Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Osteoporosis and Barbells (How Lifting Weights Prevents Bone Loss) | Ep 245
Transcript
- 0:01Philip Pape: Most people know that bones get weaker as we age, but what if I told you that many of us are approaching this problem completely backward?
- 0:09Philip Pape: Medicine has led us to believe that bone loss is inevitable, that calcium supplements and basic movement and exercise are our best defense.
- 0:18Philip Pape: Yet research shows there is a far more powerful approach that not only prevents bone loss, but actually builds stronger bones at any age.
- 0:26Philip Pape: Today, we're going to uncover how lifting weights yes, actual barbells, dumbbells, machines could be your best defense against osteoporosis and bone loss.
- 0:37Philip Pape: You'll learn why the conventional wisdom falls short and how strength training might be what's missing in the longevity approach.
- 0:45Philip Pape: Whether you're in your 30s and want to prevent bone loss before it starts, or you're older and concerned about maintaining independence, this episode could dramatically change how you think about bone health and aging.
- 0:56Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.
- 1:10Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and when we talk about aging and health, bone density often takes a backseat to more visible concerns like muscle mass or body fat.
- 1:19Philip Pape: But here is the sobering reality After age 30, we start losing bone mass at a very alarming rate.
- 1:28Philip Pape: It's about 3-5% per decade.
- 1:31Philip Pape: So for many people, especially women after menopause, this loss accelerates dramatically.
- 1:38Philip Pape: The consequences are that even a minor fall that would have been just an inconvenience in your younger years could now lead to a life-altering fracture, hospitalization, getting on medication and other worsening side effects.
- 1:51Philip Pape: But today's episode isn't about fear, although that can be a motivator.
- 1:56Philip Pape: Today is really about empowering you with information to completely change your life.
- 1:59Philip Pape: We're going to talk about how strength training with weights not just barbells although I think that is a very powerful and effective tool can be your secret weapon against bone loss.
- 2:09Philip Pape: Now, if you want a lot more free content related to strength training and lifting weights, supporting your metabolism, building muscle and all of this and you want some exclusive insider content, just join my free email list using the link in my show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash email.
- 2:26Philip Pape: I drop lots of emails with these kinds of mind shifts and what to do about it, and addressing the things that those in their 30s, 40s and beyond often care about and bring up as questions in their fitness journey, and osteoporosis and bone loss is definitely an important one.
- 2:43Philip Pape: So, again, join my email list.
- 2:45Philip Pape: You'll get those free emails that I don't send anywhere else Go to witsandweightscom slash email or click the link in my show notes.
- 2:54Philip Pape: All right, so I'm very excited about today's topic because I think it's the first time we've ever discussed osteoporosis and bone loss in detail on the show, even though I've alluded to it many times in the context of strength training.
- 3:05Philip Pape: And so, to set up the episode for you, we are going to first talk about why traditional approaches to bone health, like the ones that you read about in the newspaper fitness magazines, are often not enough.
- 3:17Philip Pape: They're just not adequate.
- 3:18Philip Pape: Then we're going to dive into the principles of strength training that make it so effective for bone density, and then we're going to uncover why alternatives like body weight exercises, often aren't enough, followed by the connection between muscle and bone development, and then we'll look at some misconceptions.
- 3:35Philip Pape: So I'm trying to pack a lot into this episode, but there are aspects that come up frequently among clients and listeners you know like is heavy lifting safe?
- 3:45Philip Pape: It is, you know, high impact worth it for osteoporosis, things like that, and so I want to get into each of those and then reveal the benefits of all of this stuff that even go beyond bone health, just to tie it all up.
- 3:58Philip Pape: So let's start with why the conventional wisdom, I think, needs to be addressed.
- 4:03Philip Pape: As always, right, we talk about misinformation and it's disinformation.
- 4:07Philip Pape: Misinformation or just people run with the same standard advice that has gone on for years and then they never actually addressed the thing that's going to impact you the most.
- 4:16Philip Pape: It really frustrates me.
- 4:17Philip Pape: So I still read the paper, the physical paper, I think.
- 4:20Philip Pape: Sunday they always have like a little health article and I was excited because the other day they had an article about you know why you should lift weights and muscle mass and all of this, and it was great.
- 4:30Philip Pape: They actually, I think, mentioned Mike Zordos, who's a evidence based guy, and I'm like, wow, to see this in the paper is incredible.
- 4:36Philip Pape: But 99% of the time it'll be something like I have osteoporosis, what do I do?
- 4:41Philip Pape: And then the standard advice is all right, you got to look at your calcium supplements, your vitamin D, you need to make sure you're moving, you're doing some exercise, you know, go ahead and walk, all of that, and it's like where is the?
- 4:53Philip Pape: You know, learn to lift weights and load your muscles and bones, because that's going to not only help with the situation, it could potentially reverse it right.
- 5:03Philip Pape: Here's what most people don't realize Bones are living tissue.
- 5:12Philip Pape: Bones are constantly remodeling themselves based on the demands we place on them.
- 5:13Philip Pape: You know we think of muscle because muscle's, you know, soft Actually I hope my muscle's not too soft anymore, but muscle is like you know, it's soft tissue.
- 5:19Philip Pape: We think of bones as these firm, you know, solid structures.
- 5:23Philip Pape: It's like adamantium and wolverine right, like they're just fixed in place and they don't change.
- 5:27Philip Pape: But it's not true.
- 5:28Philip Pape: They are a living tissue that can adapt and remodel themselves.
- 5:31Philip Pape: And there's something called Wolff's Law, w-o-l-f-f where bones adapt to the forces placed upon them.
- 5:38Philip Pape: Ah, just like muscle.
- 5:39Philip Pape: Oh, so that's a huge clue.
- 5:41Philip Pape: We can do something about it.
- 5:43Philip Pape: We can cause stress and adaptation to our bones.
- 5:46Philip Pape: When you're only doing light activity, you're telling your bones they only need to be strong enough for light activity, which is our baseline.
- 5:52Philip Pape: Just walking around, just doing light stuff, carrying the groceries that's light activity.
- 5:56Philip Pape: Unfortunately, as you get older, that light activity is offset by the reduction in bone density to where you know you have less and less of it.
- 6:04Philip Pape: Right, and think about when someone is bedridden they lose bone density rapidly.
- 6:10Philip Pape: Or even somebody, unfortunately, in like a nursing home who's sitting down all day.
- 6:13Philip Pape: It's because the bones aren't experiencing any significant stress whatsoever, and so the body adapts.
- 6:20Philip Pape: So if that happens and we know the opposite is also true when you place appropriate stress on bones through weight-bearing exercise or I'm going to use the term training because it needs to be methodical, systematic and progress over time your bones respond by becoming stronger, just like your muscle.
- 6:41Philip Pape: Now, what makes strength training itself so uniquely effective, uniquely effective over anything else in the world in existence for bone health?
- 6:50Philip Pape: I think that it comes out of three principles, three key principles that drive bone adaptation.
- 6:56Philip Pape: And then, if you can understand the principles, you can change how you think about your exercise and training program, as well as aging itself.
- 7:04Philip Pape: Exercise and training program as well as aging itself this is the powerful stuff that made me realize when I turned 40, that I could do things that made myself a year younger every time I got a year older.
- 7:14Philip Pape: And that's just a simple concept.
- 7:17Philip Pape: I mean.
- 7:17Philip Pape: In reality, it's not that exact one-to-one type of deal, because otherwise I'll be like Benjamin Button and I'll be five years old when I'm 90.
- 7:23Philip Pape: It's not what I mean.
- 7:24Philip Pape: But what I mean is I am not beholden to age, and neither are you, all right.
- 7:30Philip Pape: So the first principle is progressive overload.
- 7:33Philip Pape: Now I like a different phrase that I heard from Dr Jordan Feigenbaum.
- 7:36Philip Pape: He calls it progressive loading, the idea that we're not actually overloading our muscles, we're just loading them enough right to their limit so that they have to adapt.
- 7:45Philip Pape: But anyway, just like muscles will not grow stronger if you lift the same weight forever, if you're doing the same pink dumbbells or the same cable stack weight on the machine, your muscles aren't going to get stronger, they're going to get just strong enough to do that and then that's it.
- 7:58Philip Pape: Same thing with bones.
- 7:59Philip Pape: Bones will not get denser without gradually increasing the load over time, and this is where the traditional exercise programs for bone health fall way short.
- 8:10Philip Pape: We're talking about stretching and mobility and yoga and walking.
- 8:14Philip Pape: Okay, it's great to be active, but none of that is going to help you progress your bones beyond what they are needed to be to support your body weight or very light loads.
- 8:23Philip Pape: Just by definition, you as an organism don't need to because you're telling yourself I don't need to.
- 8:28Philip Pape: So progressive overload, progressive loading, which you're going to do anyway for your muscles guess what?
- 8:34Philip Pape: They help your bones.
- 8:35Philip Pape: Great, two for one.
- 8:37Philip Pape: The second principle is compound movements.
- 8:40Philip Pape: Okay now, compound lifts, compound movements are those exercises that involve multiple joints and large muscle groups working together as a system in a movement pattern.
- 8:50Philip Pape: Think about a squat.
- 8:52Philip Pape: It loads your entire skeletal system, from your shoulders down through your spine, your posterior chain, your hips, your legs, even your calves and feet to an extent even your calves and feet to an extent.
- 9:08Philip Pape: And this comprehensive, systematic loading pattern is a natural human movement and it triggers bone adaptation throughout your body, not just in an isolated area.
- 9:16Philip Pape: This is why I don't like isolation movements as a singular form of training, like if you've never lifted before and then you go and just do isolation movements.
- 9:25Philip Pape: Not only do I not think that cuts it, I think you're setting yourself up for potential injury simply because you're trying to hit one spot and you're not working on the rest of the muscles and joints and bones around it, and therefore the weak spots can really be a bottleneck or a potential source of injury.
- 9:41Philip Pape: So, compound lifts, using your whole system.
- 9:44Philip Pape: I think the older we are, the more important that actually becomes, particularly for bone density, because you're using your whole system All right.
- 9:52Philip Pape: The third principle, then, is mechanical tension.
- 9:54Philip Pape: Now notice, all of these principles apply to strength training and muscle mass as well.
- 9:58Philip Pape: So mechanical tension is not just your moving weight, it's you're creating significant force, you're applying significant force that your bones then have to adapt to.
- 10:09Philip Pape: And that's the key right Is that when you're combining that with progressive overload, going right to that limit, your bones then get a signal, or your hormones get a signal that your bones have to adapt to be a little bit more dense, thus stronger the next time, along with your muscles.
- 10:27Philip Pape: They all go hand in hand.
- 10:28Philip Pape: So this is why heavy lifting, when done properly, is so effective.
- 10:33Philip Pape: The forces involved in a heavy deadlift or squat are far greater than anything you'll experience in daily life or traditional exercise, and therefore they equip you for well more than what you need there in daily life and will offset the decline that you would otherwise experience with aging, and it'll make you way more capable as an older person than all the other older individuals.
- 10:54Philip Pape: You see, which is great.
- 10:55Philip Pape: I mean that lets you show up, that lets you live a long, healthy, vibrant life, keeps you off medication, keeps you out of the hospital, keeps you from disease.
- 11:03Philip Pape: And this brings us to an important question then why aren't body weight exercises enough?
- 11:09Philip Pape: Why is cardio not enough?
- 11:10Philip Pape: All right, now, don't get me wrong.
- 11:12Philip Pape: These all have their place in an active lifestyle, but it comes down to physics.
- 11:17Philip Pape: A push-up might engage your upper body, but the load is limited to your body weight.
- 11:23Philip Pape: Of course, you can put your feet up higher at an angle.
- 11:27Philip Pape: Now you've got a little bit more body weight, but it's your body weight.
- 11:29Philip Pape: In fact, it's a fraction of your body weight.
- 11:31Philip Pape: Right, because some of the load is being transferred into the ground.
- 11:34Philip Pape: A typical barbell bench press, on the other hand, can safely, safely, very safely, expose your bones to two, three or four times that force.
- 11:45Philip Pape: Same applies to your lower body.
- 11:47Philip Pape: Right, walking or jogging doesn't create enough mechanical stress to optimally stimulate bone growth, whereas a squat absolutely is going to.
- 11:54Philip Pape: And keep in mind, a barbell is probably the most effective tool for the job because it's safe.
- 11:59Philip Pape: Right, you can set up spotter arms.
- 12:01Philip Pape: It's symmetrical.
- 12:03Philip Pape: You can load it progressively, even with small increases in weight.
- 12:07Philip Pape: You can use microplates and load it progressively forever, effectively.
- 12:10Philip Pape: Right, and we know that we can use our normal human movement patterns with a barbell.
- 12:17Philip Pape: Right, picking up deadlift, squatting, squat, you know.
- 12:20Philip Pape: Vertical press, horizontal press, you know you've got rows, you've got pulls, all of that good stuff.
- 12:24Philip Pape: So that's kind of the foundation.
- 12:26Philip Pape: Now where it gets interesting is the connection between muscle and bone development, because when you're strength training, you're not just building muscle or just building bone.
- 12:35Philip Pape: You're actually triggering a cascade of adaptations throughout your body.
- 12:41Philip Pape: So listen to me carefully here.
- 12:42Philip Pape: Strong muscles create greater forces on bones.
- 12:47Philip Pape: Those forces then stimulate bone growth.
- 12:49Philip Pape: The process of building muscle increases production of hormones that also support bone health, and so it's a beautiful synergy that you can't replicate with anything else.
- 13:00Philip Pape: It's all cascading together.
- 13:02Philip Pape: All right.
- 13:02Philip Pape: Now let's talk about some of the misconceptions that I think still hold people back, that I hear all the time.
- 13:07Philip Pape: This is kind of like my Q&A segment in here, just with the A part, the answers.
- 13:12Philip Pape: So first is the idea that lifting heavy weights is dangerous, which is ridiculous.
- 13:17Philip Pape: Okay, lifting weights is probably the safest activity that we know.
- 13:21Philip Pape: When you compare it to like all forms of movement and activity in sports and you look at the rate of injury it's one of.
- 13:30Philip Pape: If you're older, if you're worried about bone density, I think this fear is actually backward, because, yes, you have to start appropriately and progress gradually, but the controlled stress of proper strength training is exactly what your bones need.
- 13:46Philip Pape: It's like thinking that you shouldn't brush your teeth because it might wear them down.
- 13:51Philip Pape: The opposite is true.
- 13:53Philip Pape: Right, they're going to wear down unless you brush them Another misconception I'm too old and I can't get started.
- 14:00Philip Pape: I'm already too weak, my bones are already brittle.
- 14:02Philip Pape: I already have osteoporosis.
- 14:04Philip Pape: I'm already taking Boniva or whatever it is.
- 14:05Philip Pape: I already have to take my calcium supplements.
- 14:07Philip Pape: I think the research completely debunks this.
- 14:10Philip Pape: Studies show significant improvements in bone density from strength training, even in people in their 70s and 80s, just like we see with muscle mass, and so I'm firmly convinced at this point it is never too late to start.
- 14:22Philip Pape: Never, never, never.
- 14:24Philip Pape: Your bones maintain their ability to adapt throughout your life.
- 14:27Philip Pape: You're human.
- 14:27Philip Pape: That doesn't change.
- 14:29Philip Pape: All they need is the right stimulus.
- 14:31Philip Pape: So the benefits of strength training, as I've alluded to before, go far beyond just preventing fractures, although that's extremely important, because falling is one of, if not the top, cause of death.
- 14:44Philip Pape: When you look at like proximal cause, it leads to other things.
- 14:49Philip Pape: That then often leads to death down the line, and I've seen it with people in my life as well, where it just upends your life completely and makes so many other things harder to do.
- 14:58Philip Pape: And then we also, if you've never been strength training before and you have a fracture.
- 15:02Philip Pape: You're then even less likely to start it because you think, well, now I can't because I've had this fracture or some other injury.
- 15:10Shonnetta: Hi, my name is Seanetta and I want to give a big shout out to Philip of Wits and Weights.
- 15:14Shonnetta: I discovered his podcast just a few short months ago, but I quickly realized how valuable his content is.
- 15:20Shonnetta: With all the many fitness and nutrition influencers out in the world today, I often suffer from information overload, but Philip poses careful questions to his guests that get to the meat of the subject matter, while most everyone offers free guides to this, and that what I found most unique about Philip is his live training and weekly Q&A sessions.
- 15:38Shonnetta: If I can't make it live, I can always catch the replay.
- 15:45Shonnetta: I am very grateful to find someone I feel is so passionate and genuine to his purpose, while also being hands-on within the Wits and Weights online community.
- 15:50Shonnetta: He is truly only a click away.
- 15:52Shonnetta: Thanks, philip, for all you do.
- 15:54Shonnetta: Online community.
- 15:55Philip Pape: He is truly only a click away.
- 15:55Philip Pape: Thanks, philip, for all you do.
- 15:56Philip Pape: So.
- 15:56Philip Pape: Obviously, training and developing strength and bones are going to prevent them as well.
- 16:00Philip Pape: So if you fall even if you do fall because I can fall I'm 44 and I can trip on a rock and fall I fell when I was like 10 and I broke my arm you are much less likely to have a fracture or much less likely for it to be an issue, because you're stronger.
- 16:13Philip Pape: You have stronger bones, stronger muscles, especially like those little, like a small fall that for a younger person, would be no big deal.
- 16:20Philip Pape: And so when you train with weights, especially compound movements, you're also building and improving balance and coordination and mobility.
- 16:31Philip Pape: You're building stronger connective tissue between all the joints.
- 16:35Philip Pape: You're enhancing the stability of your muscles around the joints.
- 16:40Philip Pape: You're boosting your hormonal health Ladies right, hormonal health.
- 16:46Philip Pape: This is a massive lifestyle change that will help with your hormones.
- 16:49Philip Pape: You're going to increase your metabolic rate so you burn more calories, you can eat more food, have more energy coming in.
- 16:54Philip Pape: You're also going to have better metabolic rate, so you burn more calories, you can eat more food, have more energy coming in.
- 16:55Philip Pape: You're also going to have better body awareness, whether you want to call that mind-muscle connection or just balance and mobility.
- 17:02Philip Pape: It's very important because then you're not going to fall as much, you're going to have more independence, you're going to have better long-term health.
- 17:09Philip Pape: You're not just avoiding osteoporosis, you're maintaining the ability to live life fully as you age.
- 17:15Philip Pape: Every one of those reps in the gym with that load that's pushing you is literally reshaping your body's architecture to be more resilient.
- 17:32Philip Pape: So let's talk about what strength training looks like compared to what most people think of as lifting weights, because that's another pet peeve of mine of as lifting weights, because that's another pet peeve of mine, right?
- 17:37Philip Pape: A lot of traditional workouts or YouTube videos or what used to be in the magazines, or people who just go to the gym and they don't have a plan.
- 17:42Philip Pape: What they end up doing is a ton of repetitions with lightweights, like they just do lots of reps, lightweights, 10, 20, 30 reps, lightweights.
- 17:49Philip Pape: They use the machine, the circuit program, and they do the same weights every time, and I mentioned before that that is not going to help.
- 17:57Philip Pape: That's only going to get you to a certain point, and oftentimes they're focused on isolated movements.
- 18:01Philip Pape: You think of some of these machines.
- 18:03Philip Pape: They put you in a fixed plane and you're just doing this isolated, one joint movement.
- 18:08Philip Pape: Now, is it better than nothing?
- 18:09Philip Pape: Sure, when I see an older person in the gym, just there, I'm like, okay, I'm super excited for them because they're at least focused on trying to be healthy.
- 18:19Philip Pape: But then when I see no progress being made, I'm like, well, you're kind of maintaining a minimal.
- 18:24Philip Pape: That's probably better than most people, but a far cry from where you could be to really thrive and get the benefits of true strength training.
- 18:32Philip Pape: And it's training, true strength training.
- 18:35Philip Pape: You're not actually training when you're just using the machines randomly and the weights aren't going up, because the magic happens when you focus on those fundamental movement patterns.
- 18:44Philip Pape: The squats, hinges, deadlifts, presses, rows right.
- 18:47Philip Pape: Those movements, when progressively loaded over time, create the environment for muscle and bone development.
- 18:54Philip Pape: Like we mentioned before, they train your body as an integrated system rather than a collection of parts.
- 19:00Philip Pape: So it's super important and if you hear this and you're still not sure what to do, that's okay.
- 19:05Philip Pape: My plan isn't to like tell you how to lift weights today.
- 19:07Philip Pape: I have a lot of other episodes that do that but I would say, just reach out to me or join my email list and reply and say, hey, I heard your episode about osteoporosis.
- 19:16Philip Pape: What do I do next?
- 19:17Philip Pape: Because I need to understand your level of training, advancement, your equipment, how many days per week you can work out things like that, just to kind of put you in the right direction, even if it is to send you to a template or video or resource that I have, all of which are free.
- 19:31Philip Pape: You know, I don't charge for any of this stuff unless you tell me then, hey, I need the accountability, support and personalization that a coach provides.
- 19:39Philip Pape: Then you know, let me know, but I do have a lot of free resources that'll get you going.
- 19:45Philip Pape: Now, something fascinating that most people don't realize about all of this that the way that bones adapt to strength training is remarkably similar to how muscles grow.
- 19:53Philip Pape: I mean, I mentioned it earlier that they're living tissue, right, but even if you weren't thinking about muscles and you only cared about bones, bones need increasingly challenging loads to maintain and build density, and that will be way more effective than any medication or supplement.
- 20:10Philip Pape: And I'm not a doctor.
- 20:12Philip Pape: It's outside my scope of practice to tell you to take or not take anything like that that your doctor told you to.
- 20:17Philip Pape: But seriously, folks, the same principles that help us build muscle and strength are also helping us build stronger bones, and that's the two-for-one benefit that you simply can't get from any of the other approaches.
- 20:28Philip Pape: And so you know, just to put Bo on that, all right.
- 20:31Philip Pape: As we wrap up, I want you to remember this isn't just about osteoporosis or osteopenia or, you know, just preventing fractures.
- 20:40Philip Pape: It's building that foundation for a long, active and independent life.
- 20:44Philip Pape: Think of the things that you want to do when you're 70, 80, 90.
- 20:48Philip Pape: Look around you, look at your family, think of your family history and what happens to people when they get older.
- 20:54Philip Pape: And whether you want that or not I'm guessing you don't but what do you want?
- 20:59Philip Pape: Take it a step further what do you want, what is aligned with your values that you want to do, and don't let the limitations of traditional getting old thinking get in the way.
- 21:09Philip Pape: Assume I want you to assume, that you will be able to be as strong and fit and healthy as a 50-year-old when you're 70, 80, or 90.
- 21:18Philip Pape: As a typical 50-year-old, you're going to be at least as strong, healthy and fit 70, 80, 90.
- 21:22Philip Pape: And assuming that, what does that look like for you?
- 21:25Philip Pape: And tell yourself that that is why you want to lift weights right, not just to build stronger bones, but a stronger person, a functional person.
- 21:34Philip Pape: Now, if you're listening to this and you're 30 or you're 70, doesn't matter.
- 21:38Philip Pape: Never too late, never too early to start.
- 21:40Philip Pape: You start now.
- 21:41Philip Pape: I want you to start now.
- 21:42Philip Pape: I want you to either reach out if you need help with how to train and what kind of programming would work for you, or just go out and do it.
- 21:50Philip Pape: If you have the resources, if you have support, if you have a coach, whatever, I don't care, go do it.
- 21:54Philip Pape: If you have the resources, if you have support, if you have a coach, whatever, I don't care, go do it.
- 21:56Philip Pape: Go do it.
- 21:56Philip Pape: The research is clear Strength training is one of the most powerful tools we have for maintaining bone health throughout our lives.
- 22:03Philip Pape: All right, so remember, if you want some weekly evidence-based tips about strength training, building muscle, also losing fat, hormones, optimizing your health and you're not going to find these anywhere else with the approach that I take, in the way that I take it, plus my quirky personality, you're not going to get anywhere, of course, until I'm able to clone myself someday in the future.
- 22:22Philip Pape: Join my email list using the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash email Again.
- 22:28Philip Pape: Just join my email list.
- 22:29Philip Pape: That's also how you can reach out to me and we can have a conversation.
- 22:32Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember your bones are going to get stronger with every rep, no matter your age.
- 22:41Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.