Keeping your bones healthy at home
The shelter-in-place has significantly reduced our time outdoors as well as our exercise frequency due to the closure of gyms and parks. Reduced exposure to sunlight causes lower Vitamin D production, and limited exercise leads to a decrease in muscle strength. To keep your bones healthy and strong even at home, here is a list of bone healthy exercises and recipes for you to try out.
Easy Body Weight Exercises to do at Home:
- Body weight squats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0GcZ24pK6k
- Place feet shoulder width apart
- Slowly bend at the knees and squat down making sure your knees do not go forward past your toes
- Extend legs to push back up to starting position
- Repeat desired amount of times
- Plank: https://i0.wp.com/post.greatist.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/ForearmPlank.png?w=1155&h=842
- Place forearms on the floor with elbows aligned below shoulders and arms shoulder width apart
- Squeeze abdominal muscles
- Hold the position for 30 seconds
- Repeat desired amount of times
Exercises for Seniors
- Tandem Stance: https://www.oregonlive.com/resizer/Nm-PYL9aw0cpyHRfMWIkxi_Z54Q=/1280×0/smart/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-advancelocal.s3.amazonaws.com/public/QN5ESHM6SNEOBPQCFAALLPGXNE.jpg
- Stand behind a chair close enough so you can hold on if necessary
- Place right foot in front of left foot with right heel touching the toes of the left foot
- Relax shoulders, keep chin up, and keep stomach tight
- Balance in this position for 30 seconds
- Repeat with left foot in front of right foot
- Shoulder and Upper Back Stretch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=KhPF7vYOutw&feature=emb_title
- Place palms together in front of chest and inhale as you do this
- Exhale as you extend arms up straight above your head with palms facing forward
- Lower arms out to the side and bring back to starting position
- Repeat desired amount of times
Kid-Friendly Recipes
- Easy smoothie: https://www.iofbonehealth.org/recipes/smoothie
- Ingredients: 500 mL milk, 2 scoops vanilla ice cream, 2 tablespoons yogurt, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 bananas
- Directions: Blend all ingredients well.
- Contains more than 200 mg of calcium
- Rice and milk pudding: https://www.iofbonehealth.org/recipes/rice-and-milk-pudding
- Ingredients: 1 cup rice, 1 cup water, 8 cups milk, 1 cup sugar, 3-4 teaspoons corn flour, cinnamon
- Directions: Wash rice well, then cook rice in water on low heat until the water is gone. Add 7 cups of milk until boiling, then dissolve corn flour in 1 cup milk and add to the mixture. Mix continuously to prevent the mixture from burning. Add sugar and keep boiling until the mixture solidifies. Serve when the mixture is cooled down.
- Contains almost 150 mg of calcium
Dairy-free Recipes
- Chinese tofu, spinach, and tomato soup: https://www.iofbonehealth.org/recipes/chinese-tofu-spinach-and-tomato-soup
- Ingredients: 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, 95 g chopped onion, 1 minced garlic clove, 1.5 L water, 480 g calcium-set tofu, 2 chopped tomatoes, 600 g spinach, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Directions: Cook oil and onion until onion is soft, then add garlic. Add water and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and tofu and cook until tomatoes are soft. Add spinach, soy sauce, and pepper. Serve hot.
- Contains about 650 g of calcium
- Quinoa, shrimp, and broccoli salad: https://www.iofbonehealth.org/recipes/quinoa-shrimp-and-broccoli-salad
- Ingredients: 400 g broccoli, 1 yellow or red bell pepper, 1 finely chopped garlic clove, 350 g peeled and deveined shrimp, 300 g cooked quinoa, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, ½ pepper
- Lemon vinaigrette: 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, salt, pepper
- Directions: Mix vinaigrette ingredients and set aside. Cut vegetables. Toss vegetables and shrimp with ⅓ of the vinaigrette. Grill in the oven for about 6 minutes, turning halfway. Top quinoa with vegetables and shrimp. Serve with vinaigrette.
- Contains almost 150 mg of calcium
References
http://nep.missouri.edu/exercise.html
https://lec.org/blog/5-balance-exercises-to-do-at-home/
Bones play many roles in the body providing structure, protecting organs, anchoring muscles and storing calcium. While it’s important to build strong and healthy bones during childhood and adolescence, you can take steps during adulthood to protect bone health, too.