Bones are amazing.
Without them, we would quite literally be a blob! Yet despite how important our bones are, bone health is often overlooked when we think about exercise and physical wellbeing.
We regularly talk about posture, muscle strength, mobility and pelvic floor health. But how often do you think about the health and strength of your bones?
Probably not very often — and for many people, bone health only becomes a consideration after a fracture or when a family member is diagnosed with osteoporosis.
I want to change that.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more information about bone health, exercise and what you can do to support your bones throughout life.
What Do Our Bones Actually Do?
Bones are much more than a rigid framework holding us upright. They are living tissue and perform a huge range of important functions throughout the body.
1. Structural Support
Your skeleton provides the framework that gives your body its shape and allows you to stand upright and move.
Without your skeleton providing structure, your muscles and other tissues wouldn’t have the stable framework they need to function effectively.
2. Protecting Your Organs
Your bones also provide protection for some of your most important organs.
For example:
- Your skull protects your brain.
- Your rib cage helps protect your heart and lungs.
- Your spine surrounds and protects the spinal cord.
This protective role is one of the reasons maintaining healthy bones is so important.
3. Connecting Muscles and Tendons
Bones provide attachment points for muscles and tendons, allowing your muscles to create movement around your joints.
Interestingly, some connective tissues attach to and integrate with bone rather than simply sitting on top of it.
This connection between bone, muscle, tendon and connective tissue allows your body to transfer force and create coordinated movement.
4. Storing Calcium
Bones act as an important store of minerals, particularly calcium.
Calcium is essential for many processes within the body, including normal muscle contraction and nerve function. Your skeleton therefore plays an important role in maintaining the body’s mineral balance.
5. Producing Blood Cells
Inside many of your bones is bone marrow.
Bone marrow is incredibly important because it is where many of your blood cells are produced. Bone marrow also contains stem cells that can develop into different types of blood cells.
So your bones aren’t simply an inactive structure — they are part of a highly active biological system.
6. Helping You Move
Movement wouldn’t be possible without your skeleton.
Your bones provide the framework around which your muscles work. When a muscle contracts, it pulls on a tendon, which in turn applies force to a bone and creates movement around a joint.
Walking, running, lifting, jumping and even simply reaching for something all depend on this incredible interaction between your bones, muscles and connective tissues.
7. Absorbing and Transferring Force
Every time you move, your body experiences forces.
Walking, running, jumping and resistance training all place different demands on your musculoskeletal system.
Your bones form an important part of the system that absorbs, transfers and distributes force throughout your body.
This is one reason exercise can be an important consideration when thinking about long-term bone health.
Why Should We Care About Bone Health?
Our bones change throughout our lives.
Bone health is influenced by a range of factors, including age, hormones, nutrition, genetics and physical activity.
The good news is that there are things we can do to support our musculoskeletal health throughout life.
Exercise is one piece of the puzzle.
Weight-bearing activity and appropriately prescribed resistance exercise can be particularly relevant when considering bone health. However, the right approach will depend on the individual, their current health and any existing conditions.
That’s why it’s important to consider your whole body rather than focusing solely on muscles and flexibility.
Bone Health Should Be Part of the Conversation
As an exercise professional, I often feel that bones get left out of the conversation.
We talk about building stronger muscles.
We talk about improving posture.
We talk about mobility.
We talk about pelvic floor health.
But our bones underpin so much of what our bodies do.
So perhaps it’s time to give them some attention too.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more information about bone health and exercise, including some practical exercises and ideas you can incorporate into your routine.
Do You Have Questions About Your Bone Health?
If you’d like more individual support with exercise and bone health, I’m happy to help.
I can work with you to understand your current exercise routine and discuss how movement and exercise could form part of a wider approach to supporting your musculoskeletal health.
If you have osteoporosis, osteopenia, a history of fractures or another relevant medical condition, seek appropriate medical or clinical advice before starting or changing your exercise programme.
For more information or to book a consultation, email:
Keep an eye out for the next instalment in this bone health series!
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