Want strong bones when you’re older? Exercise now! Activities such as weight lifting put a healthy strain on your bones that promotes growth in the area of strain. For example, when you perform repeated deadlifts over a period of time, the bones that bear a significant portion of the weight (tibia, fibula, femur, etc.) will slightly bend under the pressure. The bone recognizes the force and begins to ossify, sending bone-building osteoblasts to the areas of greatest strain.

This ossification process has a give-and-take relationship. The more appropriate force you put on the bone the more it can grow, while inactivity of the bone over an extended period of time can leave the bone more brittle than it was. Young bone is more responsive than mature bone, so if you consider yourself a teenager or young adult then you have a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity in your hands and all you have to do is put those hands on a bar.  Lastly I must mention none of this will work if you don’t give your bones the building blocks to grow, so drink milk and #TrainBIG.

Schaudt is out!