Weight-Bearing Exercise for Fracture Prevention: It's Not All About the Bones

My guess is that when asked why weight training is good for bone health, most women and men would say: "because it makes my bones stronger." Fair enough, and mostly true.

Yet that's not the complete story, as a new research study shows. Weight training also increases balance and strength, which in turn helps prevent falls and fractures.

A team from the Division of Physiotherapy, University of Queensland Australia, studied 98 community-dwelling women aged 41-78 years with a less than normal volume of bone (osteopenia). Two groups were randomly selected. One was given a weights and balance exercise program for 20 weeks, while the other group did not receive the program.

At the completion of the trial, the exercise group showed markedly better performances in balance and movement tests with improvements of 10% to 71%. Similarly, there were gains in strength of the hip, thigh and trunk muscles with training improvements between 9% and 23%.

While the study was relatively small, it was conducted in a randomized and controlled fashion and confirms previous studies of a similar nature. It makes good sense to do some weights and balance training as you age.

_{Source: Hourigan SR, Nitz JC, Brauer SG, O'Neill S, Wong J, Richardson CA. Positive effects of exercise on falls and fracture risk in osteopenic women. Osteoporosis Int. 2008 Jan 11.}