Part 2 (Alignment) — Bone Talk

Training Your Bones: Part 2 (Alignment)
By Rebekah Rotstein, NCPT

Last month we went exploring how exercise benefits your bones, noting the importance of consistency, progression, and enjoyment in your routine. We identified the three methods of building bone tissue: weight-bearing movement, resistance exercise and impact activities.

But focusing only on these elements overlooks an important part of essential training programming for bone health: body alignment, and more specifically, joint positioning.

Suppose you are used to standing with your ribs pressed forward, and think that this is how you should present with good posture so that you do not slouch. This altered torso placement changes the muscle activation of your core muscles, recruiting the back and often inhibiting the abdominal muscles, causing both weakness and potential back strain over time. Adding heavier weight loads to that forced postural presentation can leave your body vulnerable to injury.

From a bone health perspective, the beneficial forces from the weights may not be transmitted evenly through the spine and body in that distorted postural presentation. The better your skeleton is in a standing, weight-bearing position, the better its ability to optimize the loading forces of both gravity and external resistance. In other words, body alignment plays a role in bone strengthening.

ALIGNMENT 101

So how can you improve your body alignment? A great place to start is unloading your skeleton. If you have osteoporosis or osteopenia, and even more so if you have had a fracture in the past, decompress your spine daily by lying on your back with your knees bent. This is known as constructive rest position. Focus on your breathing here, spending anywhere from a few minutes to, say, 10 minutes a day. Make sure you provide proper head support if necessary to prevent neck strain.

Then try the following exercises:

Lying shoulder press
-to improve posture and decompress the spine

Lie on your back with your knees bent. Inhale with palms facing up, next to your hips. Exhale and gently press your shoulders into the mat for a few seconds. Inhale and release, then exhale and press again. Repeat several times.