Keep your bones in top-notch shape with weight bearing exercise and healthy eating.
Weak bones? Most of us feel that crumbling femurs are something we can wait to worry about until we reach old age. Falling and breaking a hip or a collarbone on the ice isn’t something people in middle age generally worry about, even if it does happen, occasionally. We’re too busy playing hockey on that ice and shoveling the snow off of it to get to work in the morning.
But the seeds of osteoporosis can be laid early on. Some individuals-mainly women- do even suffer from the condition before menopause sets in, as they experience considerable bone loss during middle age.
Related: Jogging Keeps You Young and Significantly Increases Your Life Span, Say Experts
What can you do to prevent it? Keeping your bones strong relies on two key components: weight bearing exercise and healthy eating. Individuals who lead a sedentary life (ie, they don’t do much heavy lifting and they don’t work with gravity when exercising), and who have a history of eating little calcium or an eating disorder are setting themselves up for fragile bones.
Premenopausal osteoporosis happens when the bones become so thin that everyday movements like walking can result in a break.
Here’s our advice: get to the gym and lift weights, with a trainer. Jog, or engage in weight-bearing aerobic exercise like taking in an aerobics class or going on a vigorous walking. Women, of course, need to be careful not to train too much as estrogen levels can drop, resulting in weaker bones anyways, so generally speaking, maintain a good balance.
Eat dairy products and get plenty of vitamin D, and your all set. Strong bones now mean good habits down the road and life is a long journey. Enjoy it!
Photo credits: Zodiacphoto/Shutterstock
