Osteoporosis is not your fault

Having osteoporosis is NOT YOUR FAULT.

You did nothing wrong.

But it will present itself to so many of us after menopause, after longstanding digestive issues, and even after necessary use of some medications.

Again, it is not your fault. You did nothing wrong. But now that you know, you cannot “un-know it”. But you CAN choose to do something about it.

Sadly, I have worked with two patients years ago who might have protected themselves from fractures if they had been given the education and empowered to move in a way that protected the bones of their spine and the discs in between. Fractures happened while lifting the mattress to make the bed and another when on hands and knees and reaching under the bed. If only I had met them before the fractures, in time to teach them safer ways to do both activities.

The memory of their rehab is what prompted me to create the “Practical Strategies Workshop”. It is an interactive workshop where we talk about one of the first lines of defense against fractures, how we move and position our bodies when we lift, reach, and carry.

Today I am sharing a frustration.

I want to be offering helpful information to my followers with low bone density. And initially my “Practical Strategies Workshop” was well received at different offerings. Then, crickets even though it was at a studio where I had taught other yoga workshops. It is terribly disappointing but I suppose it does happen.

Your Future Self

So I ask you to think about your future self. What do you want your life to look like in early retirement and beyond? How do you want to live out your life? Think about all the things you have left to do during this lifetime.

I like to talk about bone density, maintaining it, and building it using the 5 pillars to my Brilliant Bones Method.

Balance training - what are we doing to practice our balance beyond standing on one foot. Balance has more to do with recovering from a loss of balance. This means training our agility, or quick footedness. It might be dancing in the kitchen, practicing yoga, or part of your gym workouts.

Posture - What are we doing to improve and maintain our posture to avoid the traditional osteoporotic rounded upper back? How do we preserve the mobility of the spine and the strength of the upper back muscles? I love yoga for this and, of course, physical therapists love to teach strengthening and mobility exercises to help prevent the thoracic hump we see with osteoporosis and low bone density.

Safe Spinal Alignment - This means moving in a way that controls how much we bend and twist, how much unnecessary force are we putting through the spine and joints that might put us at greater risk of stress fractures in the spine? This is the nuts and bolts of this workshop. Its not meant to be restrictive. Instead it is intended to empower us to be stronger and to keep our spine and discs safer.

Resistance training - How much time, energy, and money are we willing to invest to slow the loss of and to build muscle and bone strength. The researchers have studied the effectiveness of low and high impact exercise and resistance training that adds load and found these to be effective at protecting out bone density AND protecting us from fractures.

Cardiovascular training - Endurance. This refers to the amount of activity we can tolerate over the course of one day before fatigue sets in. The better our activity tolerance, the more quickly we can react when we catch our foot and prevent a fall. Physical therapists love helping patients develop a routine.

Good news! Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to teach you these activities to support your ongoing exercise routine so you can enjoy your life with confidence.

the workshop

The Practical Strategies for Living Well with Low Bone Density Workshop is designed to address #3, Safe Spinal Alignment. What is fun about the workshop is that participants actually get to practice and get advice on how to control their body movements to minimize bending and twisting when lifting, carrying, and reaching during the day. Additionally, we often uncover where there might be weaker muscles or loss of coordination of necessary movements for daily life.

During the workshop we often find that the “get out of a chair” muscles, our gluts, have gotten weaker over time and we just didn’t know it. Or we have lost the strength in our upper backs to support our spine when we lift groceries or a laundry basket. Which means we just uncovered a need for #4 Resistance Training.

Sometimes we find participants lack the strength to maintain their balance and reactions to loss of balance when lifting laundry baskets and pivoting to walk from laundry room to the bedroom. So here we have uncovered a need for #1 Balance training.

This is why at Body In Tune, LLC we look at all 5 pillars to be sure you are armed with the knowledge and power to support yourself, avoid slowing down, and most of all avoid finding yourself recovering from a fracture from a simple fall or awkward movement. Our mission is to change the statistics and see fewer falls and fractures at the hands of low bone density and osteoporosis.

This is why I created the workshop for safe spinal alignment and why it is disappointing when active adults aren’t flocking to my workshops.

In case you are curious Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to help you incorporate the 5 pillars into your life.

Some of what we practice:

Hinging at the hips. It’s not just “lift with your knees”. It’s about what does it feel like to keep our spine straight rather than bend when pick something up. And how we use our legs to stand up after reaching down to get something from the floor or a bench.

Weight shifting is a great tool to off-load the initial force through our body as we lift an object. Do you remember high school physics and discussions about inertia? When an object is stationary, it takes more force to initiate lifting it up than to just hold it. So I teach clients to how to safely use momentum in the form of a weight shift to initiate a lift.

Pivoting is how we avoid the twisting. This means we need strength, balance and agility in our feet so that we can safely turn from the ankles and hips when we pick up the laundry basket or grocery bag and head into the next room. It’s a lot like dancing and moving from one yoga pose to another.

Golfer’s lift is a great way to pick up lightweight objects from the floor. It looks a lot like Warrior III in my yoga practice. It requires hip and leg strength as well as a little balance and coordination. I like to tell the story of when I first learned this trick and tried it in a crowded grocery store. Let’s just say it didn’t go as well as planned.

Getting up and down off the floor - We all like to roll up and down our spine as a way to keep our stomach muscles strong, but sadly, once we have low bone density, I certainly would prefer to avoid it. I like to teach you how; complete with positions like “the proposal”, “I dropped the ring”, “sunbathing on the beach”, “the nap” and voila you are on the floor!

Body in Tune would love to help you build your confidence, strength, and agility to move safely and easily through life.

I have had good feedback from past participants and we have found a few who needed to get further assistance with coordinating and recruiting some new muscles to support the proper alignment of the spine. I spent too many years as a physical therapist giving people boring home programs that were never done. It’s time to move into functional strength training and be an “older adult in training”.

I would welcome the opportunity to be part of your support team with regards to women’s health, your muscles, joints, bones and osteoporosis. The goal is, after all, to help you feel confident in your body so you can play with your grand children, take that long-dreamed of vacation and get outside and enjoy a walk with friends.‍ ‍