Question:
Is there a type of exercise that should be avoided when one has
osteoporosis in both spine and hip? I recently joined a health club.
It is equipped with many machines, I am wondering which ones I should
Answer:
There are some exercises that should be
avoided.
I really need to strengthen
my abdomen muscles however, all the machine designed for those muscles
require a crunch position. This exercise is done in a seated position.
How can the abdomen muscles be worked without bending foward. I am
at the health club 3 days a week and spend 1 1/2 hrs on various
machines, starting out 30 mins on treadmill., than on to weight
machines for legs and arms. I am trying to determine what is safe to use
for the torso. Any suggestions?
This is the sort of thing that physical therapists are trained in. A few
educational sessions would probably be very useful. Then perhaps a "tune-up"
after a few months as you progress.
Not really. Since the body is supported from the waist up, the only
load will be based on how hard the pedals are pushed. Unless the
bicyclist is pushing hard enough to support their entire weight (which
very few do unless they are standing on the pedals), there will be less
stress than simply walking. It can be good as an aerobic/cardiovascular
exercise, but it is poor for increasing bone density.
They aren't as good as real stairs for building bone density. This
is because - due to the "stair" going down, there is minimal impact,
which means minimal stress on the bone, which probably means no
increase in bone density. It can be a good aerobic/cardiovascular
exercise, though, if done properly (stand upright and don't use the
hands/arms to support any of the weight). As an aside, going down
stairs is better for increasing bone density than going up stairs because
there is more "impact" when the foot "hits" the stair.
All of the research I have seen says "different" stress (different angle or
different peak load). I haven't seen anything that just says "new" stress.
Could you provide your references, please? Also, note that both stair
climbing and bicycling stress the bones in the same way: along the axis
of the bone. Keep in mind that bone doesn't have eyes - it doesn't know
what exercise is being done. All it "knows" is that it is receiving a certain
level of stress (stretch or compression) in a certain direction.
I think that a bone must stressed more than it is used to in order to
increase bone density. From (making a guess) the hips down, that will
require more than body weight because the bones are already accustomed
to that load. If you have one of the old analog scales, try stepping on it
as if you were walking on the sidewalk and see how high the scale goes
before it settles down at your weight. If I recall, when I weighed 140 it
was relatively trivial for me to get the scale almost to it's limit.
I have come to the conclusion that most studies are poorly designed.
The most common flaws are not taking the subject's initial condition
into account (no indication of the subject's initial BMD, for example)
or doing an exercise that will affect one part of the body but testing
another part.
What we can do (and what I am trying to do) is provide information
so that she - and anyone else who reads this thread - can learn how to
select exercises based on her goals and not waste time doing exercises
that don't provide the desired benefit or skip exercises that would
help because she doesn't realize that they would be of benefit.
Since Lee hasn't said that she has severe Osteoporosis, I don't think
it is helpful to recommend exercises that, in my opinion, would only
be of benefit if she has severe Osteoporosis.
