In a recent blog post, I introduced you to the Exercising for Bone Health DVD. I hope you’ve been able to take a look at the exercise options to see what’s right for you — maybe even some exercises you never thought you could do. As one woman confided after seeing the video “I’ve always been afraid of yoga, but that looks so easy!”

I’m looking forward to hearing more comments from you — and I’ll do my best to answer any questions you might have about the exercises and the routines we demonstrate.

In the meantime, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind as you develop your individual exercise plan:

• Keep bone-building goals in mind. These include maintaining and/or increasing muscle and bone strength, as well as balance, flexibility, stability, and emotional well-being.

• Develop a regular routine for exercise for the most benefit: 

  --Do 20-30 minutes of moderate, enjoyable aerobic exercise every day such as walking, biking, golfing, or kayaking.

  --Do a systematic 30-minute bone-focused workout every other day

• Continue exercising over time. To maintain gains, it’s important that you stay with your exercise activity.

• Make your program progressive. Exercise to 70-80% of your functional capacity and increase intensity as you increase your strength.

• Enjoy your exercise program. If you get tired of what you’re doing — you can change it!

• And remember: always check with your healthcare practitioner before beginning any exercise routine.

Many women find that once they make progress in one area of bone health — such as starting or increasing an exercise program — they’re motivated to make changes in the other areas of their lives as well. If you’re ready to think about this, the following are good ways to start.

o Get all of the 20 key bone-building nutrients

o Try my life-supporting Alkaline for Life Diet

o Aim for consistent hormonal balance

o Build digestive strength

o Support healthy detoxification

o Enhance emotional well being and reduce stress

I invite you to explore the website for more information about these and other topics.

I declared 2011 “the year of exercise.” I studied the latest research, explored new exercises, breathed more deeply, stepped out with a weighted vest, and played for my bone health — all to learn everything I could about how exercise builds better bones.

The result for 2012 is my Exercising for Bone Health DVD — it's available for purchase now for Members of the Personal Program for Better Bones and is now a part of the program for new Members. I’ve chosen 35 minutes of what I consider the best of the best, and the format is a bit different than other DVDs you might have seen:

• First, I tell you how exercise plays a big role in preventing osteoporosis and strengthening bones.

• Second, I work with an instructor and a team of real women to let you sample five of the best types of exercise for bone health: Pilates, yoga, isometric exercises, strength training, and tai chi.

• Finally, we put them all together to give you an easy-to-follow workout.

Then the choice is yours — you may like the variety of the mixed modality workout or you might get inspired to design your own workout using one or more of your favorite modalities. After all, if you don’t enjoy it, you probably won’t do it.

As a preview for you, here’s a little more about each of the options:

Pilates: We warm up with Pilates, emphasizing posture, alignment, and balance. Pilates also builds whole body strength and helps improve control of smaller muscles. The natural deep breaths used in Pilates help us be mindful of whole-body alignment.

Yoga: Another mindful modality is yoga, unique in that its stretching seems to stimulate new bone formation. Yoga is also a weight bearing exercise in many interesting ways that occur when you shift your weight or hold a pose. We made sure that all the exercises can, as an option, be done easily from a chair and can increase in intensity and strength building over time.

Isometric exercise with Osteoball or resistance bands: Did you know that 10 exercises in 10 minutes can strength 10 muscle groups in the upper and lower body? That’s one of my top reasons for including isometric exercises. The exercises shown increase the strength of targeted muscle groups. Plus, they’re progressive — you can make your workout more challenging as you gain strength. And you will gain strength!

Weight bearing and strength training exercises: Weight loading and intense strength training exercises are the ones we most associate with bone building. The more loading and intensity, the more bone and muscle built. But you don’t have to be a power-lifter. In this DVD, our real-women volunteers use one and two pound weights.

Tai Chi: Tai chi exercises give us a physical and mental cool down. You probably know I’ve been recommending tai chi because of its ability to enhance the power of both the mind and body. But in addition, studies on tai chi report it has better compliance than more strenuous exercise programs.

Finally as a little extra, I include a special feature on the most common of all exercises — walking. In this add-on feature we take a stroll and play with walking, hopping, heel drops, using a weighted vest and even marching.

For many, this exercise DVD will be an addition to an already strong bone building program. For others, it may be a first step towards creating life-long bone health.

Exercise is, of course, the way to build both muscle and bone. But ... are there ways to make exercise easier, to “do less and accomplish more”?

My answer is “Yes!”

The weighted vest is one of the best short cuts and “exercise amplifiers” I know of. This is exercise equipment that you wear. It became my client Sheryl’s best friend, and it could become your best friend too! See why with our YouTube video.

Benefits for the athlete in all of us

Weighted vests were developed to enhance strength training in athletes. But this unique piece of equipment has a long list of benefits — even if you don’t consider yourself an “athlete:”

•    Regular, long-term use can increase both muscle strength and bone mass while enhancing balance and stability and reducing lateral sway.

•    Measureable improvement in muscle strength is seen in 12 weeks or less, and “feeling stronger” is often noted by the wearer, as Sheryl details in our video.

•    Studies suggest that best results with improved bone mass take place when the vest is used over the long term, and when it is used while actively exercising.

•    Using a weighted vest is simple, safe and effective. The vest has pockets that hold individual weights and you begin with only a pound or two of added weights. Over time, you add more weights, working up to a total of 10% of your body weight.

•    A weighted vest is especially helpful for low-weight women. Wearing additional weight provides for increased ground-force impact with each step — helping to stimulate new bone growth and requiring less total walking time to achieve the same amount of bone-building stimulation.

There are so many interesting studies about the benefits of the weighted vest. One of my favorites looked at women aged 65–73 who exercised three times a week doing strength training (without the vest) combined with walking, stair climbing, and balance exercises while wearing the weighted vest. Gradually the weight in the vest was raised to 10% of the participant’s body weight.

Over the 32-week study, those doing the exercises with the vest gained 11% bone density in the hip (in the area known as the femoral neck, where fractures often take place), while also increasing balance and strength, and reducing body sway. The non-exercising sedentary control women lost significant hip density in the femoral neck.

As the researchers summarized, “This evidence clearly demonstrates that exercise training can offer a non-pharmacological alternative for improving bone health and balance in older women who choose not to take hormones or osteoporosis medications.”

So, why not grab your new best friend, the weighted vest, and get started exercising today? Learn more.

References:
Jessup, J. V., C. Horne, R. K. Vishen, and D. Wheeler. 2003. Effects of exercise on bone density, balance, and self-efficacy in older women. Biological Research for Nursing 4(3):171–180.