Osteoporosis Exercises: Build Your Bones While You Sit

‘Tis the season… to celebrate with friends and family, to dash to the mall, and often, to over-indulge in foods that you normally wouldn't eat.

Rather than stressing out about occasional holiday indulgences, how about adding some bone-building exercises to the mix? The easy and fun exercises I describe here target areas that are most susceptible to fractures: the spine, legs, hips, wrists, and arms.

And the best part is that you can do them throughout the day in-between your usual activities, or while you are sitting down relaxing, talking on the phone, or watching TV.

At first, you might want to get acquainted with these exercises by practicing them once or twice during a short dedicated exercise session, but even then, you don't have to set aside a large block of time – just squeeze in a few exercises when you can. Once you are familiar with the moves, use your imagination to get those muscles moving while you’re doing something else. You’ll see that the sky’s the limit to find an opportunity to increase your bone density!

In the Osteoporosis Reversal Program, I dedicate part of a chapter to Density Training exercises and their importance in decreasing your risk of fractures. Why are they so important? For the answer, we look to Wolff's Law of bone formation.

Julius Wolff was a German anatomist who postulated that bone is created and changed as a reaction to the force of muscular tension and the pressure of gravity imposed on it. His theory was based on the now proven fact that bone is living and active tissue, and that it therefore adjusts to the stress it receives by increasing and decreasing in size just as muscles do.

So when you exercise with light weights (or using your body weight in some cases), you are actually stimulating bone growth. And the exercises I’m about to give you do just that.

Tips and Cautions

Before we get to the exercises, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Check with your doctor before you begin this or any exercise program.
• Do a short warm-up before you begin. It can be as simple as walking in place for a couple of minutes. The idea is to warm up your muscles before you exert them.
• Start slowly and cautiously, particularly if you haven't exercised for a while.
• Perform each exercise with slow, steady movement.
• Do what you can. If an exercise instructs you to raise your leg a couple of feet off the floor and you can only manage a couple of inches, that's great! As long as you're using your muscles, you're benefiting your bones.
• If it hurts, stop! You should feel gentle muscle exertion during the exercises, but not pain.
• Breathe! All too often, we tighten up and forget to breathe during exercise.
• Break your exercises into two or three sessions during the day. It doesn't all have to be done at once.
• Repeat each exercise 6-10 times.

The Exercises

Most of these exercises can be done using a simple straight back or folding chair (or on an exercise ball, if you have one).

If the exercise calls for weights, you can use cans from your pantry that weigh about a pound. Or, If you have ankle and wrist weights (which I talk about in my Simplecise report), you can use those. And if you're planning to do these exercises on a regular basis, you might want to purchase a couple of 1-pound (or 1-kilo) dumbbells. Cans work just fine, but dumbbells can be a little easier to hold on to.

Spine Exercises

Rotator Cuff

Bone Target: Spine, shoulders
Muscle Target: Mid-back, shoulders
Prop: Two one-pound cans, or your wrist weights

Sit on a chair with your legs close together, your arms bent, and the weights held in front of you about waist high. Keeping your upper arms and elbows tight against your sides, simply rotate your forearms out away from your body, opening your arms. From this position, push your entire arm out to the side, away from your body as you pull your shoulders back and down (you should feel this between your shoulder blades). Reverse the movement by bending your arms and lowering them until your upper arms are back against your sides. Then bring your forearms back together in front of your waist.

Seated Row

Bone Target: Spine  
Muscle Target: Mid and upper back
Prop: Two one-pound cans, or your wrist weights

Sit on a chair and hold the cans straight out in front of you, with your palms facing each other (your arms should be straight, at chest level, a little lower than your shoulders). Bend your arms, pulling them in toward your body. Bring your elbows as far back as possible (they should be pointing behind you).

And be sure to check our Osteoporosis Exercise: The Spine Strengthener for a great overall bone building spine exercise.

Leg and Hip Exercises

Leg Extension

Bone Target: Thighs
Muscle Target: Front of thighs
Prop: None, or ankle weights

Sit with your feet flat on the floor. Lift one leg slightly off the floor, then straighten that leg. To return to your starting position, just bend your knee and lower your leg to the floor. Repeat 6-10 times for each leg. Begin by just using your body weight. As your strength increases, you can add ankle weights.

Straight Leg Lift

Bone Target: Hips
Muscle Target: Front of hips
Prop: None, or ankle weights

Sit at the front edge of the chair and straighten one leg in front of you (foot flexed, toes pointed toward the ceiling). Keeping your back as straight as possible, simply raise your straight leg a a foot or two off the floor, then lower it back down. Repeat with your other leg. (Even if you can only lift your leg a couple of inches, you'll still gain benefits from this exercise. Just do what you can.)

Stand up

Bone Target: Hips
Muscle Target: Back of hips and thighs
Prop: None

Start by sitting near the edge of your chair. Then just raise yourself to a standing position (if you need to use your arms to push off the chair, that's ok). The key with this exercise, and what will give your thighs a workout, is to lower yourself back to a sitting position as SLOWLY as possible. That's it! You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by placing your hands on your thighs and not using them for support.

Side Leg Lift

Bone Target: Hips
Muscle Target: Outer hips
Prop: None (or ankle weights)

Stand to one side of your chair or any other stable structure such as a kitchen countertop, placing your arm on the back of the chair for balance. Lift your outside leg straight out to the side and then bring it back in. Again, even if you can only lift a few inches, this is a valuable exercise. Move to the other side of the chair and repeat with your other leg.

Wrist and Arm Exercises

Wrist Curl

Bone Target: Wrists 
Muscle Target: forearms
Prop: Two cans that weigh about one pound each, or wrist weights

Sit on a chair with legs apart, your forearms resting on your thighs, and your palms facing down. Hold a can in each hand and do 20-30 wrist curls to work the back of your forearms. Flex your wrists to bend your hands upward, then lower them back down. Then, to work the front of your forearms, rest the back of your forearms on your thighs with your palms facing up and repeat the exercise, this time flexing your wrists in the other direction.

Chair Lift

Bone Target: Wrist
Muscle Target: Forearms
Prop: None

Sit on a chair and lean forward slightly, placing the heels of your hands on the chair on either side of your thighs. Just press up gently, using your arms to lift your hips slightly off the chair. Then use your arm strength to lower yourself back into the chair.

Shoulder Press

Bone Target: Shoulders
Muscle Target: Shoulders, upper arms
Prop: Two one-pound cans, or wrist weights

Sit on your chair with your feet flat on the floor. With a weight in each hand, just press your arms up toward the ceiling until they're almost straight, then slower lower your arms back down.

Conclusion

While nothing beats the effectiveness of the Density Training routine in the Osteoporosis Reversal Program, the exercises above are a great way for you to sit and get bone-fit!