Help Combat Osteoporosis with the Curves Circuit

Make no bones about it, strengthening your human hardware is as important as putting more power in your muscle. Just take a look at these eye-opening osteoporosis facts:

• As many as 50 percent of women¹ over the age of 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis.
• Post-menopause, a woman can lose up to 20 percent of her bone density.
• A woman’s risk of breaking a hip equals her combined risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer.

Here’s another fact—exercise is essential to keeping your bones strong throughout your life, and the Curves Circuit provides a perfect venue for building bone and muscle and pushing back osteoporosis.

Bone Basics

Though it might seem like bone is solid, unchanging tissue, it constantly goes through remodeling, breaking down, as our body uses calcium, and building up. All of us—women and men—reach our peak bone mass in our 20’s. After that, bone density declines². In women, estrogen helps protect against too much bone loss, so once we hit menopause and estrogen levels plummet, the risk of osteoporosis skyrockets. You can mitigate that risk with calcium-rich foods and regular exercise of the right kind.

The Curves Circuit Solution

What is the best exercise for strengthening your bones³ and helping prevent osteoporosis? Exercises such as jogging, dancing or jumping rope force you to work against gravity and involve impact with the ground. We traditionally think of these high-impact activities as the best prevention against osteoporosis but strength training is also effective. Both activities put stress on the bone and create micro-trauma, which triggers bone remodeling and repair. Just as muscle gets stronger when it bears weight, so does bone.

The Curves Circuit does double duty against osteoporosis⁴ because it includes both strength training exercises (on the machines) and cardio (on the machines and on the mats).

And there’s a bonus to being a Curves member, because while it is important to strengthen your bones against osteoporosis, it is equally important to build muscle strength and better balance to prevent falls. Curves offers a Balance Class* and a Boxing Class,* both of which can improve your stability.

Exercise is one of the best ways to combat osteoporosis, and the Curves circuit will keep you standing tall and strong. Visit ‘Why Curves’ to find out more about Curves, or find your nearest gym and talk to one of our Curves Coaches!

 

Sources

1. Medline Plus
2. National Institute of Health
3. National Institute of Health
4. National Osteoporosis Foundation

*At participating locations only.