Are you wondering which exercises are safest for your bones? In this video, I’ll walk you through how to choose the right level of impact for your workouts based on your DEXA bone scan results. Understanding your bone density is crucial for maintaining bone health and preventing fractures, especially if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis.
We’ll break down three exercise categories:
High-impact exercises like running and jumping, are great for maintaining bone mass if your DEXA score is normal. Moderate-impact exercises such as stair climbing or hiking, are ideal if you're in the osteopenia range and want to strengthen your bones safely. Low-impact exercises like walking or water therapy, are perfect for those with more fragile bones or a history of fractures. If you're serious about taking your osteoporosis management to the next level, mark your calendars! My 14-Day Osteoporosis Challenge kicks off on November 4th. It’s a fun, engaging way to build bone strength, increase mobility, and learn the best exercises for your specific bone health needs. Don’t miss it!
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To my valued YouTube subscribers, I have categorized my most popular videos based on body parts, from headaches to foot pain to make it easier for viewers to watch helpful videos. Enjoy & I hope they help!
If you have osteoporosis, no doubt you've heard we need impact exercises,
but it can be a little bit confusing to figure out what type of impact exercises are safe for
you. And what if you've had a compression fracture? There's just a lot of questions
that hopefully we'll clear up in this video. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the channel. Ed
DeBoo, physical therapist from Integrated Physical Therapy in Bellingham, Washington.
First, let's talk about a DEXA exam. So hopefully you have a DEXA so that you can get an idea of
your bone density. A common question I get asked is, well, should I get a DEXA and at what age?
Usually the guidelines call for about age 65, but women should start getting a DEXA. However,
I recommend people as early as 50 if they have predisposing factors for osteoporosis.
If maybe mom or aunt or relative has osteoporosis, if you've had a fracture from a standing height
fall, if you have an autoimmune condition, if you weigh 125 pounds or less, if you've had a history
of cancer, if you've been on medications like corticosteroids that can affect your body's
ability to absorb calcium, these are all indicators that maybe you need to talk to your physician
about having a DEXA earlier than the age 65 that a lot of people recommend. So assuming you have
your DEXA, now you're going to have a score. So when we look at impact exercises, there's high
impact, moderate impact, and low impact. High impact would be like running and jumping and
skipping. Moderate impact exercises include things like hiking on uneven surfaces or climbing stairs.
And low impact exercises would be like walking or aquatic therapy. So based upon your particular
DEXA score is where you should be doing that particular level of impact exercises. Now,
a very important concept to remember is regardless of what your DEXA score is, even if you have a
perfect DEXA, everyone still needs to be on a strengthening program. I'll put a link right up
here to a video that I did that talks about specific exercises that you can do to help build
bone mass density in your spine. And then I'll put another video right up here to a video I just did
about a simple but very effective exercise that can help build bone density specifically in your
hip, especially if you are 70 and older. Now, if you have a DEXA score of minus one or higher,
you are doing great. There is no sign of osteopenia or osteoporosis. You are within
the normal range for bone density for somebody your age. So whatever it is you're doing,
keep doing it. Now you have been cleared for high impact activities. So if you like to run and jump
and play tennis and do those higher impact activities, go ahead and do it. Now, if you've
had a fracture, you can still do those activities, but you need to be very careful about safety
first. Now we have the osteopenia range, which is minus one to minus 2.5. I would put you into the
moderate impact activity group. And so I really wouldn't do a lot of running and sprinting and
high impact exercises just because of the potential for a fracture. So you are in the
moderate impact group. So that's going to be things like hiking on uneven terrain,
low impact aerobics, dancing, elliptical machine, stair-stepping machine. These are all okay.
Once again, if you have a history of fractures, you need to be careful.
Then we have full on osteoporosis, which is a T-score of minus 2.5 or lower. For my clients
that have osteoporosis, I do recommend lower level activities. Oftentimes it's a combination of
osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. So aquatic therapy, although it doesn't do much to help
build or maintain bone mass density, is just great overall exercise for joint mobility,
strength, and obviously cardio. As far as impact exercises, I definitely recommend walking and you
can even get a weighted vest. There's been some research that shows a weighted vest can help,
but I would keep my impact no more at maybe brisk walking just because of the risk of fractures.
If you'd like to take your osteoporosis care to the next level, consider joining me in my
14 day osteoporosis challenge, which starts November 4th, 2024. You're not going to want
to miss it. Osteopenia and osteoporosis is all about education. At the end of this video,
I'll put a link to a playlist where I put all my osteoporosis videos together.
All right, everyone. Thank you for watching. Hope to see you at the challenge. Keep exercising,
make sure that your exercise impact level is within your category based upon your DEXA scores.
If you have any questions, please leave them down below. Thank you for watching,
stay strong, and I will see you at the next video.
