Does this shirt make my butt look big?
You spend so much time scrutinizing your body in the mirror . . .
But do you ever think about your skeleton?
We obsess about our shape and size, but most of us don’t give a bleep about our bone health.
Unless of course we break a bone or are diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Osteo what?
Osteoporosis is “a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, makes too little bone, or both. As a result, bones become weak and may break from a fall or, in serious cases, from sneezing or minor bumps,” according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
From freaking sneezing?
Bones may weaken to such a degree that a break may occur with minor stress or spontaneously.
Spontaneously?
Who wants to be sitting on the beaches of Bali enjoying retirement like a boss just to have one of your bones spontaneously break before your second piña colada?
Osteoporosis doesn’t just happen to us when we turn 65 or receive our AARP card in the mail. It sneaks up on us slowly over the course of many decades of ignoring our bone health.
Osteoporosis is a silent disease because a broken bone is typically the first indication, and by that time, the bone loss is significant and you’ve got a problem a piña colada won’t fix.
So what to do?
According to Harvard Health Publishing, “the best prevention for bone-thinning osteoporosis begins early — during the first two decades of life.”
Which means bone health isn’t just something for your grandmother to worry about– it’s something you should be paying attention to now.
Here are three things you can do at any age to keep your bones healthy and strong.
1. Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet
In order to build and maintain strong bones, your body needs both Calcium and Vitamin D (as well as other nutrients) to be present– and in the correct amounts.
Nutrients work in tandem with one another so even though Calcium and Vitamin D are the Lebron James and Kevin Durant of vitamins when it comes to bone health, taking a superman dose of one won’t do you much good. In this case, you need the whole team.
The best dietary action you can take for your bone health is to eat healthy, nutrient-dense foods with plenty of readily available vitamins and minerals.
The nutrients found naturally in foods are supplied to us through the beauty of nature in the perfect amounts so our bodies can easily assimilate and use these nutrients.
No amount of vitamin supplementation can overcompensate for a poor diet.
#planB #fail
2. Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Cigarette smoking, consuming alcohol, and certain medications you may be taking can increase your risk of bone loss. Drinking soft drinks with phosphoric acid also increases your risk of developing osteoporosis.
Surprise, surprise, right? All the bad stuff is bad for your bones, too.
If you aren’t quite ready to quit all your vices at once, try decreasing the amount and/or frequency.
Pay attention to how long you take medications that “advertise” bone loss. Ask your trusted healthcare practitioner how to avoid bone loss but still treat your health issue.
3. Safe Strength Training
Safe strength training is the holy grail of osteoporosis prevention.
When we contract a muscle through lifting weights, the muscle tugs at the bone, causing microscopic tears to the bone where the muscle is attached. At this point, the body does all this super amazing stuff (involving growth hormones, amino acids, and osteoblasts) to rebuild the bone tissue (and muscle tissue).
We can build a significant amount of bone quickly.
OMG. Best. News. Ever.
Slow strength training was developed through an osteoporosis physical therapy study. Osteoporosis patients in their 80s and 90s were directed to perform strength training exercises very slowly so the exercises would be safe enough for their brittle bones and joints.
Traditional strength training was too dangerous.
Not only were the exercises safe enough for the patients (who were highly susceptible to bone fractures to perform), but they were also incredibly effective at building bone and muscle, more so than traditional weight training.
It’s all about the slow motion.
Because you’re moving slowly, you’re bringing the impact WAY down, while improving bone density and creating muscle mass, which in turn cushions the joints to absorb more impact making you less susceptible to injury overall.
All this in 20 Minutes. Once A Week.
In other words, all the things you want, while still giving you plenty of time to sip those piña coladas on the beach showing off that killer beach-bod.
Join our many elated clients who have celebrated bone density scans showing significant improvements today. Reverse (or prevent!) osteoporosis:)
20 minutes once a week, not just shorter, smarter.
See you at The Strength Shoppe 😉
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