May I ask why you indicate those exercises are better for bone density preservation
would not any load bearing exercise be sufficient
I don’t know that they are. Any resistance exercise could potentially trigger bone adaptive effects via various hormonal signalling mechanisms. But knowledge of how it all works is continually evolving. So there is an element of uncertainty when I comes to prescribing exercise for this
The three I mentioned do place load on most of the skeleton, and most of the spine. Deadlifts in particular would impose the greatest overall load in the body because most people can move more weight in that exercise. So as long as I can do these without placing myself at undo risk of other kinds of injury, I plan to keep doing them.
I’d agree that something like a leg press would also place considerable load on hip joints, which is one area of considerable concern for bone fractures.
Do you think it could be possible that negative training would be a good way to maintain or increase bone density…heavy weight under a certain time…ie. 30-10-30 method
I’ve wondered if negative overload might be uniquely good due to higher loads. I suppose it depends on how the signaling hormones respond to load. Who knows. I’m just impressed that RT got such good results despite the medications.
The piezoelectric effect.
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The first thing he said was that he had never seen anyone reverse osteopenia. Then he asked what I did. I told him, “Astronauts lose bone density in zero gravity fairly rapidly. I was doing the exact opposite of them. I was moving heavy weight.”
How did you feel? I guess like a tank!
Not really. I was still a shell of my former self. Though I got much pleasure educating him on the benefits weight training. (“Science” doesn’t get it right every time, and seldom does initially, but does get closer to getting it right over time. It is the very nature of The Scientific Method.)
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It is 2007 and I am closing in on the age of 60. I had regained much of my strength, maybe 70% of where I was at the age of 48 on exercises that I wasn’t injury inhibited (left shoulder involved in pressing). I had gotten my weight up to a not fat 215lbs. I held a lot of fat in my upper torso near my arm pits. Real flabby look caused by the excessive Medrol for so many years. It would look horrible on stage.
Though my left shoulder rotator cuff was in bad shape, I could bench press 135lbs for 10 reps. I could behind the neck press 75lbs for 10 reps. In other words, I was stronger than most of the women. I liked doing bench press with accommodating resistance, either resistance bands or chains. I never used accommodating resistance on any overhead press, I don’t know why I didn’t try. I did Parrillo seated strap rows for my side and rear delts and traps with moderate weight. (I was still limited by the functionability of my left shoulder.)
My Scott curls accommodated with chains was strong. I could curl good weight. I worked in the increasing pyramid with two maximum sets, of which all sets (both warmup and working sets) were 8 reps. Sometimes I used the 10lb plates as plate weight and other times I would use the 25lb plates, adding another set of chains each increasing set. When I did the last working set I was finished. I finished off with curl grip pulldowns on a lat pulldown machine.
Through the many years of triceps work the only triceps exercise that I could do without pain was the pressdown on the lat machine. I did the exercise with the same false grip I used on the still rings in college to do a muscle up (and eventually, a few years after college, I did an iron cross once at a high school gym that a friend was a coach). The false grip allows my triceps tendon at the elbow be less stretched at the beginning of the pressdown. That is the method I do to this day.
Next I will update on my back and squat progress…
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Did you ever try incorporating bodyweight movements, besides pull-ups?
Most of my weight training years was in the old style weight room, i.e., not much but weights. I did pullups a few years, until my elbows started to hurt. I did dips, but all were weighted dips. Other than those nothing else.
Before I started lifting weights I did a few challenging strength moves from gymnastics, but even then many were tricks of coordination more than pure strength. I could do 20 pullups and 20 dips before I ever lifted a weight.
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My best bent over barbell row got up to 315lbs for 8 reps, but the form was much sloppier than my previous 405lbs in my 40’s. The same form required me drop to 295lbs. So my strength returned to about 72% of where I was before dermatomyositis. I thought this wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t doing much deadlifting with heavy weight, so I can’t say much about that. My deadlifts were more for the sake of just working the lower back, doing sets of 10 reps with 315lbs. That was only about 62% of the 505lbs I was doing for 10 reps in my 40’s.
My squat was a significantly different form and support gear, so the weights can’t be easily compared. In my 50’ I was then using an Inzer double ply power pant and very wide stance from a monolift. That is definitely not comparing apples-to-apples.
I was accommodating 310lbs of chains onto 285lbs of bar and plates for 3 or 4 reps. About 90% of all the chains were off the ground at the top, or a total of 565lbs. Maybe 60% was on the ground at the bottom of the squat, or about 410lbs.
One day in late 2007 I tested my squat strength and did a max single of 535lbs. I don’t know what my best single would have been in my 40’s, but I had eked out 5 reps with 555lbs fearing that my patella tendons were going to give way on any rep. Using percentages that would equate to about a 615lb max single. But a percent strength calculation would be just an estimation. I am sure at my strongest in my 40’s and support gear, very wide stance, and monolift, my best single would be a little north of 700lbs (if my patella tendons held up.)
These are the strongest I was in my late 50’s, but my 60’s began to tell a different story…
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I did a few rather unique (from a bodybuilder’s perspective) squat variations in my late 50’s.
When squating over 500lbs, I trained my CNS by doing singles with 415lbs (using 55lb Texas squat bar). When I did these it was a second, light, squat day that week, if I did a light leg day that week. Once I warmed up, I set five 2 1/2lb plates on the top pins, so I could keep track of the number of sets I had done. We had a clock with a second hand next to the squat rack with the monolift. I did 10 sets of singles. I started the lift out of the monolift every time the second had hit the 12, until I had done 10 singles. It wasn’t tiring and the change made it fun.
Another light leg day I did box squats from the monolift (monolift was necessary because of my wide stance). I did it with mostly accommodating chains and only 145lbs of bar and plate weight. I did sets of 5 reps, adding a chain each set. This didn’t actually get difficult until I got close to 310lbs of chains. I stopped on the box, enough so that there was no stretch reflex assistance to start the ascent. Once I got to the maximum chains I stopped with that one set.
One fun squat routine, but painful the next day, was my 10 sets of 10 reps. I only did this three times total. This was done on heavy squat day. I used 285lbs and rested 2 minutes after each set. This started out very easy, but by the 7th set it started coming on. The first time I did this I was really sore the next two days, with the second day being worse.
Most all my heavy day squats used accommodating resistance, the basis was always the blue resistance bands. Whether I went pure bands of a combination or chains and bands changed about every workout. I liked the variety. It kept things interesting. Sometimes I used two blue bands (I bought an extra set of blue bands), or one blue plus a green. There was always at least 235lbs of bar plus plate weight on the squat bar (post warmup sets). From there I added more plates or chains, until I felt I could only do 3 or 4 reps (without eating it).
Some changes had to start. Age was catching up with me…
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Smart! I’ll be doing that when I need to!
Between the age of 60 or 61, I began to notice that when I unracked the squat bar at a weight over 550lbs (including accommodating resistance), that as I set up my back would “adjust” to support the weight. The best way I can describe it is that my back did a compression adjustment, one vertebra after another. There was no pain. It just seemed to settle in place. I then squatted as usual. I knew this wasn’t something that wanted to push, though I did it a few leg workouts. At about the same time I noticed that there was a pain in my left hip when walking or exercising that involved my hips. I could apply pressure similar to deep muscle massage and the pain subsided. So between squats, if the pain appeared, I would apply body weight pressure by leaning against a pad on a nearby machine for a few moments.
My solution for my spine was to keep the squat weight below 500lbs. This worked fine for a several months. But as time progressed, the maximum weight I could squat without that “compression adjustment” began to decrease. So then I decided to drop all accommodating weight and only squat bar and plate weight. To add some interest to my squats, I looked into Wendler’s 5-3-1. I started 5-3-1 on squats.
During a yearly checkup with my family doctor I mentioned the hip pain. She sent me for some X-rays. It came back that I had osteoarthritis in both hips. She told me to let her know when I couldn’t deal with the pain any longer. I told her it wasn’t near the point where I couldn’t cope with the pain. BTW, I decided to keep her “in the dark” about my vertebrae compression adjustment when beginning to squat.
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Breaking into the 60’s brought with it a sad reality. I was becoming weaker. The squat wasn’t a very good signal of strength because I did so much variety and almost never tried a maximum effort on any set. But the bent over barbell row was where I definitely noticed the loss of strength.
At 58, which as I look back, might have been the strongest I had become post dermatomyositis. That year I could do 8 good reps with 295lbs in the bent over row. By the time I turned 60, 295lbs was done with about as poor form as 315lbs was done at age 58. So I backed off to max my 8 reps with 285lbs. This worked for about a year, but then 285lbs felt too heavy to do a good 8 reps.
My very bad left shoulder made the bench press a rather poor strength measuring exercise. But even the bench press maximum weight was dropping, and it seemed to be dropping faster than the bent over row. It had been pretty well agreed upon by most of my friends that optimal strength reps for the compound exercise you wanted to improve was a combination of sets and reps that totaled around 25 reps, .e.g. 5 sets of 5 reps, 4 sets of 6 reps, 3 sets of 8 reps. I started to use that strategy on the bench press with a lowly weight of 135lbs for 5 sets of 5 reps. And hope to stay at that weight as long as I could.
Age related sarcopenia is extremely depressing. In many ways it is worse that the sudden muscle loss than dermatomyositis sent my way. At least with dermatomyositis I felt there was hope to regain most, or at least some of my strength and muscle back. Sarcopenia is more like a life sentence. No matter what I do, nothing truly works.
I recall in my 20’s when my fellow workers who didn’t lift weights would say, “When you quit lifting those weights all that muscle will turn to fat.” Granted it’s a scientifically impossible, but the attack had some truth in it. If I did quit the weights, I would probably look much more like them, overweight due to excessive fat. I would always tell them, “What makes you think I will quit lifting weights?” Similar to what I would say to a girl that I would be in a relationship with, that was on the decline when she would say, “The gym again? Well, it’s me or the gym.” I would counter, “I was lifting weight before I met you. And I will be lifting weights long after you are gone.” That pretty well finished that relationship. At least, we were both glad to be rid of the other.
But the point to all that talk about not quitting the weights: I never considered that at some point in time that old age would be a greater factor than I had ever believed.
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At this point, are you still taking some meds to control dermatomyositis? Or were the earlier treatments able to put you into remission?
Sarcopenia by itself is discouraging. Injuries, arthritis, and medications just add to the difficulty of fighting off the inevitable.
My guess is that the rituximab ended my battle with dermatomyositis. I had finally dropped the 4mg of Medrol before I turned 60. I took it “for insurance” (or fear) more than believing it was necessary.
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As my age increased from 60 thru 64, I became gradually weaker and my osteoarthritis grew worse.
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I could still work heavy squats, but that might have been because the max weight I was doing on Wendler’s 5/3/1 was 425lbs. But it was getting more difficult to get parallel due to hip flexibility. I could work through the pain by deep massage at the point in my glute that hurt.
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I was struggling with 255lb bent over rows for 8 reps.
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I was still doing 3 sets of 10 reps in the deadlift fairly easy.
But at my 65th birthday my hips became a huge problem.
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When deadlifting above 185lbs my right inner thigh would seize and ache sharply. I went to my massage therapist and had her deep muscle massage it, thinking it was a curable remedy. That worked fine until I tried deadlifting again.
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My left hip joint was so bad that when I did squat with anything more than 225lb, it felt like my knee was jerking. My guess was that the ball in my hip was no longer moving smoothly through its movement, but would jump slightly and my knee was the shock absorber. It was time to consider replacement hips.
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A very similar problem occurred when I performed bent over rows. My hip joints were on their last leg (no pun intended).
So at 65 years of age I could no longer do my two favorite exercises. I tried incorporating leg presses, but I could use very little weight and to top everything off, I hurt my right biceps that had been reattached. I tore some fibers loose from around my elbow. Now my third favorite exercise was also sacrificed to a very great extent. My chain accommodated Scott curls had to be stopped, at least until, it healed some.
I began to inquire of anyone who had a hip replacement, or even knew someone who did.
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As am asking around about hip replacement surgery, I am getting a multitude of opinions:
- “I should have done this long ago.”
- “It’s like having brand new hips.”
- There is talk about the posterior approach.
- “Whatever you do, don’t get it done by the posterior approach.”
- And talk of the anterior approach.
- “The anterior approach is very risky. There is risk of permanent nerve damage.”
- “Would you like the name of my surgeon?”
I talked for a while with a fellow lifter, though he was more of a casual lifter and did not train his legs with weights. He was telling me he had the posterior approach and on two occasions his hips popped out of joint. He said his glutes were too weak to keep it in the socket. And now he felt no pain at all. He was glad he got it done.
I talked with a lifter who knew a woman family member who had hip replacement. She told him not to get the approach done that she had done because hers popped out of the socket once. The problem with his information is that he got them reversed. So for a while I am considering conflicting information.
After getting a little knowledge concerning hip replacement, I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor. I tell my doctor that it is time to make the leap. I ask her who she would use if she needed a hip replacement. She told me the orthopedic doctor she would use, because he had the least post operate complications. And that with my blood clot problems and history of dermatomyositis I needed to consider potential complications.
Later that week I received a call from the orthopedic doctor’s office to schedule an appointment. He had access to my X-rays and MRI. We talked a little about my hips and then he said that he used the anterior approach and that I would be on my feet right after surgery. He also added that many of the restrictions following the posterior approach were not necessary with the anterior approach. He said I needed to move and keep no more than 25% of my weight on the replacement hip joint for a two weeks (if I recall correctly). I told him about my history of blood clots, but he didn’t seem to think that would be a problem. He scheduled me for mid-August to do the left hip and then 8 weeks later do the right hip. He told me that I would feel like a brand new man. (note: There was no mention of rehab therapy.)
I kept lifting weights right to the last night before my surgery.
(I should add that I retired from the power plant after 41 years of service in September 2012. Also, I preparation for my future post operation restrictions of getting into and out of my vehicle, I had traded in my 2011 Ford Raptor for a 2015 Charger Hellcat.)
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I guess if you can’t move the big weights, going fast is pretty fun! What is the insurance like on that bad boy? I had a friend back out from getting a challenger Hellcat, because he checked insurance rates before hand (was like $750/month, but he was mid 20s at the time).