Archive for March, 2011
Healthy bones
Friday, March 25th, 2011
How Working Out Can Help You Avoid Osteoporosis
Most people are aware that consuming enough calcium (from dairy and other high-calcium foods as well as calcium supplements) helps in keeping bones strong. Many people, however, don’t know that doing weight-bearing exercises also plays an important role in maintaining bone health.
Weight-bearing exercises are any exercises that require your bones and muscles to work against gravity while they bear your body weight. In these exercises your bones have to work harder and so become stronger because of the challenge they experience.
While swimming and cycling are very good for heart and lung fitness and stimulating your muscles, they are not weight-bearing exercises. Examples of weight-bearing exercises include racquetball, running, walking, dancing, zumba class, step classes and weight training.
Something to remember is that weight-bearing exercise is site specific so it’s important to target both your upper and lower body for best results. This means doing exercises like push-ups, biceps curls, shoulder presses and seated rows for the upper body and exercises like jumping jacks, lunges, walking and squats for the lower body.
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