Over 40? You’re losing 1% muscle size and 2% muscle strength a year. Over 70? You’ll be losing 15% per decade. But what’s that got to do with bone health?
Turns out, building strong bones means you’ve got to give them a tug. Step forward skeletal muscle – the ‘exoskeleton’ muscle that pulls and pushes bone. You curl a bicep while holding a free weight, your muscle suffers micro-damage, which will rebuild stronger, and neighbouring bones are put under mechanical stress, making them pump out oesteoblast love, reducing bone loss and building new bone. Boom!
Get your powerhouse muscle groups, chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core, working against resistance and you’ve cranked up your very own oesteoblast factory. Crack open the Creatine and Shilajit Protein Powder and you’ll get another couple of curls in for your efforts (and all the benefits of bone broth). Thanks creatine, you little energy convertor! Hello, fewer fractures, better bone density and stability. Dust off your disco platforms, get your groove on in your golden age, this Granny’s not going down on a frosty morning!
Make exercise:
- Weight bearing – your own body weight first then start adding in other weights to bear – press ups, squats, walking, running
- Resistant through the use of bands to make everything that bit harder – never mind the burn, feel the stretch! And replace your bands regularly, they get flabby quickly – we feel their pain.
- Something that’s done in the weights section of the gym – as Dee says, the idea that we can lift a tin of beans while the kettle boils needs to be dropped like, well, a hot tin of beans
But, that’s not all …