The 206 bones in your body make up the structural infrastructure that supports your soft tissue. Bones are also storehouses for calcium and phosphorus, and bone tissue is continously being broken down and repaired within your body. Approximately every ten years, your entire skeleton will be replaced with new cells. Stressful forces on the bone, such as you experience when you exercise, cause the bones to create more new bone tissue, while a sedentary lifestyle results in greater loss of bone tissue than generation of new tissue. Your challenge, as you age, is to keep the pace of cell regeneration ahead of the pace of degeneration.
You can encourage increased bone tissue generation with a proper diet and with regular exercise, particularly weight-bearing exercises, which require the skeleton to support the full weight of the body. Here are 40 examples of weight-bearing exercises and activities that you can add to your day to keep your bones strong and healthy. Why not try something new?
- walking
- running
- dancing
- fencing
- bowling
- soccer
- basketball
- hopscotch
- jump rope
- boxing
- calisthenics
- yoga
- pilates
- weight lifting
- aerobics class
- Zumba
- Tai Chi
- golf (no cart)
- stair climbing
- jogging
- racquetball
- tennis
- skiing
- volleyball
- hiking
- badminton
- Frisbee
- gardening
- handball
- hockey
- judo
- karate
- raking leaves
- mowing the lawn
- jumping rope
- skating
- snowshoeing
- softball
- ping pong
- shoveling snow
Each of these activities puts healthy stress on your bones and encourages bone cell regeneration. If you've already been diagnosed with osteoporosis or have a number of risk factors for osteoporosis, you should always get clearance with your physician before beginning an exercise program. Some of these activities will not be suitable for someone who is already experiencing a loss of bone density.
(photo credit: foshie)
