Weight-Bearing Movement: Simple Ways to Support Your Bones
Five straightforward movements that load your skeleton, using nothing more than a chair, a wall and a step.
On Monday we published Bone Health After 50: What Keeps Your Skeleton Strong, which explained how bone is broken down and rebuilt throughout life, and why it responds to the loads placed on it. If you have not read it yet, it is worth ten minutes, it sets out the reasoning behind everything below. This article is about putting that into practice.
Start With What You Are Already Doing
Before adding anything new, it is worth looking at what is already in your week.
Walking is the foundation, and most people are doing some. What matters for bone is that at least part of it is brisk, on firm ground, and long enough to count. A slow amble on soft sand loads the skeleton far less than twenty minutes at a pace that makes you breathe harder on a firm path.
If walking is your main activity, you are in a good starting position - see Why Walking Could Be the Best Exercise for Healthy Ageing for how to get more from it. The movements below add the resistance and impact that walking alone does not provide.
Five Movements That Load Your Skeleton
Each of these can be done at home. Under every movement you will find an easier version and a harder one, if you are not sure which suits you, start with the easier and work up from there.
Sit-to-Stand
Sit towards the front of a firm dining chair, feet flat and roughly hip-width apart, heels slightly behind your knees. Lean your chest forward over your knees, press down through your feet and stand up fully. Sit back down slowly, taking three seconds to lower.
Aim for eight to ten repetitions.
Easier: push off the arms of the chair, or use a higher seat.
Harder: cross your arms over your chest, or hold a bag of shopping against your body.
Step-Ups
Find a step you can use - the bottom stair, a doorstep, a low sturdy stool. Roughly the height of a normal stair is ideal, or lower to begin with. Steady yourself with a hand on a bannister, a wall or the back of a chair.
Step up with your right foot, bring the left up to join it, then step down right foot first, left following. Keep it controlled, the way down matters as much as the way up.
Do ten leading with the right, then ten leading with the left.
Easier: use a lower step, or steady yourself with both hands.
Harder: step down slowly enough that you could pause halfway.
The Shopping Carry
Pick up a bag of shopping in each hand , tins are ideal ,and walk the length of your hallway and back, standing tall with your shoulders relaxed rather than hunched. Set the bags down properly, bending at the hips and knees.
Two or three lengths is plenty.
Easier: one bag, swapping hands halfway.
Harder: heavier bags, or a longer distance before you put them down.
Wall Press-Ups
Stand an arm's length from a wall, hands flat on it at shoulder height and slightly wider than your shoulders. Keeping your body in one straight line from head to heels, bend your elbows and lower your chest towards the wall, then press back. Move slowly enough that you feel the work in your arms and chest.
Ten to twelve repetitions.
Easier: stand closer to the wall.
Harder: stand further back, or press up from the kitchen worktop instead.
Standing on One Leg
Stand at the worktop with your fingertips resting on it. Lift one foot just clear of the floor and hold, standing tall, for up to thirty seconds. Swap sides.
This one is for balance rather than bone directly, and it belongs in the list for exactly that reason, the fracture you avoid is usually the fall you did not have.
Easier: keep both hands on the worktop, and rest your lifted toe on the floor behind you.
Harder: reduce to one fingertip, or turn your head slowly side to side while you hold.
How Often and How Much
Consistency does far more here than intensity.
Three or four sessions a week is a good target for the strength movements.
Ten to fifteen minutes is enough. This does not need to be an hour.
Keep walking on top of that, most days, with some of it brisk.
Give yourself a day between harder sessions, particularly at the start.
Progress by adding repetitions before you add load, and change one thing at a time. If everything feels comfortable for two weeks running, it is time to make something slightly harder.
If You Have Any Concerns About Your Bones
Most people reading this have no diagnosis and no particular reason to expect one. Everything above is sensible from that position, and the honest advice is to get on with it.
A few situations are worth a conversation first. If you have broken a bone from a fall that should not have been enough to cause one, if osteoporosis runs strongly in your family, if you have been told your bone density is low, or if any of these movements produce pain rather than effort ,then the right starting point becomes a question about you rather than a general one. Certain positions, particularly some bending and twisting movements, are less suitable for some people, and that is a judgement to make individually rather than a rule to take from an article.
None of that is a reason to do nothing. It is a reason to have someone look at it properly. Osteopathy is the place to start if pain or stiffness is the obstacle, and it is available at all three of our clinics.
For the wider picture on combining loading with mobility work, Why You Need Both Strength and Mobility covers the reasoning in full.
Apollo Insight
The mistake we see most often is not doing too much, it is doing too little, too gently, for too long. People are frequently told to be careful, and they interpret that as reducing everything, which removes the one signal bone actually responds to. The second thing worth knowing is that the lowering phase of a movement matters more than most people expect. Standing up from a chair quickly and dropping back down takes half the work out of the exercise; taking three seconds to sit is where much of the benefit sits. Slow is not the same as easy.
This Week's Movement Tip
Heel drops. Stand at the kitchen worktop with your feet hip-width apart and your fingertips resting lightly on the surface for balance. Rise slowly onto the balls of both feet, pause at the top for a second, then let your heels drop and land firmly on the floor. You should feel a small, clear jolt travel up through your legs, that impact is the signal bone responds to.
Start with ten, once a day, and build gradually over several weeks. Keep your knees soft rather than locked, land evenly through both feet, and do them on a hard floor rather than thick carpet. It should feel like a firm thud and nothing more. If you feel pain in the heel, ankle, knee or hip, stop and speak to us before continuing.
Before starting any new exercise programme, please consult your healthcare professional if you have any medical conditions, concerns or existing injuries. If you experience pain or worsening symptoms whilst exercising, stop and seek appropriate medical advice.
How Can Apollo Help You Load Your Bones Safely?
If pain, stiffness or an old injury is what stands between you and doing more, Osteopathy is the practical first step, working out what is actually driving the symptoms, treating it, and getting your movement back so the rest becomes possible.
If it is the strength work itself you would rather not tackle alone, Reformer Pilates gives you resistance that can be adjusted movement by movement, with someone watching your technique and classes limited to four.
See the full range on our services page, or book an appointment and we will help you find the right starting point.
How Apollo Health Collective Supports Healthy Ageing
Healthy ageing is about understanding your body, looking after it well and having the right support when you need it.
At Apollo Health Collective, we help people stay active, capable and independent through personalised, evidence-informed care. Our integrated approach brings together different areas of expertise to support movement, recovery and long-term wellbeing.
Our Sheringham clinic offers Osteopathy, Sports Therapy, Sports Massage, Clinical Exercise & Rehabilitation, Reformer Pilates, Podiatry, Biomechanics, and Lifestyle & Wellbeing services. We also offer Osteopathy appointments in Norwich and Coltishall.
Whether you are recovering from an injury, managing ongoing concerns, looking to improve your movement or simply investing in your future health, our team is here to support you.
