Building bone health Battle against osteoporosis begins in gym
Mother Nature is undefeated, and Father Time can be just as bad, but sometimes we can push back.
A survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics found that 11% of women, age 65 and older, reported to be suffering from osteoporosis.
“Obviously what that is that you're dealing with a loss in bone density,” said Heidi Nicholls Bowser, Butler Family YMCA membership and healthy living director. “What you really need is weightbearing exercises along with strength training. You want to work with gravity.”
Women in their later years tend to see a loss in bone density more than men due to their loss of estrogen.
Personalized training is viewed as the best way to combat osteoporosis. This way, the work outs can be tailored to the needs of each individual for the best results.
The Butler County Family YMCA is full of highly skilled personal trainers who know how to detect particular imbalances in each individual and then recommend a program that is best suited for them.“The great thing about personal training is that they can customize it,” Bowser said. “This is off of where their imbalances are, where they need to improve flexibility, and it's really helpful to work with someone one-on-one.”
Often times people seek out personalized training after they go through physical therapy, according to Bowser.“It would be a normal progression to go from physical therapy to personalized training,” Bowser said. “For example, I sometimes would need to be in contact with the person's doctor and physical therapist so I could progress along the lines that they indicated.”Dietary changes most likely will be needed, but Bowser stressed that there is a fine line that trainers don't want to cross and how they need to stay within what she calls scope of practice.“Of course it's going to be a calcium-rich diet,” Bowser said. “The scope of practice for a personal trainer would be to say to an individual, 'Please check in with your doctor.' Then we can discuss how to proceed and help with the doctor's recommendations. It's really in the realm of a nutritionist.”Something that might draw people away from personalized training is the idea they need to put in loads of time into their workouts.
While Bowser says that 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week is a good starting point, it still comes down to the individual and their own needs.“When I say that, it's actually really easy to do,” Bowser said. “You can break it up into 15-minute segments. People were more willing to do 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. If I ask them to do an hour a day, six days a week, usually the answer is no.”When people come in to see one of the Butler YMCA's personal trainers, their workouts shouldn't stop once they leave the gym.“Every trainer worth their salt is going to be giving the person they work with homework,” Bowser said. “Most people work with the trainer once a week for whatever prescribed period of time.“The idea with working with a trainer is they become your coach,” she said. “They are going to outline some activities you can do on your own and what you can do at the facility by yourself. People generally don't know what to do, and they just need that little guidance.”Gyms in general took a hit with COVID-19, as most businesses did, but now, with precautionary guidelines being lifted, the demand for personalized training is going up.“The inquiries for personal training are starting to ramp up again,” Bowser said. “Opposed to doing stuff at home, you have the gym right here, where we can teach you to use the equipment that we have.”Staying ahead of the game and taking care of your body goes without saying, and Bowser's advice to the younger crowd to do so is quite simple.“Move your body,” Bowser said. “It's as important as brushing your teeth. Anything to move your body, whether it's pickleball, tennis, soccer: whatever it may be.“Just seriously get active and look at it as a matter of your physical and mental health.”
