As you age, the bones of the body naturally become more frail and brittle. This affliction is especially noticed in women but that does not mean that men are exempt. In fact, they need to take precautionary measures for bone health as well. Just like muscle, bone can be strengthened and one of the best ways to do this is by making some smart nutritional decisions coupled up with load bearing exercise. Here are some key points that can keep bone loss down and your overall health up.
Instructions
1. Get moving. The first thing you need to do is get your body acclimated to exercise. This can be something as simple as going for daily 20 minute walks. It doesn't have to be tough, strenuous or exhausting. It just has to be functional and something that can get you in the habit of working out.
2. Evaluate your diet. There are many foods that leach the bones of key nutrients and sabotage bone strength that should be eliminated. Anything that is acidic should be avoided at all costs. Some examples of acidic foods are coffee, soda, fruit drinks, cakes, cookies, bagels, doughnuts, ice cream and high fat meats. This might sound daunting, but if you make slow changes, it is very achievable and you and your bones will be glad you did.
3. Introduce your body to alkilinity. Now it's time to input the good stuff into your diet and these foods would be called alkaline. Their main job is to help buffer and reduce acidity in the body. Here is a quick list of foods that you should try to get on a daily basis: baby spinach, arugula, mixed baby greens, kale, collards, celery, cucmbers, radishes, avocados, lemons, limes, zucchini and any type of sprouts. You can easily make a monster salad and fit almost all of these into it in one fell swoop.
4. Get your calcium. Calcium is one of the key nutrients for bone health. You can get this from choosing clean dairy products that haven't been raised with chemicals, pesticides and hormones. Remember that a lot of greens are high in calcium, along with sesame seeds and broccoli.
5. Get back to the gym. You don't actually have to go to the gym, but you do need to do some load bearing exercise. All you need is some dumbells, a bench, a ball and some rubber resistance tubes. Now you're ready to work out. Try doing a full body routine that targets all the major muscle groups 3 times a week. On 3 opposite days, do a walking, jogging or running routine for a minimum of 20 minutes, then take 1 day off. Now you are not only strengthening your bones, but your are also getting all the wonderful other benefits that exercise has to offer.
Tags: bearing exercise, bone health, foods that, load bearing, load bearing exercise, need some