Exercise and bones

Listening to ABC Radio National's Health Report this week I discovered that my daily walks were not helping my low bone density.  Exercise and Bones involved an interview with Robin Daly, Professor of Exercise and Ageing at Deakin University in Melbourne.  He presented the findings of research he's been involved with to show that "if we can increase bone mass by about 10% [in children] we can delay the development of osteoporosis by 13 years and potentially reduce fracture risk by 50%."

Daly stressed the importance of building weight-bearing exercise regimens into schools which significantly increase their bone density and set them up for later life.  In adults, weight bearing exercise and resistance training maintain bone density.  But walking isn't enough because our bones are already used to that type of impact and need to be "surprised" into doing more stressful things, such as multidirectional movement, jumping or hopping.