Osteoporosis Exercises to Avoid that Increase Risk of Spinal Fracture
Do you think is this exercise is safe for your spine if you have osteoporosis?
Hi I'm Michelle and today I'm going to guide you through the abdominal exercises you just
saw along with 4 other exercises that can increase the risk of spinal fracture in women
and men having a high risk of spinal fracture with osteoporosis
These exercises are supported by recent scientific recommendations for exercise prescription
with osteoporosis.
This review is linked in the description below if you'd like to read more.
Here are 4 exercises that can potentially increase the risk of fracture.
If you're exercising in the gym you won't want to miss the last exercise.
I'll be posting more osteoporosis exercise videos so you may like to subscribe below
to catch those upcoming videos.
Exercise 1: Forward Bends Exercises that involve bending forwards can
increase the risk of having a wedge or compression fracture.
Exercises such as abdominal curls can compress the bones of the upper back.
Deep forward bends such as those performed in some Yoga classes compress the bones of
the lower back.
A wedge or compression fracture occurs when the vertebra are soft and brittle so that
the force of bending forwards actually compresses or squashes the vertebra into each other.
This doesn't mean that you need to stop bending forwards, rather be mindful that the more
the spine bends forwards, the greater the risk of having a fracture if your bones are
brittle in which case modify to a smaller bend.
Exercise 2: Loaded Forward Bends Loaded forward bends further increase the
risk of spinal wedge fracture with osteoporosis.
Examples include - Lifting weights off the ground
The risk increases the further forward you bend and the heavier the weight is.
Exercise 3: Spinal Rotation Spinal rotation is another exercise to be
careful doing.
Your vertebra need to rotate to you to move normally so there's no need to try to stop
all rotation in your spine however some spinal rotation exercises can increase the risk of
spinal fracture.
You can see on this model of the spine that when the spine rotates to the extreme ranges
these parts of the vertebra are forced against each other increasing the risk of fracture.
Some examples of extreme range of spinal twisting exercises include full range lumbar rotation
exercises.
You can see here that the rotation movement for the lower back is only slight which is
much more appropriate than taking the knees right across to the ground during this exercise.
Rotations combined with abdominal curl exercises increases the loading in the upper back so
this is another exercise to take care with Rotation exercises become more risky when
they're performed quickly so if you do rotation exercises, try to keep them slow smooth and
within a manageable range.
Exercise 4: Direct Spinal Loading Now this final exercise is sometimes a hidden
danger with brittle bones especially if you're in the gym trying to lift heavy weights.
A number of gym exercises for the legs and back involve placing a weighted bar at the
top of the spine and across the shoulders.
This force on the upper spine travels down through the vertebra and the load can compress
soft brittle vertebrae causing a compression fracture.
One solution to this problem apart from using a lighter weight is changing the placement
of the bar across the chest and front of shoulder for exercises such as weighted squats and
lunges.
In summary the exercises to avoid with osteoporosis include:
- Forward Bends (Deep, loaded and repeated) - Spinal Rotation (Fast, loaded and extreme
ranges) - Direct Spinal Loading
So if you're currently doing any of these exercises and you have a high risk of spinal
fracture it's worth stopping these exercises now and discussing whether they're appropriate
for your condition with your health professional.
Thank you for watching today, if this video helps you exercise safely for your bone health
maybe you can give thumbs up below and don't forget you can catch my upcoming bone exercise
videos by subscribing below, I'll see you next time.