How to Avoid Knee Replacement Surgery

Only Exercises Are Not Enough: Bones Need Specific Nutrients to be Strong

While the right exercises are crucial to prevent fractures, the right nutrients are no less important. Researchers are just now beginning to admit there is a connection between nutrition and bone health (beyond the scope of calcium). In fact, despite their research, the scientists in this recent astronaut study still aren’t sure what constitutes “good nutrition.”

The study I mentioned earlier, which was published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, centred on providing the International Space Station astronauts with “good nutrition” (focused mainly on adequate calories and protein), supplements, and exercise. The results showed an increase in their bone mineral density.

What Vitamins Did the Astronauts Take? The supplement used for the study was Vitamin D along with calcium & other important minerals.

But Why Study of Osteoporosis on Astronauts?

This study was conducted on astronauts because loss of bone density and strength is a major problem for those who spend time in zero gravity. Astronauts on long-term space missions have experienced bone density reduction to the point that it is a major medical concern. Without gravity to create the resistance needed for weight-bearing exercise, bones do not get the healthy stress they need to build and remodel. There’s no way to do weight-bearing exercises in space, because there is no “weight”! This shows the vital importance of weight-bearing exercise in maintaining bone density. It’s undeniable that bones grow weaker without it.

Exercising & Taking supplements  by Astronauts to prevent Osteoporosis in Space:

In addition to taking Vitamin D and eating a “healthy” diet, the astronauts worked out regularly using an ARED (Advanced Resistive Exercise Device). Because weight-lifting is out of the question in a zero-gravity environment, the ARED provided the resistance necessary to build bone by mimicking the gravitational resistance bones experience when you exercise here on earth.

At the end of the study, astronauts’ who took Vitamin D, exercised regularly on the ARED, and ate sufficient calories showed increased bone breakdown and bone renewal. In other words, remodelling and renewing were going strong, and bone density did not decrease despite the weightless environment.

“…these data mark the first significant progress in protecting bone through diet and exercise,” said NASA’s head nutritionist, Dr. Scott Smith.

How to Exercise for Healthy Bones?

It is true that all types of exercise have some benefit, but if you want to build strong bones, it’s important to engage in specific moves that can build bone, as the astronauts showed us.

A word on flexibility, or tensile strength – strong bones need more than just increased density. Denser bones are only beneficial if they are also flexible. Bones made dense by osteoporosis drugs may result in better bone scan scores, but the tests don’t show that the drugs have made bones harder, less flexible, and more breakable. So building your bone mineral density through diet, supplements, and exercise means you will also increase tensile strength, making your bones more resistant to fracture. This time I am talking about the exercises which target the hips and thighs, key areas for building bone density. 

  

Here is how you can do it:

1. Stand in front of a step, such as the bottom step on a flight of stairs

or a portable “step” designed for workouts.

2. Place your hands on your hips.

3. Keeping your back straight, lift your right foot and place it flat on the step.

4. Push up through your right foot, lifting yourself up so your right leg is straight.

5. Tap your left toe on the step.

6. Lower your left foot back down and place it flat on the floor.

Repeat 20 times.

Rest for 10 seconds, and switch sides.

Beginning with your left foot on the step this time, repeat the exercise for another set of 20. Keep up this pattern of 20 repetitions per side until the 5 minutes are up.

Make sure you practice the Step-Up for at least 5 minutes a day, along with 30 minutes of exercises with light weights. Even if you do it 15 minutes three times a week & taking a complete calcium supplement like (CALROMA – TWICE A DAY), it will improve certainly your bone density.

Live Longer with Indian Dive Push-up exercises?

A new study confirms that Cardio shrinks your telomeres. Even a person who does no exercise at all may be better off from a telomere length standpoint than the folks who run marathons and spend hours on treadmills. Why is this important to you? Because many of today’s most widespread conditions and illnesses are associated with shorter telomeres. Telomeres are the tiny genetic “clocks” that tell your cells how old they are.

Typical Indian Push up exercises which is opposite of aerobics and other endurance exercises, do not shorten your telomeres.

In one telomere study, people with the longest telomeres were the least likely to develop cancer. They were more than 10 times less likely to develop cancer than people with short telomeres.¹ And when I read further into the study, I discovered that people with short telomeres are twice as likely to die from cancer. Another study shows that the death rate for heart attacks is almost three times higher for people whose telomeres get short the fastest.

All these facts completely ignored by mainstream fitness “experts.”

In one, researchers followed up on the known fact that long-term, cardio-type exercise damages your muscle cells. They decided to take it a little further and examine the damaged cells. One of the things they looked at was the length of the telomeres inside these muscle cells. Athletes with “exercise fatigue” – the athletes doing the long-duration cardio workouts – had much shorter than normal telomeres. All these facts - “Athletes with exercise-associated fatigue have abnormally short muscle DNA telomeres...” are mentioned in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. And, if that’s not enough, in another more recent study researchers compared trained athletes to “sedentary individuals.”

They looked at the telomere lengths of trained athletes doing cardio vs. coach potatoes who did no exercise at all. In fact, the experienced runners ALL had shorter telomeres than the people doing no exercise. What’s more, the longer the runners ran, the shorter their telomeres.

Now we know that you have the ability to influence the length of these tiny genetic clocks. You can have younger-acting cells and help avoid age-related problems by maintaining your telomere length. The most powerful way to do this is to do the opposite of what fitness experts recommend. Instead of hours of low-power exercises like running, brisk walking and cardio, you can maintain the length of your telomeres with shorter periods of exertion where you challenge yourself a bit more. What you want to do instead is give your body a challenge, and do it over shorter periods of time.

For instance, one study done at the University of California in San Francisco found that vigorous exertion protects you from high stress by protecting your telomeres. And there are dozens more trials that show the same thing.

You can do this kind of exertion by keeping the time brief, and challenging your heart and lungs just a bit more with each set of exertion, and with each workout. This is called “progressivity,” and it’s what every modern workout program lacks. Progressivity means you increase the difficulty (pick up the pace or increase the resistance) just a little bit with each set, and in each workout after that.

Doing just a little bit more, or changing it up in some way to give your heart and lungs a different challenge gives you the same benefit as increasing the time you spend working out. You’ll reprogram your muscles, heart and lungs to get stronger and more responsive. And you’ll reverse the wear and tear on your body and maintain your telomeres instead of breaking them down faster. With that in mind, let me give you one movement you can do right in your own home, no equipment necessary, which will challenge your heart, lungs and several large muscle groups.

You can achieve this by doing Indian Dive Push-ups.

1

Position yourself on your hands and knees. Straighten your legs, raising your knees and hips off the floor. Lower your head and walk your hands back a little bit, if necessary, so that your body forms an upside-down V, with your hips forming the point of the V. This is the starting position.

2

Swing your shoulders slowly down and forward in an arc, which allows you to lower your hips and flatten your body at the same time. Your position will approximate the typical "down" position for push-ups: body straight from head to feet, arms bent and chest just a few inches off the floor. Don't stop there -- move your shoulders forward and up, keeping your hips low so that you finish with your back arched, head and chest up and looking forward.

3

Draw your shoulders straight back to the starting position, lifting your hips and straightening your arms as you do so, to finish the repetition in your original piked or upside-down V position. If someone were watching the entire push up from the side, they'd see your shoulders follow a roughly elliptical path: First the down-forward-and-up-again arc, then a straight line back to the hips-highest starting position.

Push Up Method

A true dive push-up means you repeat the above steps in reverse order also until you’re back to your original starting position, staying as fluid and smooth as possible.

If you’ve never done a dive push ups before, start with just a few. This movement is designed so that you can be progressive without going faster to increase the challenge.

And remember, working out should be fun. You don’t have to do a regimented number of movements, and you don’t have to strictly time yourself. You can change it up. Just keep it progressive.

Vanity adviser:

Dr Minoo Singh