FIT TO THE BONE Lace up your sneakers and build your bones with these workout tips from celebrity fitness trainer Kathy Smith. If your physical therapist or doctor says it s okay to exercise, you can strengthen your bones by becoming more active. One of the best ways to improve postmenopausal bone health is by doing strength and resistance training using your own body weight or free weights. This kind of exercise builds up the muscles around your bones. It also improves bone mineral density and can even stimulate the growth of new bone tissue! Check First! Talk with your doctor or physical therapist about which exercises are right for you. Why Kathy? In thinking about bone-healthy exercises, we turned to 57-year-old Kathy Smith for a number of reasons. For more than 25 years, Kathy has been at the forefront of the fitness industry, with a collection of best-selling books and DVDs, lifestyle and nutrition products, and fitness equipment. Her osteoporosis philosophy is simple: Building up our muscles and bones as we age acts as a catalyst for everything else we want to do whether it s gardening, traveling, or walking up the stairs, Kathy says. So you want to be nice to your bones. Kathy encourages women to be positive about exercising. Approach your workout as a challenge instead of a chore, she urges. I use workouts as a way to learn more about my body, explore its limits, and work through my emotions. Make a Plan Rev up your strength and energy by exercising. Start slowly and work toward 30 minutes a day. You can pick and choose which exercises to do. As you improve, add a challenge: use weights, work out at a faster pace, or increase the number of times you repeat each exercise. If 30 minutes is too much, you can break your workout into three 10-minute sessions. Create a fitness diary to record which exercises you do and how often you do them. This will help you keep track of your progress and how much time you spend exercising each week. Kathy Smith Important! Do these exercises only after you ve talked with your physical therapist or other healthcare provider. If you experience pain or soreness that lasts longer than one or two days, stop exercising immediately and consult your healthcare provider.
Warm up Before beginning your workout, start with an easy warm-up routine to increase blood flow throughout your body and loosen up your muscles. Time: 3 to 5 minutes Walk in place for 1 to 2 minutes. Swing your arms forward as you take each step. increase your range of motion by lifting your legs higher so that you progress into a march. Continue for 1 to 2 minutes. stretch out your arms now as you march, by lifting and extending your arms to your sides at shoulder level. Make 5 small arm circles clockwise and 5 counterclockwise. These exercises have been approved by Kathy M. Shipp, PT, MHS, PhD, a physical therapist who specializes in osteoporosis at Duke University Medical Center. They were adapted with permission from Feed Muscle Shrink Fat Diet: 6 Weeks to the Best Shape of Your Life, by Kathy Smith. Meredith Books 2008. 1Chest Opener Sit or stand tall with your feet close together. Clasp hands behind your back. Open up your chest and stretch the muscles by pulling your shoulder blades together toward your spine, while slightly lifting your arms up behind you. If this is too difficult, try reaching behind your back without attempting to clasp your hands. Hold the stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. 2 Overhead Reach Stand tall with your feet together. Keep your hips square. Start with your arms at chest level and your elbows bent. Step out to the left and extend your right arm overhead, with your hands in a fist, like you are punching up toward the ceiling. Bring the right arm back down to chest level. Extend your left arm overhead and reach up. Repeat up to 12 times.
3 Modified Push-Up Lie on the floor. Place your hands directly under your shoulders. Drop your knees to the floor and point your hands slightly inward. Lift your upper body with your arms, while keeping your knees on the floor. Pull your belly button toward your spine to tighten your abdominal muscles. Then slowly lower yourself until you re 4 inches from the ground and your elbows are at 90-degree angles. Exhale as you come back up. Repeat up to 10 times. 4 Butterfly Effect Sit on the floor. Keep your spine straight and draw your heels together. Let your knees drop down. Place hands on your feet with thumbs on the outside. Gently open up the soles of your feet as if you were opening a book. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds.
5 Calf Raises Find a sturdy chair to support you through this exercise. Stand tall with your feet together. Place both of your hands on the back of the chair to help you balance. Lift up onto your toes until your heels come off the ground. Squeeze in your abdominal muscles to increase your stability and keep your shoulders down. Slowly lower yourself from your toes to a standing position. Repeat 10 to 12 times. 6 Lunge, Dip Stand with your feet parallel, hip-distance apart. Take a step back with your left leg and bend both legs to lower your body. Hold here for a count of 10. Extend your arms at shoulder level to help you stay balanced. If you still feel unbalanced, extend your arms to the sides instead of to the front. Keep your back straight. Repeat with the right leg.
7 Balance exercise.. Kick Back & Fly Stand with your feet together. Step back with your left leg, but keep the weight on your right leg and balance. Lift the heel of the left foot off the floor, until you are balancing on the ball of the foot. If you can, lift your left leg slightly off the floor. Place your hands directly under your body with your fists facing each other. Then lift your arms to the sides until they are shoulder level, then squeeze your shoulder blades together. Repeat the move, using your right heel or leg. Aim to do a set of 10. To help you stay centered, focus on a point that s about 3 or 4 feet away from you but below your eye level. Balance exercise.. 8 Side Stepper Step right, then tap the floor behind you with your left foot. Step left, then tap the floor behind you with your right foot. Increase the intensity of this move by quickening your step as you go side-to-side. Repeat the move for up to 1 to 3 minutes. Cool down While sitting up straight in a chair, extend your right leg. Flex and point your right foot 5 times. Repeat with your left leg. still sitting, bring your right knee to your chest and hug it close to you with your arms. Hold for a count of 5. Repeat with your left leg. stretch your right arm by extending it across your chest toward your left side. Breathe in and out as you hold for a count of 10. Repeat with your left arm extending right. lift both arms up above your head toward the ceiling. Use the back of the chair to support your spine. Breathe in and out as you hold for a count of 10.