News Category: General

A lot of our lifestyle choices and habits are set when we are in our 20s: career paths, marriage and family, diet, exercise. It is common for physically active teenagers to become sedentary adults by age 30. Health professionals are constantly urging adults to get off the couch and get moving. If they knew when and why young adults stop exercising, health professionals could better target a solution.

Researchers in Australia looked at surveys of the physical activity of more than 7000 young adults. The subjects were divided into three age groups: 18 and 19, 20 to 24, and 25 to 29. The groups were rated according to vigorous exercise, moderate exercise, sufficient exercise for health benefits, and how much they walked.

The older the group, the less often they took part in all four categories of exercise. The results showed up to a 21% decrease in exercise from age 18 to age 21. Researchers also looked at the difference between exercise styles in men and women. For all age groups, men had higher rates of vigorous and moderate activity. However, the results suggest that men get more sedentary than women as they age. Women had much higher rates of walking than men–and the rates of walking dropped off less in the older groups of women.

A study done in the United States might show different results. Still, this type of knowledge is useful to doctors and other health professionals who want to help their younger patients find ways to keep exercising as they start their careers and families. Based on this evidence, doctors should encourage many young women to add some moderate-intensity workouts to the walking they already do. And men should be encouraged to find more moderate types of activities, such as walking and biking, as they move away from the high-intensity activities of their youth. The authors suggest that helping people develop healthy exercise habits in their youth might be more successful than trying to get middle-aged and older adults off the couch.

Adults are usually quick to screech advice when kids run with sticks or scissors. But it might be just as good advice for professional football players. Nineteen NFL football players were followed after fracturing the bones surrounding the eye. Most often a finger in the eye was the culprit, although less often the injury was caused by blunt trauma. It seems that offensive linemen needed to “watch out” more than any other position. Some injuries resulted in permanent vision problems, most commonly double vision. Coaches and players are more aware of the risk of injury to the eyes, and certain players are now wearing protective eye shields in the NFL.

Lately, we’re hearing that women especially need to work on improving their muscle strength. Resistance training (such as lifting weights) tones muscles and can significantly lessen women’s risks of osteoporosis and falls. Resistance training can also improve overall wellbeing. Aerobic exercise is also needed to keep the heart and blood vessels healthy. But who’s got the time to do both? Many women have a difficult time getting to the gym at all, let alone doing longer workouts. Can a shorter aerobic workout combined with some resistance training provide adequate health benefits?

Scientists in Finland did this study to measure the effects of adding resistance training to a shortened aerobic workout. (The aerobic workout was 25 minutes long, rather than the traditional 40 minutes.) Researchers divided 35 women into four groups. The control group did nothing more than their usual day-to-day activities. The second group did 25 minutes of step aerobics. The third group did a 40-minute step aerobic workout. The fourth group did 25 minutes of step aerobics plus resistance training exercises.

The three exercising groups worked out three days a week for 12 weeks. Women in the fourth group also did two to three sets of ten repetitions of ten different exercises for both the upper and lower body. The resistance training was done with varying strengths of elastic bands. The researchers felt the elastic bands more closely mimicked weightlifting than the small hand weights that are typically used in step classes.

Before and after the 12 weeks of exercise, researchers did a thorough measurement of muscle strength and power, body fat, muscle size, and lung and heart fitness. The control group had absolutely no changes in their body composition or fitness levels. All the exercising groups showed some improvement in heart and lung conditioning, body fat, and lower-body muscle strength. However, the resistance training group showed more improvement in muscle mass and power, especially of the upper body, when compared to the other exercise groups. Their heart and lung fitness also improved more. This was somewhat surprising given the shorter aerobics time.

Other studies have shown some problems with the body’s ability to adapt to a combination training program such as this. These studies suggest that women are more likely to injure their muscles. In this study, no adaptation problems were noted. The authors conclude that it is okay to combine types of exercise as long as there is adequate rest time between exercises. In this study, exercisers were required to rest for one to two minutes between each set of resistance exercises. Combining a shorter aerobic program with some resistance training may help women get the most out of their exercise program. 

Almost 30 million kids–50% of boys and 25% of girls–in the United States take part in organized sports programs. As the number of kids involved in organized sports activities has grown, there’s been a drive to get kids involved in strength training. But are kids safe to train this way, and does the training make a difference?

The conclusions of this article are that strength programs can be an effective and safe way for kids to become stronger. But kids will probably not get honed and bulging muscles like Hulk Hogan or Marion Jones–at least not right away.

Past research clearly shows that carefully designed and supervised programs of strength training, done two to three times a week, can increase muscle strength in children and adolescents. Research also shows that kids don’t usually “bulk up” when they get stronger, because their bodies don’t produce the necessary chemicals until after they reach puberty. Increased coordination, neurological activity, and muscle adaptations seem to account for the increase in strength.

Many doctors and coaches believe that strength training causes injuries to kids. Yet in all the studies, children had very few or no injuries during strength training. Emergency rooms do see about 17,000 adolescents with weightlifting injuries each year. But the authors note that most of these injuries were from power lifting, not from doing the strength training that was done in the studies. Power lifting involves trying to lift the heaviest weight possible. And most of the injuries happened to kids who were unsupervised and weren’t taking part in organized sports.

There are reasons to be cautious, however. Adults should:

• Make sure children get a physical examination before starting a strength training program.


• Always supervise strength training programs.


• Educate kids about the dangers of using steroids.


• Avoid putting too much pressure on child athletes to perform.

Part of the body’s healing response is to flood injured tissues with blood. The blood flushes away toxins that build up, and it brings in a fresh supply of nutrients and oxygen to help the tissues heal. Tissues that don’t have good blood supply tend not to heal as well. For this reason, doctors treat certain types of injuries by giving patients extra oxygen. The idea is that maximizing the amount of oxygen in the blood will help get more oxygen to the injured tissues. Recently, high-level athletes have begun to use specialized oxygen therapy for injured muscles.

This technique for giving extra oxygen is called hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO). HBO treatments are given in special chambers that also increase the atmospheric pressure. The patient wears a mask over the face that delivers 100% oxygen, rather than the 21% oxygen in the air you’re breathing right now. 

In this study, researchers tested the benefits of giving HBO therapy for injured muscles.  They divided 21 college-aged men into three groups. Each person did six sets of 10 bicep curls using a preset weight that would produce a strain in the muscles.

After lifting weights, the three groups got different treatments. One group received HBO treatment two hours after lifting weights and then once a day over the following three days. The second group got a fake HBO treatment two hours after exercising and then real HBO treatments once a day for the following three days. The control group got four fake HBO treatments.

The men went through a series of tests before, during, and for two weeks after the study. Their arm strength was checked, MRI scans were compared to look for changes in the muscles, and blood was tested for a chemical that builds up in injured tissues. As expected, all the measurements showed that the men had injured their muscles. However, over the course of the study there was very little difference in the test results between the three groups. The muscles of all participants seemed to heal at about the same rate, no matter what kind of HBO treatments they received.

Research has shown that HBO is effective for injured tendons or other connective tissues in the body.  But the authors conclude that HBO didn’t help injured muscles heal faster in this study. However, this study didn’t test whether HBO therapy was effective if it is started immediately after injury or if it is useful in more extreme muscle injuries. Accordingly, the authors stress that more research is needed. 

Most of us know that exercise is good for us, and that we should exercise at least five days a week. We know that exercise is good for our physical and mental well-being. There are organizations that publish guidelines about how much we should exercise. But how many of us turn that knowledge into action?

This study was designed to get a better idea of just how active we are–or aren’t–and how this relates to people’s beliefs about exercise benefits. Phone surveys were conducted in the United States of 2002 randomly adults. They were asked questions about the amount, duration, and intensity of their weekly exercise habits. They were also asked questions about their opinion of the risks of inactivity to their health, along with other questions about their age, gender, education level, ethnicity, and income level.

When the results were tallied, researchers found that 52 percent of the respondents said that physical inactivity was a very important risk factor for good health, 37 percent felt it was important, and 8 percent believed it was somewhat important. Only 3 percent of the respondents said being inactive wasn’t an important risk factor.

Despite the widespread perception that exercise was important to good health, only 32 percent of respondents met the minimum level of physical activity for health benefits. Those that did were more likely to be male and to believe that physical activity was very important to health. Exercise levels didn’t seem to be affected significantly by a person’s age, income, or ethnicity.  This is differerent than the results of other research where these factors did matter.

The researchers conclude that a strong belief in the benefits of exercise does lead to better exercise habits. Respondents with a strong belief in the benefits of exercise were 40 percent more likely to meet exercise guidelines. Males were 45 percent more likely to get the recommended amount of exercise.

The authors suggest that people might exercise more if they had more reasons to help convince them of the benefits of exercise. For example, people who join a gym to lose weight might get more motivation by learning about the positive effects on their mental health or blood pressure. People who start exercising for a specific health condition might be more likely to stick with it if they believe that improving muscle strength and stamina will help them in other ways, too.

You know the nicotine in cigarette smoke is bad for your heart and lungs. Well, it’s also bad for your bones.

Orthopedic surgeons have long known that smoking affects the health of the skeleton. The evidence has been so conclusive that many surgeons now encourage patients who smoke to at least try to quit before having surgery.

The authors of this study summarized the available research. How does smoking hurt your skeleton’s health? Let them count the ways. 

• Smoking worsens bone mineral density, leading to osteoporosis.  This is especially true in women, but it’s also holds true in men. People who smoke have higher rates of bone loss and seem to have more fractures than people who don’t.


• Smoking is related to low back pain. Studies find that people with low back pain are much more likely to be smokers–especially smokers with a chronic cough. Researchers don’t know if this is directly related to smoking or because smokers tend to be in worse physical shape.


• Smoking worsens the health of the disks in the spine. This is probably due to lower blood flow and changes in the blood caused by the nicotine in cigarettes.


• Smoking slows wound healing. Poor wound healing in smokers seems to be related to higher levels of infection after surgery. In one study, cigarette smokers were classified as high risk for post-operative wound infections, along with patients with systemic diseases and patients who were immune compromised.


• Smoking slows the healing of bone. It has been well documented that smokers have much poorer outcomes after certain types of joint surgeries. In one study, 40% of smokers who had lumbar fusion surgery had poor outcomes, compared to 8% of nonsmokers. Some studies suggest that nicotine slows down the formation of new bone. One study suggested that a nonsmoker can make one centimeter of new bone in two months, compared to three months for a smoker.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is the third most common rheumatological disease in the United States. However, doctors don’t know very much about it. No one treatment seems to work for all patients. Exercise clearly does seem to help reduce the symptoms of FMS. The problem is, there have been no conclusive studies about what kinds or intensities of exercise help the most.

Recently, researchers did a pilot study to help determine how a 24-week walking program affected patients with FMS. They divided patients into a group who did low-intensity exercise, a group who did high-intensity exercise, and a control group who did no particular exercise.

The exercisers were given a walking schedule to follow. Everyone started walking for 12 minutes, three days a week. By the end of the 24 weeks, everyone was walking 30 minutes, three days a week. The high-intensity group needed to push their heart rate higher, which they did by walking faster. Throughout the study, patients gave written answers to questions about their FMS symptoms.

The original study group only included 21 patients. Only eight of them finished the walking program. Still, the researchers derived some valuable information from the study. It showed that FMS patients are capable of exercising at enough intensity to improve fitness. It also suggested that exercise helped patients do their daily tasks with less difficulty.

High-intensity exercise tended to increase patients’ symptoms. On the other hand, low-intensity exercise seemed to decrease the symptoms over time. This study did not show reductions in pain or depression from the walking program, but other studies have.

This study was inconclusive for many reasons. Its main benefit will be to help researchers design future studies. But it does suggest that until more research is done, FMS patients should consider only low-intensity exercise programs.

Gabapentin, also known by its brand name, Nerontin^TM, may play a role in helping people with chronic low back pain. Doctors at Northwestern University reported success after using this medication to treat a woman with chronic pain in her legs. Gabapentin is already being used to treat neurological problems, but this case suggests it should also be considered in some cases of chronic pain.

The case involves a 30-year-old woman who had to use a wheelchair ever since her spinal cord was injured by a gunshot wound 13 years earlier. The injury caused her to suffer chronic pain in both legs, from her hips to her feet. She described her pain as “throbbing, aching, and stabbing.” These symptoms didn’t go away, even when she tried strong pain medications called opioids. She had problems sleeping, partly because of the pain. As a result, she described her moods as “angry, frustrated, and anxious.”

Her doctors prescribed gabapentin three times a day. Within one week, her pain levels were dramatically lower. Her mood improved, and so did her sleep. Her pain symptoms continued to get better as time went on.

Gabapentin is a fairly new anticonvulsant drug that was designed to help people who have partial seizures. Although it doesn’t have a lot of side effects, about 25% of people using gabapentin say it makes them feel sleepy. Some people have reported having headaches. Others feel dizzy, although clinical trials have shown that these problems don’t happen very often.

The authors conclude that gabapentin should be considered to treat chronic pain, especially in combination with other medications. If the success reported by this patient is any indication, gabapentin might give helpful pain relief for others who’ve had a traumatic spinal cord injury.

Balance is difficult for people with injuries to their legs. It can be especially difficult for patients with arthritis. And poor balance can lead to more falls. Vision is one of the senses that can help patients compensate for balance problems caused by arthritic knees, and so can paying extra attention to balancing. How exactly do people with arthritis control their balance?

Researchers tested 18 patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were scheduled for total knee replacement surgery. These patients were compared with 23 other people who didn’t have arthritis.

First the researchers tested for knee stability. They had everyone stand on a special force plate to measure how much they swayed back and forth. The amount of fluctuation in movement is called center of pressure (COP). The researchers found that the RA patients had an average of 80% more fluctuation in COP than the control group. This showed that the RA patients had knees that were much more unstable and difficult to balance.

Next, everyone was tested for balance with eyes closed and again while doing math problems. The RA patients weren’t particularly affected by having to focus their attention on doing math problems. But with their eyes closed, they had a much more difficult time balancing than the control group. The more severe the RA, the more patients tended to rely on visual information.

This suggests that people with severe knee RA may end up getting fewer sensations about position and balance from their affected knee. It also indicates that people with severe RA are at greater risk for falling if for some reason vision is a problem. This can happen if eyesight isn’t sharp, if an obstacle blocks the view, or in the dark. 

The authors recommend future research on whether people with RA show better balance after having total knee replacement surgery.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. In the same way, the joint that aches from osteoarthritis gets the attention. Certain joints in the body are bathed in synovial fluid. This vital fluid contains hyaluronon, which works like grease to lubricate the joint. It also cushions the joint from extra strain and shock. Osteoarthritis results in less hyaluronon in the synovial fluid. As a result, the joint surfaces don’t get lubricated and are more likely to get injured from daily stresses and strain on the joint.

Scientists have studied the effects of injecting hyaluronon into arthritic joints in animals. The authors list numerous studies that show benefits from this type of treatment. The treatments reportedly soothed pain, slowed damage to the joint, and even protected the bone below the joint lining.

Scientists use caution when applying the results of animal studies to treatments in humans. However, there are now a host of studies showing that people with osteoarthritis get good benefits, too. The benefits seemed to be strongest in people over age 60 who had mild to moderate osteoarthritis problems and who were given a series of these types of treatments.

Recent studies show that when a post-menopausal woman fractures the lower end of her forearm radius bone, there’s a 90% chance she has osteoporosis. If she does have osteoporosis, the chances double that she’ll eventually have a hip fracture. And the odds are 50% that her hip fracture will result in death.

That’s why it is critical that people at risk of osteoporosis get evaluated and treated sooner rather than later. Even small improvements in bone health can lower the possibility of future fractures due to osteoporosis. According to the authors, these facts should signal doctors to immediately start an evaluation and treatment plan when a post-menopausal woman fractures the lower part of her forearm radius bone.
 
But the results of this study showed that these patients only received adequate evaluation and treatment 24% of the time. The authors reached this conclusion by studying the medical claims of 1162 female patients over the age of 55 who had fractured their radius, a bone in their forearm. The study showed that doctors did tests to check the bone health in only 33 patients. They prescribed medication in only 262 cases.

The results showed a trend of fewer treatments as the age of the patients increased, presumably because doctors felt it was too late to do anything about the problem. However, the authors emphasize that administering treatment for elderly patients can still provide benefits to offset some of the problems caused by osteoporosis.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that a postmenopausal woman with a fracture of the radius bone probably has osteoporosis. Doctors need to take this opportunity to check for osteoporosis, and treatments can begin right away if the diagnosis is made. “Medical treatment for these patients,” conclude the authors, “could have a profound public health impact by decreasing the burden of future osteoporotic fractures.”

Some of the changes that happen in a woman’s body during pregnancy are obvious. Others are not. Body weight is usually the most obvious change. Expectant mothers generally gain about 24 extra pounds, accounted for by the growing fetus and the tissues needed to support healthy development.

Less obvious are the changes that occur in the tissues of the mother’s body. Joints and ligaments become looser from the hormones that are released in preparation for delivery. Abdominal muscles tend to get stretched out and weakened as the baby grows.

Pregnancy is a time when aches and pains can start–problems like low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, leg cramps, and hip pain. It is not entirely understood why these problems happen during pregnancy. Fortunately, most of these problems go away after the delivery. Women who stay active during pregnancy generally have fewer problems and are less prone to injury.

Past research seemed to indicate that changes in walking patterns during pregnancy might be a reason for problems of overuse. However, new evidence in this study shows that walking patterns don’t actually change that much during pregnancy. Even the so-called “waddle” of late pregnancy wasn’t actually found to happen. The authors did see that calf and hip muscles showed more activity while pregnant women walked, a possible explanation for problems of overuse. According to the authors, this extra muscle activity might be why some pregnant women have painful cramps in their calf muscles and why they often have pain in their back, pelvis, and hips.

Researchers offer a new way to monitor the number of people who are injured while snowboarding, alpine skiing, or telemark skiing. Past analysis has involved counting the number of injuries that happen over a set period of time, usually 1000 days of skiing. But different people can ski or snowboard very different amounts in one day. In this study, the authors added another important measurement, the distance each skier or snowboarder traveled. By counting the number of passes used on an alpine ski hill, the authors could estimate the distance each person skied or snowboarded. The results were then compared to the number of people treated at a local hospital.

Researchers used this information to come up with a set measurement, or index, that could be used to check how often people are injured in each of the three snow sports. According to the authors, the percentages that were tallied in this study suggest “a three-to-four-times higher incidence of injuries requiring hospital treatment among snowboarders than among alpine and telemark skiers.”

Most athletes would never consider exercising without stretching first. However, stretching before intensive training does not appear to pay off in fewer injuries. Age and fitness levels seem to be more important factors in predicting whether a person ends up with a leg, hip, or foot injury.

These conclusions come from a recent study of 1538 army recruits. Before going through 11 weeks of intensive training, each of the recruits was randomly placed in either a stretching or a control group. Before each training session, members in the stretching group did six different stretches, holding each one for 20 seconds. The control group did regular warm-ups without doing any stretches. At the end of the 11 weeks, researchers tallied 333 total injuries to the lower limbs. The injuries were split nearly fifty-fifty between the two groups.

The authors calculated that it would take 3100 stretching sessions, each lasting five minutes, to prevent one injury. This means 260 hours of stretching. The authors conclude that stretching before exercise to prevent injury is “of dubious clinical significance.”

Age and fitness levels were better indicators of lower-limb injuries. The authors found that “the least fit subjects were 14 times more likely too sustain a lower-limb injury than the fittest subjects.” Older recruits also had significantly more injuries.

So what is the truth about stretching? It seems to be that improved overall fitness is the best way to reduce training-related injuries of the lower limbs.

People heading to the slopes and the backcountry to telemark ski may want to know about their risk of injury. The recent surge in popularity of this sport, along with recent design changes in boots and bindings, led researchers to evaluate the risks.

The authors gathered information by polling members of two different ski clubs between 1996 and 1999. By tallying the total number of days skied by the 677 respondents, they calculated a rate of 9.8 injuries per 1000 skier days, nearly the same as the injury rate for alpine skiing.

The types of injuries reported varied by the skiers’ gender, age, experience, terrain, and equipment choices. Men had more shoulder and ankle injuries than women. Women had a higher percentage of knee injuries involving the ligaments and cartilage. Although the knee was the most common area injured, telemark skiers tended to have less severe knee injuries than alpine skiers.

Telemark skiers between the ages of 30 to 49 had significantly more injuries than skiers aged 13 to 29. Less experienced skiers were injured more often than experienced skiers. And more injuries happened on easier slopes than on advanced runs. However, the authors caution that “no terrain is safer than another.” People using the newer plastic boots had fewer injuries than those using older, leather-style boots. And more injuries took place when people used three-pinned bindings rather than advanced styles of bindings.

In conclusion, the authors state that “the use of flexible plastic boots is the most significant factor affecting the telemark skier’s risk of injury, followed by level of skill, and use of releasable bindings.”

Some research doesn’t offer much practical information for the general public. But it does expand our knowledge of how the body works. Some day, this knowledge may help us take better care of ourselves.

This is one of those studies. Researchers in Japan used positron emission tomography (PET) to study how the body burns energy at rest and during exercise. PET technology involves using radioactive tracers that show up on a special kind of film. Doctors and scientists use PET tests to measure the activity, or metabolism, of tissues in the body. Tissues that show a high uptake of the radioactive tracers are very active, with a high metabolism.

The authors divided 12 healthy men into two groups. One group sat quietly in a comfortable chair for 35 minutes. The other group ran for 35 minutes, stopping only to have the radioactive tracer injected into their bloodstream. Both groups then had whole-body PET scans.

Researchers found that the active tissues in the resting group were the heart, the brain, and the organs in the abdomen, including the intestines, liver, and kidneys. The running group had markedly different PET scans. The scan showed a much higher uptake in the leg and heart muscles. There was much less activity in the abdominal organs. Only the brain showed the same metabolic activity, whether running or at rest.

So what does this mean for you? Nothing right now. But it provides a fascinating glimpse of how our bodies adjust to the demands we place on them.

People should exercise from 20 to 60 minutes, at least three days a week. No debate there, right? Wrong. Recently, the health world has been debating whether exercise periods need to be done all in one chunk, or whether smaller amounts of exercise can be added up over the course of a day to equal 20 to 60 minutes of exercise.

There hasn’t been much research to clarify the debate. The goal of this study was to test the theory that exercise results in the same energy
expenditure (EE) whether done all at once or over the whole day. Thirty women wore a device to measure their EE over three days. On one of the days, they took a brisk 30-minutes walk. On another, they took three brisk 10-minute walks. On the third day, they didn’t do any exercise.

As expected, the walking days resulted in higher EE. But the researchers found that the days of continuous 30-minute walking resulted in significantly higher EE than the days of three 10-minute walks. In fact, the women’s EE rates were higher throughout the day when they took a 30-minute walk, even when they were done exercising.

The authors related a separate study that was recently published. It was done with very overweight subjects and showed opposite results.
It found that breaking the exercise sessions into smaller amounts of time is at least as good as one longer exercise period. The authors of this study aren’t sure what accounts for the differences between the two studies. They suggest more research will be needed to find out which variables affect how, why, and when people exercise. 

Total joint replacement is very successful for most people. As a result, it has become much more common–and its drawbacks are becoming more obvious. One of the major problems with artificial joints is called creep. Creep is a gradual change in the shape of the plastic as it is pressed down. Creep tends to happen within the first 18 months of surgery.

A bigger problem is joint wear, erosion of the replacement parts that happens over the life of the joint. As the parts rub or move against each other, the joint starts to wear, causing small wear particles to build up in the joint. The wear particles are like the sawdust that results from sanding a piece of wood.

Today’s replacement parts are affected by different causes of wear. Adhesion happens when the bonded surfaces get pressed together, causing one of them to loosen up. Abrasion is when the harder surface rubs the softer one like sandpaper, releasing wear particles into the joint. Fatigue is when the components get overstressed from heavy or repeated activity, contributing to wear particles and to possible failure of the artificial joint.

Some types of joint wear are unavoidable. Other types of wear happen when the parts rub and move in unintended ways. The authors highlight some of the causes of wear, including problems with anchoring the replacement joint, unusual stresses, and methods of sterilizing the components.

The authors also addressed the problem of bone loss in the bone that connects to the replacement parts. This bone loss is called bone resorption. It happens from a reaction to the small wear particles that build up. It can also happen if the artificial joint somehow allows the bone to come in contact with joint fluid.

The authors conclude that improving the durability of artificial joints requires finding ways to limit wear and the resulting wear particles. It will also require finding ways to keep joint fluid from coming into contact with the underlying bone.

Weight lifting has been shown to help reduce the bone loss that often happens with menopause. Until lately, however, it was not clear which method of weight lifting helped bones the most: lifting small amounts of weight with a lots of repetitions, or using more weight and fewer repetitions.

The question of osteoporosis is on the minds of many women over forty. Menopause signals a significant drop in estrogen and other hormones that support and maintain bone strength throughout a woman’s lifetime. It is estimated that in the early years after these hormones drop, a woman may loose up to 5% of her bone density per year. Though there are medications that can reverse some bone loss, much of this loss is irreversible.

One way of preventing this loss is through muscle strengthening exercises. The bones respond to muscles tugging on them by releasing bone-building chemicals, resulting in denser bones. Or at least that’s the hypothesis.

So is it better to lift in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger–or will a Pee Wee Herman approach suffice? Researchers addressed this question to see which kind of weight lifting impacted bone density the most.

Twenty-five women with an average age of 51 (all from one to seven years postmenopausal) were selected. There were two main requirements for participation in the study. Participants could not be on estrogen replacement therapy, and they were not to have done any resistance training in the past six months. The women were divided into three groups. One group served as a control group and didn’t do or change a thing. The other two groups began an exercise program. High-intensity exercisers did twice as much weight and half as many repetitions as the women doing low-intensity exercises.
 
Subjects were trained on proper upper and lower body weight lifting techniques. Both groups trained three days a week for six months. Their workouts included a 10-minute warm-up, a 45-minute weight lifting session, and a five-minute cool down. 

How did the exercisers fare? Both groups ended up having stronger muscles, but not stronger bones. Yet neither group showed a loss of bone. Past studies spanning nine to 12 months have shown measurable improvements in bone density. This made the authors question whether the women in their study would have shown higher bone densities had this study lasted longer.

The fact that these women gained stronger muscles is still good news. Better muscle strength means better balance and coordination, which helps lower the chances of falling and fracturing a bone. So the bottom line is that the styles of lifting used by Pee Wee and Arnold both seem to help keep women’s bones strong.