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.