Maintaining bone density into older age

Things I’ve found useful, though I’m not lifting as much as many here (got a touch of scoliosis so trying to build core and form):

Next Level by Stacey Sims and Selene Yeager - aimed at menopausal women, all about weights, nutrition etc
Hit Play not Pause podcast with Selene Yeager - advice aimed at active menopausal women
and for extra inspiration, Train with Joan on Instagram - she started in her 70s!

I’m very lucky in that a local PT has started classes for the 50+ and runs 3 classes a week. I try and attend 2 of them. Started in January. There’s definitely a gap in the market!

I’m definitely feeling the benefits but still have a way to go.

I’ve been lifting for about 18 months, & I’m at 15kg for overheads, 25kg for deadlifts, 16kg for squats.

I’ve never been to a HIIT class though.

Body weight fitness and resistant bands. You don't need weights. I do full push ups, handstands, resistant band work and have a bar I hang from.

@Ryeman taken with kindness. ☺️

But I am not in a position to rejoin a gym, plus I have a failed prolapse repair (failed after 4 months) and so whilst I stick two fingers up to the people who suggest I don't lift anything heavy ever again (looking at you, prolapse support group on Facebook); plus hypermobility, I reckon that as you say, I am doing more than a lot of people!

And I do it regularly. And I can do press ups. And I also fit in pelvic physio, pilates, yoga and physio for general knee and hip health.

Tbh, I'm nailing it 😉

With kindness @Ilovelowry you should probably aim to lift heavier for max health benefits. At my HIIT classes we don’t use anything less than 8kg and I’ve progressed to 12kg for overheads now after a couple of years and 16 or 20kg for squats and deadlifts. And I’m def not the strongest woman there. Good work though - you’re probably doing more exercise than 90% of the population!

Many non symptomatic people with coeliac disease have osteoporosis. If you are diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopoenia, it may be very useful to ask for a blood test for coeliac disease......

Just be aware though that, if you have a strong family history, diet and exercise may not be enough to avoid osteoporosis. I had a private DEXA a couple of years ago and found out I had it. I had being exercising with weights, skipping etc for many years and had a reasonably healthy diet.

My GP (and also a physio who I saw) both said that even with the best diet and exercise regime, is may not be possible to avoid it given the family history (in my case my mother, sister, grandmother, possibly aunts too).

Ha! Crossposted with the OP! No vibro for you at the moment!

Ha! Congratulations @Nooa! Happy healthy 9 months 💐

Is there a vibro machine at your local gym? I've been doing my lunges and side raises on the machine at the local leisure centre. (Osteoporosis runs in my family - Mum was bent double by the time she died.)

Or you just become a powerlifter and make continuing to lift more your entire life 😅

There’s research shows masters lifters (so those over 40) continue to get stronger into their 60s.

Most people will never ever reach anywhere near their full strength potential, so yes you can just keep going adding more weight.

1. Hrt
2. caroline Girvan for strength training

I use adjustable dumbells too, highly recommend Caroline Girvan as well for strength training.

OP honestly at 40 I would work on lifting as much as you can, you aren’t going to get super built.

The word toning is rubbish. You build muscle and maintain muscle That is what matters .
progressive overloading isn’t simply about doing heavier because, as you say, at some point you can’t go heavier any more. The volume, ROM, tempo all add to progressive overload.

Coming back to this thread since I’m now reading Strong Women Stay Young. It’s really interesting on how muscles work & so on, and especially the part about how the reps should feel, which made me rethink what I’m currently doing.

But I am slightly amused by the author’s repeating several times that the exercises will make women stronger but smaller, toning them instead of giving them big muscles, which would obviously be unfeminine.

Something not mentioned but worth considering is your alignment. If you're doing all the right things but misaligned then you aren't loading your bones the way you think you are.
Katy Bowman is really good on this
https://www.nutritiousmovement.com/articles/weight-bearing-status

You just keep adding - the increments may be smaller or you may find you’re doing fewer reps at a higher weight until you build the strength. Plus each move and muscle group is different. I can progress pretty quickly with legs and back weights if I’m consistent in the gym but will be stuck at the same weight for lateral raises for my entire life, it feels like!

I presume you get to a weight that you cannot go past and continue with it to maintain muscle.

interesting comments about progressive weights…. But where to stop? Because surely you have to stop somewhere right you can’t continue to add weights.

I've always wondered this.

@Togglebullets thanks. That totally makes sense and reinforces my thought of not going too big and risk injuring myself.

I like body pump because it’s an in person class makes me do it - although the gym seem to cancel it fairly frequently.

exercise snacking is the way to go! Just need to motivate myself

Ooh he’s special! Yep, he did. Looked like frankinsteins monster with the metal clips in his throat.

i think it was quite severe though, he had a blood test on the Monday, on the Tuesday the gp rang and told him to get himself to a and e as soon as. He was in a drip for a couple of days, came out had another routine blood test, hospital fairly immediately on the phone saying please come in, no need for a and e this time come straight to the ward, back on a drip. We are lucky enough to have bupa so he got operated on very quickly.