Heavy lifts and jumps build bone in ways walking alone mostly doesn’t

Key takeaways

• In the LIFTMOR trial, women around 65 with low bone mass did supervised heavy lifting and jumping twice a week for 8 months, and their spine bone density rose 2.9% while a gentle home-exercise group lost 1.2%¹.
• In 2017–2018, 12.6% of U.S. adults 50 and older had osteoporosis and another 43.1% had low bone mass, federal survey data show³.
• Federal guidelines count brisk walking as bone-strengthening, but a review of 8 walking trials found it didn’t significantly protect spine bone density in women past menopause⁷¹⁴.
• If you have osteoporosis, experts advise against fast, repeated, loaded or extreme bending and twisting of the spine, and suggest bending at the hips instead¹²¹³.
• The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advises a bone density test for every woman 65 and older; its 2018 advice against low-dose calcium and vitamin D pills for fracture prevention is still listed as final, and a December 2024 draft goes further⁴⁵⁶.

For years, women with fragile bones heard the same advice: don’t lift anything heavy. A heavy load might crack a weak bone in the spine¹.

In 2018, a team of Australian researchers put that worry to a test¹. They enrolled 101 women past menopause, average age 65, whose bone density was below normal. Forty-four of them had osteoporosis¹.

About half the women learned deadlifts, back squats and overhead presses with weights close to the most they could lift. They also did jumping chin-ups that ended in a firm landing¹. The rest did a gentle home program with hand weights of no more than about 6.6 pounds¹.

After eight months of two 30-minute sessions a week, the lifters’ spine bone density had risen 2.9%. The home group’s had dropped 1.2%¹. The lifters even gained a sliver of height, while the home group lost a little¹.

Bone isn’t chalk. It’s living tissue that rebuilds itself around the loads you give it. Below, we cover how to load yours well, whatever shape it’s in now.

Your skeleton rebuilds itself all the time, and menopause tips the balance

Your bones are never finished. Your body constantly breaks down small bits of old bone, a process called resorption, and lays down new bone in its place, according to the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS)². Nearly all of your body’s calcium, 98%, sits in that bone².

As estrogen falls at menopause, and for about five years afterward, breakdown runs faster than building². On average, women lose about 1% of their bone density a year after menopause². Men lose bone with age too, but their fracture risk tends to climb 5 to 10 years later than women’s².

CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics measured bone density in adults 50 and older in 2017–2018³:

• Osteoporosis: 12.6% overall, including 19.6% of women and 4.4% of men. Among women 65 and older, the figure was 27.1%.
• Low bone mass, sometimes called osteopenia, meaning density below normal but not yet in the osteoporosis range: 43.1%.
• The trend: osteoporosis rose from 9.4% in 2007–2008, driven by women.

Fractures are the real danger. About 1.8 million people on Medicare had a new fracture from osteoporosis in 2016, and only 40% to 60% of people who break a hip get back the mobility they had before, the Task Force reports⁴. Its 2018 review noted that 20% to 30% of hip fracture patients die within a year⁵.

Bone responds to strong, fast loads, but walking is gentle by comparison

Why go so heavy? The LIFTMOR team’s answer: bone builds most when a load bends it hard and fast¹. In their view, the moderate weights of typical gym advice rarely strain bone enough to make it grow¹.

Federal guidelines do give walking some credit. The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans list brisk walking as a bone-strengthening activity, alongside running, jumping jacks and weight lifting¹⁴.

The trials are less generous. In a 2008 review in the journal Bone, researchers pooled 8 trials of walking programs in women past menopause, lasting 6 to 24 months⁷. Walking didn’t significantly protect bone density in the spine⁷.

At the femoral neck, the narrow top of the thigh bone where hips often break, the benefit was borderline⁷. Trial quality was poor, and the authors suggested bones may need more targeted loading⁷.

A broader 2012 analysis pooled randomized trials, where chance decides who exercises, covering about 1,600 inactive women past menopause⁸. Walking-type exercise, strength training or both produced small gains at the femoral neck and borderline gains at the spine⁸. The authors estimated a 10% to 11% lower 20-year fracture risk from those gains, a model’s projection rather than fractures anyone counted⁸.

Swimming and cycling are wonderful for your heart. But water carries much of your weight, as our swimming article explains, and a bike seat carries it as you pedal. Our inference from the LIFTMOR loading logic, not from studies of swimmers or cyclists: both give bone little of the strain it responds to¹.

Heavy lifting raised bone density in women with weak bones, under a coach

LIFTMOR eased in. For the first month, the women used body weight and light versions of each move to learn technique, and within two months all could do the four main exercises¹.

After that, each lift was done in 5 sets of 5 repetitions at roughly 80% to 85% or more of their one-rep max, the most a person can lift once¹. A trainer watched no more than 8 women at a time¹.

The gains went beyond the spine. Density at the femoral neck rose 0.3% in the lifters and fell 1.9% in the home group, and the lifters beat the home group on every physical test, from rising out of a chair to reaching forward¹.

Safety was better than feared, though not perfect. The one reported injury was a mild lower-back muscle strain on a deadlift in week 28; the woman missed two sessions, then finished¹. No one broke a bone, and the seven women who fell, all outside training, weren’t hurt¹.

Read the limits too. It was one trial of 101 women for eight months, and the staff who tested the women knew who was in which group, a weakness the authors acknowledge¹. The study wasn’t big enough to judge safety and left out women with a recent fracture or back pain¹. The authors’ advice is plain: people with low bone mass shouldn’t try this program on their own¹.

Two of the authors are directors of The Bone Clinic in Brisbane¹. That doesn’t make the findings wrong, but it deserves the scrutiny you’d give any company’s study.

A few jumps or hops a day can reach the hip

You don’t need a gym for impact. In a 2015 trial, 60 women ages 25 to 50 who hadn’t reached menopause were split into three groups⁹. One did 10 jumps and another did 20, resting 30 seconds between jumps, twice a day for 16 weeks⁹.

Compared with women who didn’t jump, both groups gained hip bone density⁹. The trial was small and scored 4 out of 10 on PEDro, a database that grades physical therapy trials, so treat it as encouraging, not settled⁹.

In a study at Loughborough University in England, 50 healthy older men hopped on one randomly chosen leg, while the other leg served as the comparison¹⁰. They built up to 50 hops in different directions, seven days a week, for a year¹⁰.

Of the 35 men who finished, femoral neck density rose 0.7% in the hopping leg and fell 0.9% in the resting leg¹⁰. Three men quit because of discomfort¹⁰. Detailed scans of 34 men showed some areas of the hip’s outer shell gained up to 7%¹¹.

The hopping took about two minutes a day¹¹. Lead researcher Katherine Brooke-Wavell urged care, since a fall can break a weak bone¹¹. Ken Poole, the Cambridge rheumatologist who led the scan analysis, said no one yet knows whether people with osteoporosis would benefit the same way, or whether the hops are safe for them¹¹.

With osteoporosis, how you move matters as much as how hard

In 2014, an international expert group working with Osteoporosis Canada released Too Fit To Fracture, exercise advice for people with osteoporosis¹²¹³. It calls for¹²:

• Strength training at least 2 days a week, 8 to 12 repetitions a set, with the last few hard.
• Balance training every day for 15 to 20 minutes. Tai chi and dancing count.
• Aerobic activity totaling 150 minutes a week. The patient guide says walking alone isn’t enough.
• Posture and back-muscle work for 5 to 10 minutes a day.

The group’s main safety message is about the spine. Avoid or modify moves that bend or twist your spine quickly, again and again, under a load, or as far as it will go¹³. Bend at your hips and knees instead, a movement called a hip hinge¹³.

If you’ve already broken a bone in your spine, the advice tightens. Focus on good form over effort, keep intensity moderate, consider skipping jumping and jogging, and see a physical therapist¹²¹³.

Common move	The concern	A safer swap	Who should change it
Sit-ups, curl-ups, crunches	Repeated forward rounding of the spine13	Planks, or a side plank against a wall; hip hinge to reach low1213	Osteoporosis
Deep forward folds or twisting poses in yoga or Pilates	Bending or twisting to the end of your range12	Supported, partial bends, such as a modified downward dog with hands on a chair12	Osteoporosis
Ab rotation machines, twisting crunches	Loaded twisting12	Slow, controlled twists while lying on your back12	Osteoporosis
Lifting a laundry basket or bag of soil with a rounded back	Load held far from the body with a bent spine12	Bend at hips and knees, hold the load close12	Everyone
Turning to put something away with feet planted	Twisting under load12	Step your feet around so they face the same way as your chest12	Osteoporosis
Jumping, jogging, high-impact sports	Impact and fall risk13	Lower-impact, slower-paced options chosen with your clinician12	Spine fracture; others ask first

These swaps come from expert consensus, two survey rounds answered by 39 and then 48 experts, not from trials showing they prevent fractures¹³.

A bone-loading week for your starting point

Use the column that matches your last bone density result. If you’ve never had one, our next section covers who should.

Part of the week	Healthy bones	Low bone mass	Osteoporosis (plan with your clinician)
Strength, 2 days	Squat, hip hinge or deadlift, overhead press and row; learn form light, then build toward hard sets of about 5 reps	Same moves; a month of light practice, then heavier work with a qualified coach, as in LIFTMOR1	8–12 reps a set with bands, weights or body weight, last few reps hard12; heavy sets only in a supervised program1
Impact, most days	10–20 jumps with 30-second rests, once or twice a day9, or hops building toward 50 a day10	Ask first; if cleared, start with a few small jumps and add slowly	Jumping may need to be avoided after a spine fracture13; otherwise ask your clinician
Balance, daily	10 minutes of one-leg stands or tai chi	15–20 minutes, near a counter12	15–20 minutes, near a counter12
Spine and posture	Back-strengthening moves twice a week	5–10 minutes of back and posture work12	5–10 minutes, starting lying on your back12
Walking or cardio	150 minutes a week for your heart12	Same	Same, in shoes with good grip; walk indoors when it’s icy or wet13

How to progress. Add load in small steps once a set feels steady. Pain that lingers past the next day is a signal to back off a level. The plan for healthy bones is our adaptation of the trials above, not a protocol anyone tested as a whole.

Pills and scans: what the Task Force says now

Calcium and vitamin D. Your bones need both, and our vitamins and minerals article gives daily amounts and food sources. Pills are another question. In 2018, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent expert panel, recommended against daily supplements of 400 IU or less of vitamin D plus 1,000 milligrams or less of calcium to prevent fractures in women past menopause who live at home⁵. It found too little evidence to judge higher doses, or pills for men and for women before menopause⁵.

That advice doesn’t apply if you have osteoporosis, low vitamin D, a past fracture or a high risk of falling⁵. In the large Women’s Health Initiative study, the combination led to about 1 extra woman with a kidney stone for every 273 treated over seven years⁵.

In December 2024, the Task Force posted a draft that goes further. It recommends against vitamin D, with or without calcium, to prevent fractures or falls in women past menopause and men 60 and older who live at home⁶. As of October 2026, its website still listed the 2018 advice as final, with an update in progress⁵.

ODS notes a separate, unsettled question: some studies link calcium pills to heart disease and others don’t². Food sources sidestep that worry.

Bone density scans. In January 2025, the Task Force recommended screening for all women 65 and older⁴. Younger women past menopause should be screened if a risk check, using a tool such as FRAX, shows higher risk⁴. For men, it found too little evidence to recommend for or against⁴. The usual test is a DXA scan, a type of X-ray that measures density at the hip and spine⁴.

If a scan shows osteoporosis, exercise works alongside treatment, not instead of it. LIFTMOR allowed women taking osteoporosis medicine to join¹.

What the evidence shows

Claim	Evidence rating	What it rests on
Exercise modestly improves hip bone density after menopause	Strong evidence (small, variable effect)	Randomized trials with about 1,600 women8
Supervised heavy lifting plus impact raises spine and hip density in women with low bone mass	Promising but early	One 101-woman, 8-month trial without blinded assessors1
Short daily jumping or hopping raises hip density in healthy adults	Promising but early	Small trials in younger women and older men910
Walking alone protects spine bone density after menopause	Evidence says no, or unsafe	8 walking trials showed no significant spine benefit, though federal guidelines count brisk walking as bone-strengthening714
Exercise programs prevent fractures	Not enough evidence	Trials here measured density, not fractures18
Avoiding loaded or extreme spine bending prevents spine fractures	Not enough evidence	Expert consensus, a sensible precaution13
Low-dose calcium and vitamin D pills prevent fractures in women past menopause who live at home	Evidence says no, or unsafe	Task Force review, plus a small kidney stone risk56

Your bones were built to be used

Natural health has long taught that the body adapts to what you ask of it. Bone tends to thicken where it’s stressed and thin where it’s spared, and no pill has to tell it to.

The tools are cheap and old: lifting heavy things, landing from a jump, carrying, climbing. The LIFTMOR team called the old habit of shielding fragile bones from heavy work “overly conservative”¹. Their point wasn’t recklessness. Fear does its own harm when it keeps people still.

Healthy skepticism cuts every way. Ask who runs the clinic behind a bone trial, just as you’d ask who sells the supplement.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

Bone is living tissue that answers to force. Walking, swimming and cycling keep the rest of you healthy, but heavier lifting and short bursts of impact give bone the strain it responds to.

If your bones are already thin, safety comes first: spine-sparing movement, daily balance work, and heavier loading only with a coach or physical therapist. Get screened when the Task Force says you should, lean on food over low-dose pills, and keep loading the bones you have.

Related reading

• Most adults skip strength training, though under an hour a week goes a long way
• Shortfalls in vitamins and minerals are common, but true deficiencies are not
• Vibration plates didn’t build bone in a year-long trial, though falls are another story
• Swimming is easy on your joints, and being a safe swimmer takes five skills
• Frail 90-year-olds nearly tripled their strength, proof that muscle responds at any age

Sources

1. Watson SL, Weeks BK, Weis LJ, Harding AT, Horan SA, Beck BR. “High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018;33(2):211–220. academic.oup.com (full text read via a hosted copy, ; trial quality rating from PEDro, search.pedro.org.au)
2. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. “Calcium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.” ODS, accessed October 2026. ods.od.nih.gov
3. Sarafrazi N, Wambogo EA, Shepherd JA. “Osteoporosis or Low Bone Mass in Older Adults: United States, 2017–2018.” NCHS Data Brief No. 405, National Center for Health Statistics, March 2021. cdc.gov
4. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Osteoporosis to Prevent Fractures: Screening.” Final recommendation, January 14, 2025. uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org
5. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Vitamin D, Calcium, or Combined Supplementation for the Primary Prevention of Fractures in Community-Dwelling Adults: Preventive Medication.” Final recommendation, April 17, 2018 (update in progress as of October 2026). uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org
6. HealthDay. “USPSTF Recommends Against Vitamin D Supplementation for Fracture, Fall Prevention” (on the Task Force’s draft recommendation). December 17, 2024. healthday.com
7. Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. “Meta-analysis of walking for preservation of bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.” Bone, 2008;43(3):521–531 (University of Hull repository). hull-repository.worktribe.com
8. Kelley GA, Kelley KS, Kohrt WM. “Effects of ground and joint reaction force exercise on lumbar spine and femoral neck bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2012;13:177 (PEDro record). search.pedro.org.au
9. Tucker LA, Strong J, LeCheminant JD, Bailey BW. “Effect of two jumping programs on hip bone mineral density in premenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial.” American Journal of Health Promotion, 2015;29(3):158–164 (PEDro record). search.pedro.org.au
10. Allison SJ, Folland JP, Rennie WJ, Summers GD, Brooke-Wavell K. “High impact exercise increased femoral neck bone mineral density in older men: a randomised unilateral intervention.” Bone, 2013;53(2):321–328 (PEDro record). search.pedro.org.au
11. Loughborough University. “Reducing fracture risk” (on the Hip Hop study’s CT bone-mapping results). News release, September 2015.
12. Giangregorio LM, et al. “Too Fit To Fracture: exercise recommendations for individuals with osteoporosis or osteoporotic vertebral fracture.” Osteoporosis International, 2014;25(3):821–835, as summarized in Osteoporosis Canada’s patient guide “Too Fit To Fracture.” osteoporosis.ca
13. Giangregorio LM, McGill S, Wark JD, et al. “Too Fit To Fracture: outcomes of a Delphi consensus process on physical activity and exercise recommendations for adults with osteoporosis with or without vertebral fractures.” Osteoporosis International, published online 2014, doi:10.1007/s00198-014-2881-4 (hosted copy). backfitpro.com³²Giangregorio,L.(2014)Too-fit-to-fracture-Outcomes-of-a-Delphi-consensus-process[Osteoporosis-International].pdf
14. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition.” HHS, 2018. odphp.health.gov