ADAPTING EXERCISE for Osteoporosis

By Susie Black - get free updates of new articles here 

This article is part of a series to offer hints and tips for adapting your Pilates moves to suit common aches and pains. To be clear, this is a series on making long term issues more bearable so you can continue to stay fit - not a series on causes, prevention or treatment.

Today's article is about Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a bone disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle, making them more likely to break. It occurs when bone mineral density and mass decrease, or when the structure and strength of bone changes. Osteoporosis is often called a "silent" disease because there are usually no symptoms until a bone breaks.

Pain Points and how to adapt

Many people feel no increase in pain with Osteoporosis which makes it hard to know how to adapt. You'll only know you've gone too far when the fracture has already occurred! Here's what we do in class to keep you safe.

1. Supporting deep bends: Forward folds, standing roll-downs or lean-backs from seated can all force unnecessary joint-spacing or put pressure on small areas of joints. We can use resistance bands like the one in the image above to support these exercises, lessen the range of movement and support with the hands when rolling down and up from standing.

2. Avoid too much body weight on one joint on the floor: Often during exercise we can be centring the body weight on single joints or just a few vertebrae which increases the pressure on those bones and therefore increases the risk of them fracturing if weak. By using wedges and cushions we can share the bodyweight better over a larger area, allowing you join in with the moves you love without fear. The image below shows a wedge cushion which could be used to adapt rollback moves or support the hip in side-lying postures.

3. Watch out for your specific weakness sites: This takes communication. We have to look at your DEXA scans to make sure we're padding, buffering or lessening the weight at the areas of concern.

Best Practice: The more information we both have, the better we can adapt during class time. I'd rather arrange regular chats to monitor and modify long term so that you can be guided during class without having to overthink it yourself. The changes you'll have to make aren't massive but because you can't feel why or when to adapt it may knock your confidence at the start. Receiving the osteoporosis or osteopenia diagnosis can feel daunting at first but IT SHOULDN'T STOP YOU.

Building Confidence?

Forewarned is forearmed so if you'd like a deeper delve into Osteoporosis, here are a couple of relevant articles from my website:

A deeper delve into bone health - provides information on prevention and exercise

Focus on bone health - provides background reading into causes and effects

Osteoporosis: One woman's story - links to a video interview

In addition, if you'd like to work one-to-one to better manage this condition, please do consider the bone-loading course. Just CLICK HERE to find out more.