Core Performance: How to Keep Your Bones Strong as You Age
Core Performance: How to Keep Your Bones Strong as You Age
Certified Personal Trainer Kim Duke explains the muscle-bone connection and why resistance training is essential after age 30.
As your body’s foundation, your bones are critical to your well-being, providing support, anchoring your muscles, and allowing you to move. You may be surprised to learn, however, that after about the age of just thirty, you start losing bone mass due to a variety of reasons.
For women, estrogen decline during and after menopause is a primary cause of rapid bone loss. Estrogen is crucial for regulating the balance between bone breakdown and formation, and its loss accelerates bone resorption.
For men, a gradual loss in testosterone can contribute to bone loss, although the effect is less dramatic than the drop in estrogen for women. Lifestyle and diet choices can also significantly accelerate bone loss. Smoking, excessive alcohol, and inactivity/sedentary lifestyle leads to wastage and reduced bone formation.
The good news is that regular exercise can make these skeletal components stronger and reduce your risk of fractures both now and later in life. As you work out, you put stress on them. Stressing your bones keeps them stronger. The best regimen for increasing bone strength is one that includes a mix of weight-bearing, impact, and resistance exercises done 3-5 times per week.
Building muscle is essential to strong bones because it provides the mechanical stress necessary to trigger bone growth and maintenance. This relationship is often called the “muscle-bone connection.” Bones are living tissue that adapt to the loads placed on them. When you perform resistance training, your muscles and tendons pull on your bones. This “tugging” creates mechanical strain that alerts bone-forming cells called osteoblasts. Stronger muscles also act as a “biomechanical buffer” for the skeleton. Stronger bones stabilize joints, which reduces wear and tear that can lead to joint-related bone issues.
Muscle strength is a primary determinant of balance and coordination. By building muscle, you’re significantly reducing the risk of falling, which is the leading cause of bone fractures in older adults. And finally, muscle is more metabolically active than fat. Higher muscle mass helps regulate glucose levels and hormone balance (like testosterone and growth hormone), both of which are critical for healthy bone metabolism.
Sticking to a regular fitness routine, eating a clean diet high in protein, and getting enough calcium and Vitamin D are wonderful ways to augment your bone health. Aim to do something beneficial every day such a walking, hiking, strength training or participating in a game of pickleball. Your bones will thank you for it!
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Kim Duke is a certified personal trainer and owner of Core Performance Fitness and Training, 55 Bristol Lane, Ellicottville, NY. Kim resides in Ellicottville where she raised her sons, Zach and Nik. For more information about her studio, including private sessions and group workout classes, visit her Facebook page, www.coreperformancefitness.com, or call 716-698-1198.
