Movement helps build up your bones, making it less likely that they'll break. It also improves your balance and flexibility, which can keep you from falling down.
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Weight-Bearing Exercise
It's the best way to keep your bones strong. What counts as weight-bearing? Any activity you do on your feet that makes you work against gravity. For instance, you can:
- Walk
- Dance
- Hike
- Climb stairs
- Play tennis
- Jog
Start slowlyat first, with low-impact exercise like walking. You can move up to jogging or jumping rope when you and your doctor feel you're ready.
Aim for 150 minutes of weight-bearing exercise each week. Try 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Or do 50 minutes, 3 days a week. Pick the schedule that works best for you.
Strength-Training Exercise
When you push against a wall, lift a weight, or pull on a stretchy band, you're doing a kind of exercise called strength training. Not only does it make your muscles stronger, it promotes bone growth, too. And that's super important if you've got osteoporosis.
Some examples of strength-training exercises:
- Free weights
- Weight machines
- Floor exercises like push-ups
- Resistance bands
At first, use a light weight, and do an exercise move 10 times, or “repetitions.” That equals one “set.” When you can do that with ease, move up to two sets.
Try heavier weights as you get stronger. Some experts say to help your bones grow, fewer repetitions with heavier weights is better than more reps with lighter weights.
Do strength training two to three times a week. Try not to work the same muscle group 2 days in a row.
Wise Moves
Your workout should include exercises that improve your balance, posture, and flexibility, says Petros Efthimiou, MD, associate chief of rheumatology at New York Methodist Hospital. Those can help you avoid getting a fracture.
And don't forget to stand up straight. Rheumatologist Nathan Wei, MD, says good posture prevents rounded shoulders and spinal fractures.