Weight Training for Stronger Bones After 50
/What is the best way to combat bone loss and prevent future fractures?
Weight Training. 💪💪💪
Osteoporosis and osteopenia are a reality for many women over 50. The loss of estrogen during our menopause transition is the problem. Our osteoclasts and osteoblasts, the cells that break down and rebuild bone, get out of balance.
The osteoclasts, the cells that break down bone, outnumber the bone-building osteoblasts, and we end up with a net loss of bone.
It's not fair, I agree. But that doesn't mean we are without tools to get ourselves back to a good place.
Lifting weights (resistance training) is the best way to fight back against bone loss. But we don't have specific exercise protocols to follow yet. We can't say exactly what amount you should do, how much you should lift, or how often.
One reason we don't have specific protocols is that we don't know exactly what it is about weight training that helps our bones.
But the research is coming. And with it, we will have a better understanding of what happens at the cellular level and eventually, this should result in more specific weight training recommendations.
👉 This pilot study, Anti-osteoporosis mechanism of resistance exercise in ovariectomized rats based on transcriptome analysis published in Frontiers in Endocrinology investigated what effect exercise had on the bone of post-menopausal rats. The rats were divided into three groups. Two groups had their ovaries removed (the post-menopausal rats) and the third group (the sham group) did not.
The exercise group of rats underwent a 5-day-a-week program that included climbing a ladder, as well as pulling steel balls with increasing amounts of weight. 🐀
The control group did not exercise nor did the sham operation group.
The results showed that the rats who did the resistance training decreased their body weight compared to the other group, and had less bone loss. The sham group did not lose bone.
While the exact mechanism of how exercise helped keep the bone, the researchers confirmed that resistance exercise had an inhibitory effect on osteoclast activity. Osteoclasts break down or reabsorb bone, so if exercise can halt that, bone loss will be reduced.
This was a pilot study and opened the door for further investigation into how exercise changes bone at the cellular level. It's very exciting!
That is it for today. Stick around and I will continue to follow the research and give you recommendations as they come out.
✅ Let's keep exercising and preventing fractures,
Andrea Trombley PT, DPT
Reference:
Wang, Q., Weng, H., Xu, Y., Ye, H., Liang, Y., Wang, L., Zhang, Y., Gao, Y., Wang, J., Xu, Y., Sun, Z., & Xu, G. (2023). Anti-osteoporosis mechanism of resistance exercise in ovariectomized rats based on transcriptome analysis: a pilot study. Frontiers in endocrinology, 14, 1162415. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2023.1162415