Sneakers says,‘Exercise for

Strong Bones’

Learning objectives

• I know that weight-bearing exercise builds stronger bones

• I know that I need to build strong bones now to prevent osteoporosis when I am older

Put bone in the bank, now!

• During childhood, when the

skeleton is growing, we need to

build bone strength.• By ‘putting bone in the bank’ we will have strong

bones for when we naturally start to lose bone strength when we are older.

Why exercise now?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Bo

ne M

ass

/De

nsity

Age (years)

Getting to your peak bone mass

Age-related bone loss

Men

Women

Ref. Compston J.E. Clinical Endocrinol 1990

Why should we exercise?

• Bone is living tissue which

reacts to weight-bearing

exercise by growing stronger.

• Weight-bearing exercise

means any exercise where

you are supporting the weight of your own body.

Are these weight-bearing?

Which sports will build strong bones?

Football

Netball

Basketball

Rounders Hockey

Sport

• Team sports like football,

netball and hockey are good

for bone building.

• Tennis is another high impact but enjoyable sport that builds bone strength.

What do you do each day to build strong bones?

Exercise

• Jumping on the spot or skipping is good for children’s bones. Aim for 50 jumps a day or skipping for 5 minutes every day.

• Exercise to music classes, like aerobics, circuit training and boxercise will boost your bone strength.

• A 20 minute jog 3 times a week is good for building bone in both hip and spine in younger people.

Remember!

• Put bone in the bank now!

• Do weight-bearing exercise to make your bones strong.

• Can you learn a new sport?

Log onto the bones4life web site and have some fun with us!

www.bones4life.org