The Tumblr Gym

This focus on all exercises being low impact is totally crazy for young people who are healthy who aren’t injured. 

Having strong bones is essential for your ability to function in life. Your bones are your foundations of support in your body. As you age, through natural degeneration processes, your bones become less dense and therefore prone to fracture. Osteoporosis is the condition in which bones become brittle and possibly fracture doing normal activities. There are ways to maintain and increase your bone density, such as high-impact exercise, to avoid complications later in life.

Science

Impact exercise exerts force on the bone that results in small deformations. In response to this, osteoblasts, which are responsible for bone formation, transfer to the surface of the bone. They secrete proteins called collagen that fill the gaps in the bones caused by the deformations. Eventually the collagen proteins mineralize and become a part of the bone matrix, causing the bone to become wider in diameter and denser.

Exercises

 High-impact exercises are ones that involve stepping or jumping in a manner that loads the bone. Step, aerobic and kickboxing classes are examples of high-impact activities. The National Osteoporosis Foundation also recommends hiking and stair climbing. For those accommodated to fitness, running or jogging is a good activity. Plyometrics are perfect for building bone density and are activities that involve one or two legged jumps and hops. Plyometrics should be reserved for people who are already accustomed to exercise and are free from lower body injury.

Frequency

Increasing bone density through high-impact exercise is an ongoing process, but it is not as time consuming as you might assume. In a study conducted by Dr. Kara Witzke in “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,” researchers tested the bone density of 76 college-aged women who were placed into groups and instructed to step up onto and jump off 4-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch steps, three times a week for eight months. Results show that femur strength was significantly increased by just jumping off a 4- or 8-inch box for 10 repetitions without shoes, three times a week.

Intensity

To see an increase in bone density, you need to overload your bones. According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, minimal essential strain, or MES, refers to the stimulus required to form new bone, which is approximately 1/10th the force required to fracture a bone. To stimulate osteoblasts, you need to exercise at a greater force than the MES. This is generally more intense than normal activities of daily living. If you are already doing a lot of high-impact activities, your MES increases, so you need to constantly increase your intensity to continue seeing bone density increases.