Best exercise for healthy bones The best form of exercise for maintaining healthy bones is apparently jumping up and down as many times as you can without inspiring your downstairs neighbor to come upstairs and break your bones.
That makes perfect sense. Swimming and cycling are excellent exercise, but they don't do anything for your bone strength. You have to stress them with a bit of impact, like jumping, as the article says, or fast walking, jogging, or hiking with a pack. Sports like basketball would be good - football's probably too hard on the body for optimum long term health.
I am a runner, but recently added a some jumping rope. I think continuing to do something which is weight bearing is a good plan.
A program has been developed here at OSU called Better Bones and Balance. It uses weighted vests to work to develop density and reduce falls. Better Bones & Balance | Extension - Physical Activity I hope to promote it at the expo this year.
Great. I regularly use a wobble board (from Fitter1) which really helps with balance and missteps when running. A lot of unnecessary falls could be avoided if people regularly used these or another type of balance board to improve proprioception. Prehab beats rehab.
as for the jumping up and down, I wonder if one of those mini trampolines would help for those who have failing knees and joints. I had a trampoline when I was a kid and at the time never appreciated what it was doing for my legs and core. I recently hopped on one and thought my entire insides were going to shift.
I think it might work, but falling would be my concern. I have tried slowing down on running and moved more to biking, which is kinder on my joints.
