Exercises For Osteoporosis Sufferers To Strengthen Their Bones

Many people don’t realize that exercises should not be performed for those with osteoporosis until they have built up their bones for at least a few months.

The risk is that doing exercises for osteoporosis before the bones are built up will fracture them. And one fracture is already one too many.

Many of my nutritional clients are quite relieved to learn they have a few months leeway before they begin their exercises. What I find is that these two months gives them some psychological room to get used to the idea. This down time is especially helpful for those who never took a liking to any type of exercising.

Cardio Plus Weight Resistance = Stronger Bones

The exercises for osteoporosis I’ve used with patients in the past have been based on the Body for Life Program. This is an older exercise program created by Bill Phillips that was quite popular in the 1980s, but it is one that has been proven to take the most frumpiest, out-of-shape person and turn them into an amazing male or female fitness model in relatively little time. The program is a combination of cardio activity based on interval training and weight resistance exercises based on lifting a certain percentage of your capacity with every set.

Thus, someone might start out with only 5 exercises they have to perform – either for the upper body or the lower body in an exercise session. Only three exercise sessions are done each week.

Each exercise will be done in six different sets – first at very little effort at all for 12 repetitions, then with a higher weight for 10 repetitions. The third set is eight repetitions with a weight that starts to make it a bit harder, and the fourth set is an all-out lifting of weight at the highest weight you can lift for six repetitions. In between the sets, you rest for one full minute. The resting has to be one full minute because that’s when the neuromuscular response is occurring in the body to make your muscles grow stronger. As your muscles grow stronger, so do your bones.

The last two sets won’t have any rest in between them. For these, you’ll do one set of 12 repetitions at the highest level you can perform, then switch to another weight lifting machine at the gym that allows you to exercise the same body part but possibly at a different angle. You’ll perform 12 repetitions at this other machine at the highest level you can lift. The workout takes specifically 42 to 46 minutes, no more time and no less.

Adapting a Popular Program of Exercises for Osteoporosis

Now here’s how you can adapt the Body for Life Program for exercises for osteoporosis:

1. Spend the first week or two at the gym getting used to the exercise machines. Perform only one set of 8 exercises on five to eight different machines for the upper body on one day and the lower body two days later. Use an amount of weight that makes it seem as if you aren’t really doing much at all. This is important for those with osteoporosis because too much weight can break a weakened bone. Many women with osteoporosis break a rib by simply opening up a window.

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