Osteoporosis Exercises

Did you know Galileo Galilei, the “father of modern science,” laid the foundation for understanding the link between exercise and bone health over 300 years ago?

The renowned Italian astronomer and physicist noted that body weight and bone size are directly related.¹ But it wasn’t until centuries later that German anatomist Julius Wolff expanded on Galileo’s theory. Wolff discovered that mechanical stresses applied to bone influence their strength.² Which is just a scientific way of saying exercise makes your bones stronger!

Fast forward to the modern day, and we know that exercise is a crucial component of maintaining healthy bones and avoiding osteoporosis. See, regular exercise puts stress on your bones which helps them become denser and stronger.³ Plus, exercise combats age-related muscle loss (a condition called sarcopenia⁴) which helps to keep you on your feet and avoid fall-related fractures!

So read on to discover the best type of exercises for osteoporosis and how to incorporate them into your routine safely.

It’s important to exercise regularly because it’s super beneficial to your overall health! Regular exercise can help you:

• Keep your heart and circulatory system healthy⁵
• Maintain a healthy body weight⁶
• De-stress and aid sleep⁷
• Support your bone health

Now, as you know, there are hundreds of ways to exercise and reap the benefits listed above. But when it comes to supporting your bone health, there are two types of exercise in particular that stand above the rest. Our Content Manager and Fitness Lead (ACE Certified Personal Trainer), Monica Lam-Feist, explains what they are in the video below. And we have more in-depth information on the rest of this page too:

1.Weight-Bearing Exercise

Weight-bearing exercise is one of the best exercises you can do to strengthen your bones! See, a weight-bearing exercise is an activity that you do while on your feet, so your bones and muscles are forced to work against gravity to keep you upright. Doing weight-bearing activities places stress on your bones, in a good way, which helps them become stronger and increases your bone mineral density.⁸

Now, there are two types of weight-bearing exercise you need to know about; high-impact and low-impact.

High-impact weight-bearing exercises include:

• Running/jogging
• Hiking
• Dancing
• Gardening (for example: mowing the lawn, planting and digging actions, and carrying compost bags)
• Playing tennis or other racquet sports
• High-impact aerobics
• Jumping rope
• Climbing stairs
• Playing soccer

Some people may struggle with the intensity of high-impact exercises right away. So try one of the following low-impact weight-bearing exercises to get started:

• Brisk walking
• An elliptical machine
• Low-impact aerobics
• A stair-step machine
• Tai chi**
• Yoga**
• Pilates**
• Gentle dancing

**There are times during yoga and Pilates when you perform exercises while lying or sitting on the floor. In these instances, while these exercises may be strenuous, they’re no longer weight-bearing exercises as the floor is supporting you. These would be considered non-weight-bearing, which we’ll discuss shortly.

A word on non-weight-bearing exercise:

As you can tell from the name, non-weight-bearing exercises don’t involve supporting or bearing your own weight. Now, as far as osteoporosis and bone strength are concerned, non-weight-bearing exercises aren’t as beneficial as weight-bearing exercises. But that’s not to say that they aren’t helpful at all.

Non-weight-bearing exercises still provide the overall health benefits we listed above, and can help improve your posture and flexibility. Both of which can improve your balance and reduce your risk of taking a tumble and fracturing a bone! Plus, they’re great additions to an osteoporosis exercise regimen and can be the perfect starting point for people who can’t begin with weight-bearing exercise straight away because of limitations like:

• Limited mobility
• Weak or brittle bones that may fracture easily under stress
• Joint pain, which makes weight-bearing exercise uncomfortable

Non-weight-bearing exercises include:

• Cycling
• Seated stretching
• Seated exercises (like certain poses during yoga or Pilates)
• Paddling a canoe or kayak
• Swimming/water therapy

2. Muscle-Strengthening Exercise

The second superstar osteoporosis exercise category is muscle-strengthening exercise. This type of exercise is also known as resistance exercise and involves working your muscles against an opposing force. The opposing force could be a dumbbell, a resistance band, or even your own body weight.

You may be picturing a bodybuilder right now, but don’t worry! Muscle-strengthening exercises don’t require heavy weights to be beneficial for your bone health. You see, the skeletal and muscular systems are tightly intertwined. The strongest mechanical forces on your bones are those created by muscle contractions. And these muscle contractions condition your bone density, strength, and microarchitecture (the internal structure of your bones.)⁹

Plus, increasing your muscle strength will help you prevent sarcopenia (we’ll cover this a little further down the page) which will make you sturdier on your feet and less likely to suffer a fall!

Muscle-strengthening exercises include:

• Lifting free weights
• Using weight machines
• Resistance exercises (using bands or tubes)
• Bodyweight exercises (like squats and push-ups)
• Functional movements (like standing and rising up on your toes)

The best exercise regimen for osteoporosis and bone health will incorporate both weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises. You don’t need to embark on an olympian exercise schedule, but do try to dedicate a bit of time each week to exercises like the ones we’ve listed above.

To help you get started, we’ve got a whole host of exercise tutorials that cover weight-bearing, muscle-strengthening, and non-impact exercises. In the “Full Workouts” section of the list below, you’ll find video walkthroughs of entire Yoga, Tai Chi, Barre and Pilates sessions led by qualified teachers/instructors. And in the “Area- Specific Exercises” section you’ll find dedicated exercises for specific areas of your body along with short video tutorials and instructions. Just click the exercise you want to do to get started!

In addition, if you’d like an example of a comprehensive exercise plan for osteoporosis, check out our “Osteoporosis Workout Routine for Stronger Bones“. This week-long exercise plan provides guidelines for how to use the exercises listed below. You’ll also find a handy printable schedule that you can stick to your fridge!

Full Workouts

Area-Specific Exercises

Now you know the two best types of exercise for osteoporosis and have a wealth of exercise tutorials to get you started. But there’s still a burning question to answer. “Is exercise alone enough to increase bone density?” Well, the short answer is no. At least not outright.

Exercise can increase your bone density, but it’s not enough to counterbalance the natural bone loss you experience when you’re around 40-years-old and above. See, when you reach this age, your natural bone remodeling process becomes unbalanced. Your bone-resorbing osteoclasts start to remove bone quicker than your bone-building osteoblasts can replace it. In fact, you can expect to lose about 1% of your bone density every year from 40 onwards.¹⁴

The majority of studies on exercise and bone mineral density (BMD) show exercise can slow bone loss, but it isn’t sufficient to increase bone density alone. In fact, we had our Resident Bone Health Expert, Lara Pizzorno, take a deep-dive into the medical journals for every relevant study she could find. The studies fell into one of two categories:

1. Studies that examine the relationship between exercise and fracture risk
2. Studies that examine the relationship between exercise and BMD

Exercise and Fracture Risk

Only one study on the effects of exercise and fracture risk was of high enough quality for us to include here.

Name: The role of physical activity in the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women-An update.

Type of study: A review of relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective cohort studies. A prospective cohort study is a study that follows a group of similar individuals for a prolonged time. The individuals tend to differ concerning certain factors of the study, to determine how these factors affect a certain outcome.

Summary: Of the seven studies reviewed, three were RCTs, one was a controlled, un-randomized study, and three were prospective cohort studies. The RCTs drew differing conclusions on whether exercise increases BMD. But two of the prospective cohort studies found that exercise is linked with a reduced risk of hip fracture.

In fact, one study found that participants who exercised for 24 MET hours or more a week had a 55% lower relative risk of hip fracture compared to participants who exercised for only 3 MET hours or less a week. (If you’re not sure what an MET hour is don’t worry, we explain it with examples a little further down the page.)

Results: This review supports the theory that exercise can reduce the risk of fractures, particularly hip fractures.¹⁵

Exercise and Bone Mineral Density

Six studies on the relationship between exercise and bone mineral density met the quality requirement to be deemed genuinely insightful and useful. Click on the studies below for a summary and the main outcomes of each:

If you’d like to see the studies that we didn’t deem high enough quality to include in our review, click on the icon below:

Combats Sarcopenia

Activates Your Osteocytes & Extends Their Lifespan

Increases Your Production of Osteoblasts and Muscle Cells

You wouldn’t tell an athlete to forget protein because all they need for building strong muscle is exercise, right? Well, the same principle applies to your bone density. You can’t rely on exercise alone. In fact, there are three main pillars of increasing bone density:

Getting the essential bone-building nutrients

Nutrition steals the show when it comes to increasing your bone density. In fact, our award-winning studies show you can increase your bone density by providing your bones with proper nutrition alone– even without exercise. But to maximize your bone-building results, you’ll need the supporting cast. We’ll outline the nutrients that directly impact your exercise efforts below and the 13 minerals and 3 vitamins essential for supporting healthy bones in “The Nutrition Roundup” section a little further dow

Regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise

We’ve already seen how exercise slows your bone loss, combats sarcopenia, reduces your risk of a hip fracture, and activates your bone-building osteoblasts. But when you incorporate proper nutrition with your exercise the benefits are maximized (as you’ll soon discover.)

Minimal exposure to harmful toxins

Everyday things like smoking, certain prescription drugs, and even refined sugar cause inflammation in your body. If this inflammation persists, it can become chronic. And chronic, low-grade inflammation can accelerate your bone loss! Check out the “Overexposure to Toxins” section of our “Osteoporosis Causes” page for more information. This trio of factors will give you the best results when it comes to strong, healthy bones. Now, as far as the essential bone-building nutrients are concerned, there are 13 minerals and a handful of vitamins that are essential for supporting healthy bones. You can read all about them on our “Osteoporosis Diet and Nutrition” page. But there are also several nutrients (some of which are also the essential bone-building nutrients) that directly impact the benefit of your osteoporosis exercises. So let’s take an in-depth look at those now.

Calcium, protein, vitamin D, and omega 3 fatty acids are the nutrients shown to boost the effect of, or maximize your exercises. But, if you recall, we mentioned there are a total of 13 minerals and 3 vitamins your bones crave too (not including protein and omega 3 fatty acids.) They are:

The 13 Essential Bone-Supporting Minerals

The Supporting Cast Of Vitamins

Getting all of the above into your diet is a challenge though. It’s almost impossible to regularly achieve the recommended daily intake of calcium for people over 50 (1,200mg/day). And taking enough supplements to cover every vitamin and mineral your bones need can cost a small fortune… and cause a real headache as far as scheduling is concerned! But thankfully, there’s an easy, convenient way to get everything your bones crave. AlgaeCal’s Bone Builder Pack (AlgaeCal Plus + Strontium Boost) provides all 13 of those bone-supporting minerals and the 3 vitamins too. That includes 720 mg of body-friendly, natural, plant-based calcium! (The average diet provides around 500 mg/day of calcium. So your diet + the Bone Builder Pack = the recommended daily intake of 1200 mg or more!)

What’s more, when you use the Bone Builder Pack, you’re guaranteed to see an increase in your bone mineral density at every follow-up DEXA scan! It’s the perfect nutrition companion to any osteoporosis exercise regimen and it’s 100% risk-free to give it a try! Now, the Bone Builder Pack doesn’t contain omega 3s. But Triple Power Omega 3 Fish Oil has you covered in that department. Triple Power provides over 1400 mg of omega 3s, including a combined 1200 mg of EPA and DHA which we covered above. And the best part? It’s naturally flavored with mango to make it the best-tasting fish oil product you’ll have ever tried. No fishy taste or fish-burps with Triple Power, and that’s a guarantee. That just leaves protein. Don’t worry though; it’s super easy to add protein-rich foods to your meals. In fact, you can discover the top protein sources in our “Everything You Need to Know About Protein and Bone Health” post.

Exercising when you already have osteoporosis can seem scary. You may think that performing a range of exercises and being more active than usual would increase your chance of taking a tumble and suffering a fracture.

But hopefully, the information we’ve provided on this page helps ease your mind and demonstrates that exercise is actually an important part of combating osteoporosis. But of course, you should approach osteoporosis exercises with your safety in mind and try to stay realistic. You know your body better than anyone, so listen to it and don’t try to take on too much too quickly, especially if you’re just starting out with osteoporosis exercises.

The exercise walkthroughs we provide are recommended specifically for people with osteoporosis, but many of them also have beginner versions for you to try first. If you’re just starting out on an osteoporosis exercise, we highly recommend that you check in with your doctor first. Your doctor knows your bone health history as well as your general health, so they can help you tailor an exercise program to your stage of osteoporosis, fitness level, and overall health.

Below is a checklist to keep in mind to help keep you and your bones safe while exercising. Remember, exercise is beneficial for your bone health, but safety always comes first!

1. Avoid contraindicated exercises – You want to steer clear of any exercises that can cause you pain or injury. For osteoporosis exercises specifically, avoid exercises that involve forward flexion of the spine (bending forward at the spine to make a “C” shape) involve twisting actions or include excessive bending or bouncing stretches.
2. Focus on quality, not quantity – Performing an exercise with the correct form will help protect you from injury. Try to exercise in front of a mirror if possible so you can keep an eye on your form!
3. Work at an intensity that suits you – When it comes to exercise, you need to push your body enough to gain a benefit. As you become stronger or more flexible, you’ll find the exercises you began with will become easier. These exercises won’t test your body enough anymore and you’ll cease to improve, so you need to gradually progress your exercises. But, you don’t want to put yourself at risk by taking too much of a leap. A great way to both progress your exercises and maintain your safety is to monitor the exercises you do. Let’s take a bicep curl as an example. Say you start off at two sets of 6 repetitions with a 2 pound weight. Record how the exercise feels every time you perform it, and when it gets too easy, try doing two sets of 10 repetitions with a 2 pound weight. And from there you can increase the weight, and the sets and so on!
4. Maintain your posture and technique – Keep your posture and technique in mind when you’re performing any exercise. These are both important to keep your body alignment in check so that you’re working the parts of your body the exercise is intended to work and to help you avoid injury too.
5. Take care of your joints – Looking after your joints is very important. After all, they support your body and help to keep you on your feet and independent! Now, the best way to care for your joints is to keep the muscles that support them strong. So, if you know your knees are a little on the weak side, for example, include some exercises in your regimen that work the surrounding muscles; your quadriceps, glutes, and calves.

Now you know why you should be exercising, the types of exercise that are most beneficial for your bones, and the safety tips to consider too. That just leaves how much exercise you should be doing…

Well, Metabolic Equivalent (MET) hours are used to measure the intensity of exercise. The MET measures the amount of energy you burn during exercise and various physical activities. For reference, 1 MET is equal to the number of calories burned at rest: 30-38 calories for every 30 minutes. And you burn 3-6 METs of energy with moderate exercise: 90-225 calories in a 30-minute workout.

So how many MET hours of exercise do you need a week? Well, active women with a minimum of 24 MET hours of at least moderate activity per week have a 55% lower risk of hip fracture according to The Nurses’ Health Study!³⁴ (But remember, this is relative risk compared to sedentary women getting less than 3 MET-hours per week). Now, the exact number of calories you burn will vary depending on two things. How much muscle mass you have, and how vigorously you use it during the exercise. The good news here is the more you exercise, the more muscle you will have, and the more calories you will burn. For an idea of how many MET hours various activities tally up on average, check out the following table:

Table Sources:

1. https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/bicycling
2. http://www.whyiexercise.com/metabolic-equivalent.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent

To maximize the impact your exercise regimen has on your bone health, you should try to tick off everything on the following checklist.

• Exercise at least three times a week for 1 hour – An hour every day of some form of weight-bearing movement is even better when you feel ready for it!
• Be dynamic! Try to include exercise that involves faster movements opposed to slow, static movements
• Involve some impact – For example walking, jogging, or vigorous dancing, rather than cycling or swimming as we explained a little earlier
• Exceed a threshold intensity – Aim to exercise at least 70%, (preferably 85%) of your maximum effort. In other words, you should be short of breath and a little sweaty by the end
• Gradually make your exercises harder – Your exercise shouldn’t be too easy! Gradually increase the number of times you can work a muscle or muscle group because as you get stronger, what you’re doing will get easier (a very good sign!)
• Involve short bouts of intense exercise with less intense recovery periods – Bopping till you drop is no fun. It’s not effective either. Take short breaks between exercise sets, and you’ll come back stronger
• Impose an unusual loading pattern on your bones – You do want to repeat movements until the muscles you’re using get the message to get stronger. But you don’t want your entire workout to only include the same movement over and over again. That’s boring and ineffective. You want movements that involve a wide variety of muscle groups and movement direction.

A Word on Recovery: Exercising at 70% of your maximum effort is tough work! But did you know omega 3 fatty acids can maximize your workout by reducing inflammation in your body and reducing your recovery time too? Remember, Triple Power Omega 3 Fish Oil provides over 1400 mg of omega 3s per tablespoon. And it tastes so good you’ll want to workout just to be able to have a spoonful afterwards! And last, but definitely not least, your workouts should be combined with optimal nutritional support: protein, calcium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, magnesium, boron and other trace minerals.

Exercise is an important aspect of your bone health. Especially weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises. But exercise alone can’t improve your bone density. For that, you need to combine your exercise program with proper nutrition.

Specifically, your bones crave 13 minerals and 3 vitamins– all of which are provided in the Bone Builder Pack! Not only is the Bone Builder Pack a super convenient way to provide your bones with the nutrients they crave, it’s GUARANTEED to improve your bone mineral density! It’s the perfect companion for any bone-healthy exercise regimen. And remember, omega 3 fatty acids and protein can maximize the benefits of your exercise program too!