Strengthen Your Bones with Movement

The human skeleton provides mobility, support, and protection, but the bones lose some of their strength and density as people age. One important way to strengthen your bones is through targeted movement, exercises that counteract bone loss.

You probably think of your skeleton as the framework of your body, kind of like the structure of a house. While that inner structure might get damaged occasionally, it’s otherwise unchanging. But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

Bone is a living, dynamic organ. In a process called remodeling, old bone is perpetually removed and replaced with new bone. In fact, most of the adult skeleton is remodeled about every 10 years .

When you’re young, your body makes new bone faster than it removes old bone, resulting in ever-increasing bone mass, which reaches its peak by the age of 30 . However, after that, the whole remodeling process does an about-face, and removal starts to slightly outpace replacement, with bone mass gradually declining as you age.

While both men and women lose some bone mass with age, women tend to experience a greater decline when production of estrogen, which is so integral to bone remodeling, plummets due to menopause. This decline puts women at higher risk for osteoporosis ( 80 percent of Americans who develop osteoporosis are female ), a condition where bones become so porous and brittle that they may fracture.

Using movement to strengthen your bones

While it might seem futile to try to improve your bone density at this late stage, there’s actually plenty you can do to give nature a hand. You may be familiar with how nutrition , medication, and supplements can help strengthen your bones, but exercise is also a very valuable tool in shoring up the important framework that is supporting you.

Related: Supplements for Bone Health

For many years, the medical community advised people with low bone density, women in particular, to be cautious and not to exercise too hard for fear of fracture. “We did them a little disservice because they got nervous to move, because they thought they would break,” said Kathryn Ackerman , an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies bone health. More recent studies have shown that weight-bearing exercise can have a very positive impact on bone health, helping slow loss of density, with several studies even reporting bone replacement from this type of exercise.

What happens is this: “Every move you make is the product of your muscles pulling on your bones to take you in the direction you want to go,” writes Stacy Sims, Ph.D., exercise and nutrition scientist, in her book Next Level. “The more those movement stress the skeleton, the more your body responds by making your bones denser and stronger.”

Use gravity

Astronauts in space lose bone density from the lack of gravity – up to 1 to 2 percent per month, compared to bone loss of 0.5 to 1 percent per year in post-menopausal women. On the other hand, exercises that work against gravity, called weight-bearing exercises, can strengthen your bones. These exercises can be effective in preserving and building your bones.

If you don’t have already have low bone density, you can benefit from high-impact weight-bearing activities like running, walking, and jumping (called plyometrics when used as part of an exercise program) to put more stress on your bones. You can also opt for tennis, pickleball, or dance, activities that require you to move in different directions.

Those who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis should stick with low-impact, weight-bearing cardio such as walking, stair climbing, or elliptical machines and avoid exercises that involve bending all the way over or twisting at the waist , like touching your toes, certain yoga poses, and sit-ups.

Lift heavy stuff

In Next Level, Sims writes, “Strength training is also an excellent bone-builder.” But before you get nervous about that term, strength training doesn’t only mean lifting massive barbells! You can use resistance bands, weight machines, simple free weights, or body weight exercises to create resistance and strengthen your bones. In fact, a regular strength training program has been shown to improve the spine and hip bone density of postmenopausal women diagnosed with low bone density by about 1 percent per year.

“It’s especially important, if you’re a woman with low bone density, to get proper exercise instruction and supervision from a knowledgeable professional,” Sims cautions. “It’s important to perform these exercises with proper form and intensity, so that you’re placing the load where you want it and not where you don’t.” Men with low bone density should heed this advice as well!

Related: Foods to Combat Osteoporosis

Stay upright

But by far, the most important way you can protect your bones is to remain on your feet and avoid falls. That’s why your workout should also include exercises to improve your balance and stability, said Ackerman.

According to the National Institutes of Health , exercises like lunges, walking on unstable surfaces, walking backwards, weight-shifting exercises, step-ups, and tai chi are effective ways to improve your stability. In a study reported in the NIH , rebounding , or jumping on a mini-trampoline, was also found to improve balance and functional mobility, strength, gait performance, and fear of falling in patients with osteopenia, which is the precursor to osteoporosis.

Vibrate your bones

A possible option to strengthen your bones may be vibration therapy, or standing on an oscillating (vibrating) platform. Initially used to rehabilitate injured athletes and later astronauts on long-term space missions, vibration therapy causes muscles to contract and relax dozens of times each second, building muscle. And because muscles are attached to bone, these contractions also place stress on the bone, just like weight-bearing exercises.

This potential led researchers to investigate vibration therapy’s effectiveness in the treatment of bone loss due to aging or mobility issues that prevent weight-bearing exercise.

A study reviewed by the NIH concluded that “vibration therapy showed positive outcomes as a treatment modality to improve bone mass density and postural control in postmenopausal women and geriatric populations.” Research is mixed on the overall effectiveness of this therapy in preserving and increasing bone density; however, increasing evidence does show that vibration therapy can help improve balance and reduce falls.

Talk to your doctor first

While avoiding movement is the worst thing you can do for your bones, not all exercise is right for everyone. Whether you have been diagnosed with low bone density or not, check with your physician before beginning any new exercise regimen to ensure it’s safe for you. And make sure you receive proper instruction as well as supervision, especially when you’re starting out.

Your bones have an important job in supporting your body and allowing you to move. When you keep moving your bones, they’ll return the favor and keep moving you for a long time to come.

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