We often see patients who are dealing with osteoporosis who are struggling with an element of pain resulting from their condition. Osteoporosis is a bone disease, diagnosed when the body loses bone density. This can occur over time, or if the body starts to produce too little bone replacement material (as your bones are consistently being remodelled). While regular bones under a microscope resemble a honeycomb, a patient with osteoporosis will have much larger holes, which means the bones can be more brittle and likely to break. It can also affect the spine, which can cause the patient to alter their posture due to loss of stability – this in turn can cause many spinal issues to develop as a result.

How Is Osteoporosis Diagnosed?

A diagnosis of osteoporosis can be difficult to attain, since it doesn’t cause pain in its own right. A patient will usually ascertain they have the problem if they have break a bone in older age and have a bone density test. A common injury in those suffering with osteoporosis is, however, broken spinal vertebrae, which in cases can be cause by something as simple as coughing or sneezing. While the condition can be helped by treatment with bone strengthening medicines, it’s also important to strengthen your body with exercise. Lack of exercise during adulthood can make you more at risk of developing osteoporosis later in life, as can using certain long-term medicines, steroids or poor diet and lifestyle choices.

Osteoporosis Exercises For Spine Strength & Posture

Strengthening your back and core to support your spine is important with osteoporosis. Integrating cardiovascular into your routine will be helpful, but combining this with some form of weight bearing exercise is vital to build strength. Engaging in bodyweight exercise may seem counterintuitive to those lacking in bone density, but it’s much better to build up your strength in a controlled manner to begin with – as you’re probably going to lift something heavy at some point. If one day you decide to lift your cat/dog/grandchild/sofa, without building some strength then you might end up with an injury.

If you’re tentative about trying weight bearing exercise, start first with bodyweight ones such as squats, or very light deadlifts. Cardio exercise like taking regular walks, or if you have access to an elliptical machine then using this would also be helpful. Low impact exercises such as these are good to build your confidence and strength if you are less physically active at the moment. While exercises such as cycling and swimming can be enjoyable, low-impact and build your cardiovascular and muscle strength, these don’t necessarily help strengthen your bones so don’t make either of these your only method of exercise. While impact exercise directly stimulates bone tissue, muscle strength and contraction can also induce changes in bone tissue. Therefore activities that develop your body’s muscle strength, stability and balance are ideal for your body as well as helping to prevent occurrences of falls.

Muscle Soreness With Increased Exercise

These exercises and having a healthy diet will also help combat other age related conditions you may be suffering from alongside osteoporosis, including high blood pressure, some heart related conditions and diabetes. In early stages of exercising, listening to your body is important. You may have some muscle soreness and discomfort at the beginning – this is very normal and is simply your body’s reaction to exercise. It may not appear straightaway but be more prominent around 1-3 days following exercise. This can affect anyone whether they exercise regularly or are a beginner. If the pain is ongoing for more than a few days, this can be a sign that you’ve exercised too hard for your current fitness level and need to ease up on the exercise.

Get Your Back In Shape At Home

We’ve developed a series of protocols that will help you be rid of back pain. Starting out with basic relief based exercises that are safe and effective. Through the protocols you’ll start to build your strength and effectively rehabilitate your back. This includes some targeted exercises weight bearing which helps combat decreases in bone density. To learn more and get your Back In Shape, click the button below.

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