Exercise For Seniors With Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that develops when bone mineral density and bone mass decreases or when the quality or structure of bone changes. This can lead to a decrease in bone strength that can increase the risk of bone fractures. An exercise program that includes body weight training and resistance training with hand weights are important to build muscle and bone strength. Because there are different stages of osteoporosis, it's important that you discuss with your doctor appropriate exercises specific to you and follow all physicians directives. While regular exercise is good for everyone, not all exercises are appropriate for all people. To help support you with safe, consistent, and enjoyable exercise, we offer over a hundred live classes a week on our virtual class schedule at SilverSneakers.com. We have a lot of great classes to help improve muscle and bone strength. For our workout today, have a chair nearby for seated and standing support options. All of the exercises can be done with body weight only. If you'd like to use hand weights, have them available on the seat of the chair. The exercises I'll demonstrate are ones that our live class participants have said are doable, enjoyable, and beneficial. Always work in a pain-free range of motion. I'll provide several variations. Choose the best way for you to move today. Let's get warmed up. We'll start with a walk in place. Think about lifting your chest up tall and roll your shoulders back and down. All right, just move your elbows. We'll get our shoulders warmed up. Pick up your knees. While we're walking in place, I like to think about a nice toe ball heel landing. But we're ready for a little change, all right? Tap down, right, then left. Good. So think about tapping with your toe. We'll get a little stretch to the top of our ankle. We've got eight, seven, and then a little change is coming. Chair's right here if you want to hold on. Lift your knee up, then switch. Choose how big you want to lift that knee. Let's add on again. Two knees over here, two knees over here. Again. Little change. Three knees and hold. Three, two, and hold. Sit down with a little squat. Down, then up, then just walk on your left. There, that wasn't so bad. Let's repeat all of that from a left lead. Are you ready? Tap down, left, then right. Knee up, switch sides. Two knees. Switch. Again. How about three knees and hold? Three, two, hold. Place your feet down, little squat, and stand, then just walk. All right, we're gonna take those moves that we just learned, make a little pattern, cut the repetitions down. For now, just make your walk a little bit bigger. We'll go in four, three, tap down here. We go four, three, two, knee lift. Two knees, switch sides. Three knees and hold. Three, two, hold. Place your feet down, little squat. Down, and up, and walk on the left. Pump your arms. We go in eight. Four, three, tap down. Switch sides. Knee lift. Two knees. Switch sides. Three knees and hold. Gotta find your balance. Feet go down, little squat, down, and up, and then just walk. All right, that's our warmup. Hopefully we're ready to go. We're gonna get started with our first exercise. Now I'm gonna turn to the side just so you got a different viewpoint to see. Anchor your feet down. We're gonna sit back. We're gonna push up on our toes and then reset. Down, lift your heels, reset. Now can we let go of the chair? Push and land. So I think like a jack in the box, I load, I push, and I land. Hips go back, power push. Now, if you'd like a little jump, I'm gonna lift, but I gotta land. So I'm gonna go down, a little jump up. Plyometrics can be really good to help build bone density, but a little goes a long way. I did two. That was enough. I'm gonna come back to a controlled movement, keeping my toes down, but power up through my heels. How about one more, please? Good. And walk. Great job. All right, next exercise that I have for us. Think about taking your right foot forward. Not too big. You can see I still have space between my legs. I'm gonna bend my front knee. I'm gonna take a little bow, and then I'm gonna push off. So I step, I lean, I push and land. Rebalance. One more time, and then for those of you that would like to add weights, we'll make a little transition. All right? So if you're gonna grab weights, let's do it now. Chest up, shoulders back and down. All right, my feet are a comfortable distance apart. We're gonna start on the right. Here we go. I take a step out, I bend my knee, I hinge, I push and land. Roll your shoulders back. We're gonna pick up the pace. Here we go. Out, down, push. Step, slight hinge, push back. Heel, ball, toe, hinge at the hip, push back. Now, don't make the movement so big you have a hard time controlling the push back. That can grow in time as you get used to the exercise. For now, we're landing heel, ball, toe, even weight, and then push. Last one. All right, pause here. I'm gonna put the weights down, and then we're gonna practice on the left. Let's do it without weights, and then we'll grab the weights, and you can choose what's right for you. All right, let's start super slow. Just take your left foot out in front, hinge at the hip. Arms can come down or hold on to the chair. Push off and land and we'll roll our shoulders back. All right, let's try it again. Step forward, just a little hinge, push back. All right, can we pick up the pace? Out, down, push. So I'm thinking about stepping out a little bit wider than my hips. I'm letting my chest fold over my thigh. Feel a little stretch in the back leg, then there's that power push back. Pause here. If you wanna grab weights, here's your opportunity. All right, chest up, shoulders back and down. Start on the left. We go out, down, push back. Try it again. Out, down, push back. Always better to start with a smaller range of motion. It's good to feel the exercise. Where do you want the work? And then there's always opportunity to progress if that's the right choice for you. Can we do two more, please? Out, down, push back, pause. Last time. Nice. That's it. I'm gonna put the weights back down in the chair and then just take a little walk and let's get ready for our next exercise. So the next exercise is gonna be body weight training and it's gonna be a little coordination, but I know you're gonna get it. All right, I want you to step touch over and back three times. Three, two, now hold and then do this side. Three, two, I'm gonna add on to the hold. We go three, two, lift your heel, lift your heel. Three, two, lift your heel, lift your heel. Three, two, lift, lift. So I've got a little pedal going on here. We're building strength through our ankle and our lower leg as well as working through our hips. Over, switch, push off. You can feel the work through your feet, right? Me too. Got that little push. Can we do a few more? Over, back, hold, switch. Over, back, hold, switch. Last two. Last one. And then just walk. That puts a lot of strength training in your feet and your ankles. Really important. The foundation of your house, make it strong. We build from the ground up. All right, what's our next exercise? All right, we're gonna travel forward just a little bit and I'm gonna bring back some memories of maybe some good childhood experiences. We'll see. All right, listen, we're gonna take four steps slowly forward. Are you ready? Four steps to me. We go four, three, two, walk back eight counts. Eight, seven, six, five. Try that again. Just step four, three. That's your base move. And then if you want to add on to that, I'm gonna step and knee lift. Come to you. Step, knee, step, knee, step, knee, walk back. Nice. Try it again. Step, knee, step, knee, step, knee, walk back. Now here's where I add the good childhood experiences. Can you give me a little skip? Step, lift, step, lift. You don't have to jump. Just a little lift. If you want to put a little skip in your step, hey, that's up to you. Remember, we talked about plyometric training being good for bone density, but know if it's right for you. A little goes a long way. I'm gonna come back to the knee lift. Lift, lift, walk back. Let's do that two more times. How about we lift a heel? Now I'm not adding that skip. There's no jumping going on, but I got that power lift in my heel. Walk back. Nice job. All right. You can stay right here. Just walk. Next exercise is gonna have us move side to side. It's another body weight training exercise. So make sure you have some space. And if you want to work behind your chair, that's always an option too. We go in four more. Four, three, two steps over, tap, come back. Base move. Feel free to stay right here. I'm gonna add on with rotation and a push. That rotation is good for our spine, but you have to find the right range of motion for you. Doesn't have to be big to be effective. If we want to make the movement a little bit bigger, we might bend our knees and push off. Bend our knees and push off. Can we do four more? Here's four. Here's three. Here's two. Last one. Pause here. Just walk. All right. Good job. We're gonna finish with one final exercise using the weights if you'd like to do that. So go ahead and grab your weights, one in each hand. Light weights are fine. I have five pounds. You might choose one, three. You might choose a little heavier if you have experience lifting weights. Your feet are a little, are about hip's distance apart. Chest up, shoulders back and down. I'm gonna hinge forward slightly at my hip. My weights hang down underneath my shoulders. Palms are facing one another. Draw your elbows up. Bring your hands towards your hips. Press your rings down to the floor. Push up nice and tall. Good. Let's try that again. A little bit quicker. We're gonna come down. We're gonna pull. We're gonna push. And we're gonna stand up tall. And that's it. Keep going. Down. Now, it doesn't have to be a big hinge or a big lean. We're working against gravity a little bit. But you choose the best range of motion for you to work in. Could we pick up the pace with this? We go down, pull, push and stand. One more time. Pause here. Great job. Go ahead and put the weights safely in the chair. Wiggle your fingers a little bit. Arms are down by your sides. Big sweep up. Big sweep out and down. Listen, could you take a little walk to me? Four counts up. Four, three, two and back. Nice and easy. We just wanna kind of warm things down a little bit. Get the blood moving from those working muscles. Full body. We've got two more opportunities to come up and back. Last time. And then let's finish with a nice and easy step touch. Step touch. Walk in place. Great job. It's important to stretch following even a short workout. Click on one of our flexibility videos here on our YouTube channel for a great way to complete your workout today. And be sure to subscribe to our channel because you don't wanna miss any of our videos. I'll see you next time.