How does exercise improve bone health?

Bone health is extremely important. As we age, our muscle mass and bone density decrease. Even in healthy individuals, bone density begins to decrease with age.

Reduced muscle mass means lower strength and stability. This, combined with lower bone mineral density, means an increased risk of falls, sprains, and fractures, highlighting the importance of protecting our bones and maintaining a high bone density into our old age.

One of the best things we can do to improve our bone health and protect density is to have a regular exercise routine. In particular, resistance training and weight-bearing exercises are beneficial for building and maintaining strong bones.

So, how does exercise promote bone health?

Regular weight-bearing exercise helps to maintain bone mineral density (BMD) and may even improve it. This is the case because exercises help to maintain and grow skeletal muscle mass, which supports your bone structures and improves the stability around your joints.

When you perform any sort of weight-bearing exercises, such as resistance training, walking, jogging, dancing, or sports it helps to build strong bones and slow density loss. These forms of exercise put stress on the bones which stimulates an increase in calcium deposits in the bone to support bone-forming cells.