Strength For Your Bones

Please forgive me for writing like a geek. I promise though I think you’ll be able to understand it.

Yesterday morning I was speaking with one of my personal training clients and the conversation went a little bit like this.

How are you feeling today?

Pretty good, how was your weekend?

Pretty good, how about yours? Did you do anything?

Yes, we went out to eat for the first time in NJ since this whole pandemic started.

She asked me about what I ate and other small talk. (I had the pork ossobuco)

She proceeds to train her bench press with the sets and reps I told her to do.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, you’re going to laugh but I did something very stupid this weekend.

She proceeds to tell me a story about her doing something which long story short she fell off her bike.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that she is in her late 50’s which should be of serious concern, at least if she were your average 50 something-year-old. Here are some facts I just pulled from the CDC website

Falls and motor vehicle crashes, which are related to mobility, are the two leading causes of injury and injury death in older adults.

CDC website

Women fall more often than men and account for three-quarters of all hip fractures.

CDC website

And yet, she just casually brushed it off. Why? Because she’s strong. Not just strong for her age, she’s strong period.

That same day after telling me this story she did a chin up on eagle loops with a kettlebell weighing about 53lbs hanging from her waist.

When you are strong, it’s not just your muscles that become strong, everything becomes strong. Your bones included, which is important to understand considering how common osteoporosis is and how problematic it can be. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK45518/#ch1.s2

Here’s how it works, our bodies are amazing adaptive mechanisms. You provide a stimulus (a challenge for it to overcome by adapting) in this case strength training.

Your central nervous system fortifies itself by something called Myelination (think of it like plugging up the cracks in a pipeline). The result being the CNS is better able to activate motor units which tell more of your existing muscle fibers to contract, the muscle fibers themselves become denser via something called myofibrillar hypertrophy (strengthening contractile proteins of the muscle fibers themselves). The muscle fibers pull on tendon which pulls on bone and that is how movement occurs.

The tendons become thicker in an effort to prevent injury, and the bones thicken and fortify themselves for the same reason. Your body literally fortifies itself to become tougher and more resilient to injury.

It’s a funny thing. When people have a look at my personal training studio they see barbells and kettlebells and a chain of nails I bent in my hands and frying pans I rolled up and they may think I train gym bros and shrug it off afraid of getting hurt.

The reality is I train regular people and knock on wood I have a pretty good safety rate. The people I train hardly get hurt because they’ve trained themselves not to get hurt in a safe manner.

I employ the use of systems. I like the idea of results being systematic as in if X goes in then Y comes out. In the various systems I use “strength” and “safety” are synonymous.

I’m not a computer programmer, but I’ve had a number of them as personal training clients over the years and occasionally pick up a thing or two. There is an acronym called GIGO (garbage in garbage out).

In order to make sure that “X” will result in “Y” and not in injury to a personal training client I utilize a systematic screening and corrective exercise process. Then assuming the patterns are safe to train I utilize strength and conditioning systems where safety and strength work together. Do no harm as they say.

It’s ironic because people seem to be afraid of strength training because they fear injury, but in reality, strength training is what will keep you safe from injuries.

Strong people are harder to kill and more useful in general.

Mark Rippetoe

Get some sun and please don’t be afraid of the iron. It’s the best thing for you.

If you need help with this, I have a one-week free trial membership of my personal training program available. To see if you think it’s right for your send me a text at 973 476 5328 and just introduce yourself. No that’s not an automated system, that’s my cell.

Since my personal training is currently one on one until the dust settles a bit, I only have limited availability so don’t wait around too long.

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Eric Moss is a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, motivational speaker, and personal trainer. In the tradition of the strongmen more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a show and speaks on goal achievement for corporations, nonprofits, government as well as for schools and universities. His exclusive personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey, is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville and Parsippany New Jersey.