Comment by TomK32 3 days ago
Oh this is so bad:
> In the 19th century German surgeon and anatomist Julius Wolff recognized that healthy bones adapt and change in response to the load placed on them. That is why everyone—but especially women, who are more susceptible than men to osteoporosis—should lift weights as they age
No, weight lifting won't improve bone density, it's running that will
edit: https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/bone-health/ex...
A mix is always the best.
At 40+ I do feel the benefits of adding a weekly hour of stretching and winding at the gym. Exercises everyone can put into the daily life to improve mobility. It even helps with my broken hip that was bolted back together a few years ago :-)
You can see one of his coaches helping an 86 year old woman deadlift in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJOT0kn5vs
Source? Because I found plenty of studies on the topic, and there seems to be a fairly universal consensus that goes the exact counter of what you claim. I.e., studies state that weight and resistance training helps with improving bone density significantly, while aerobic exercise (walking/cycling/etc.) doesn’t.
Here are excerpts from one of the papers[0], but you can find many more agreeing with that take:
“Prolonged aerobic training (e.g., swimming, cycling, and walking) is widely beneficial to all body systems, but there are clinical evidences suggesting that none of these activities provide an adequate stimulus to bones”
“Based on the available information, RE [resistance training, e.g., weightlifting/machines/etc], either alone or in combination with other interventions, may be the most optimal strategy to improve the muscle and bone mass in postmenopausal women, middle-aged men, or even the older population.
I think you need to read that a bit more closely - they describe running and jogging as high-impact as opposed to walking, swimming, and cycling. These articles are almost always saying something fairly specific.
They specifically mention a combo of the two from one study: "A combination of RE and weight-bearing aerobic exercise (e.g., running, skipping, jumping, or high-impact aerobics) is recommended as RE training provides muscular loading while weight-bearing aerobic exercise provides additional mechanical loading to the bone above gravity."
And they still describe a need for end-to-end evidence for improved outcomes: "For determining the effect of RE on the reduction of fall and fracture risk, further large-scale studies are needed to be investigated."
Your last quote throws bones and muscles into one. Just so you know.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society recommends "Short bursts of activity are ideal for bones. For example, running then jogging, or jogging then walking." https://theros.org.uk/information-and-support/bone-health/ex...
Btw, don't confuse weight-bearing activities with the weight-lifting that I did quote previously. Resistance training alone, as for example cyclists do, has shown to not improve bone density as pre this meta study https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-...
Squats/Deadlifts, not bicep curls with 3lb dumbbells. And yes, it absolutely will improve bone density.
I have some books translated from Russian that that I acquired back in my powerlifting days and that showed studies the Russians did on Olympic weightlifters. The children (who had been lifting heavy since a very young age) had bone mineral densities far higher than average untrained adults. The adult Olympic weight lifters had bone mineral densities that were completely off the scale, as the book put it "in polar bear territory". Granted, these study participants were people explosively lifting hundreds of pounds from floor to overhead in the blink of an eye, not your average gymbro, but still.
Further down that page it actually says:
"Progressive muscle resistance training is the best type of muscle-strengthening exercise for your bones. It involves using weights or resistance bands to build up the work for your muscles to do over time. You do this by gradually increasing the weight you lift, in a slow and controlled way. As you train, you’ll find the movements get easier as your muscles get stronger."
That page directly contradicts you since it lists weight lifting exercises like barbell squats
"Bones stay strong if you give them work to do. The best way to keep bones strong is to do both weight-bearing impact and muscle-strengthening exercises."
It's my understanding that weight lifting is superior to running for increasing bone density but that both together are superior to any one singular. Makes me think about a Mark Rippetoe article from several years back he helps an older woman (60? 80s?) eliminate her lower back pain with weight lifting and strength training exercises. Rippetoe isn't pefect, but he has a good-enough track record on this stuff.
I had a lateral fracture of my right humerus (arm snapped in half) and the only thing that made the pain go away was strength training. High-rep endurance exercises didn't help, hundreds of pushups a day didn't help, but after I switched to high-weight lift-to-fail the pain slowly disappeared.