I got a good question from Christina I wanted to share
Kelly, I read that lifting weights helps prevent osteoporosis by building bone mass. But then I also read that you can’t increase the size of your wrist (I asked about this before) because your wrists are bone and ligament. Then how does lifting weight help build bone?
Strength training does prevent osteoperosis. It does this by increasing your bone density, not the actual size. Bones follow the rule “form follows function.” The more stress you put on your bones, the stronger they will become. This is one part of your body that doesnt give into wear and tear, if you get enough calcium. As you get older, and approach/go through menopause, your bone denisty decreases, this is why strength training is so important. You want to get your bones as strong as you can, while you still can, so you can maintain that density as you age and decrease your chances of osteoperosis and injuries, ie. the ol’ breaking a hip joke. It happens A LOT more than you think.
Unfortunately, a lot of people learn this too late. I get a lot of women in their 50′s and 60′s that have never strength trained before, and come in wanting to get their bones stronger. At this point, their denisty has already started to decline, and stress on the bones will only injure them, because they are too weak to stand the impact. Its like they have reached the point of no return, and its all down hill from there.
If you are older (50 and up, abouts, maybe younger if you are really curious) you should get a bone density scan to tell you how dense your bones are, and your doctor can make recommendations from there.
As far as increasing the size of your bones: its not going to happen. They make hormones for people with bone diseases, but just having tiny wrists probably isnt worth the injections and pain. A doctor would probably laugh you out of his office.
I have little wrists, too. Rock ‘em.