of grains and proteins.

Most women don’t get enough Vitamin D and it turns out it is not always easy to get as much Vitamin D as you need. If you want to find out the best way to get vitamin D =>>>>

See our post on Health Benefits of Vitamin D

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Tags: best exercise for osteoporosis, bone health supplements, exercises for bone health, maintaining bone health, statistics bone health