"If you want strong bones, you have to use them!" Everyone needs to have lifelong weight bearing exercise in order to build up and maintain healthy bones. Females should focus on building strong bones now especially while they are still young so as to reduce their risk of osteoporosis later in life
Weight bearing describes any activity you do on your feet that works your bones and muscles against gravity. Activities like walking, jogging, aerobics, dancing, stair climbing and inline skating are all examples of weight bearing exercise.
The bone is a living tissue that constantly breaks down and reforms where weight bearing exercises have the potential advantages of stimulating bone growth and strengthening connective tissue. When you do regular weight bearing exercise, your bone adapts to the impact of weight and pull of muscle by building more cells and becoming stronger.
Another advantage is that during weight bearing exercises your muscles are actually being forced to pull harder on your bones than they normally do, which makes your bones seek more calcium from your body and thus causing bone density to increase.
Studies have shown that older women who did high intensity weight training at least two days per week for a year were able to increase their bone density by one percent. The women who exercised also had improved muscle strength and better balance.
A lot of women in their late forties and fifties are either not willing or unable to engage in regular high impact exercise. They are actually in a fast bone loss phase of their lives, when efforts to slow bone loss are actually very important. Taichi provides a good form of weight bearing exercise, since it emphasizes a lot on the weight transfer of the body natural weight. In Taichi, you perform a series of slow, rhythmic and graceful controlled body movements while your body remains erect and anatomically aligned.
The intensity of the weight bearing exercise in Taichi is increased by either lowering of the posture or including weights during the Taichi practice. In this way, the bones will be forced to work even harder and more effective. Proper guidance and monitoring by professionally well trained Taichi coaches is strongly recommended for such high intensity Taichi weight bearing training. Sufficient calcium intake is also necessary in conjunction to the Taichi weight bearing exercise.
Unlike many other forms of exercise, Taichi is suitable to people of all age, gender and races. It does not require any special clothes or equipment, and it can easily be practiced at home, parks or practically any open space. In fact, Taichi is particularly beneficial to the elderly and people with impaired motor skills. Since Taichi emphasizes correct posture alignment and balance, the exercise may be a safer alternative for women with fragile bones than other high impact physical activities.
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