Families Who Move Together, Grow Together
I remember as a child hearing all about bone density, osteoporosis, “drink your milk,” and the list goes on. I haven’t thought about my bone density much since I had my hip surgeries back in 2009. I always claimed to have “dense bones” because my weight was so much higher than I thought I looked, and that was confirmed during the first surgery. I was going in for a Periacetaular Osteotomy aka a hip reconstruction. They were to make 4 cuts through my pelvis in order to reposition the acetabulum (cup in the ball and socket joint of the hip) and provide me with a more stable hip.
As they wheeled me away, my mom retreated to the waiting room knowing this would be much longer than my previous knee surgeries. To her surprise, my Mr. Six look-a-like Doctor - the incredible Dr. Michael Millis, was approaching after only an hour or so.
“We are on hold as we wait for another instrument to be delivered to the operating room,” he provided. My mother’s furrowed brow likely spoke her confusion. “You see… The first saw is currently lodged in the bone and won’t move. We need another one to cut it out and continue,” he explained.
Medical surprises were becoming few and far between in my mom’s psyche. Her resilience had been forged through my sisters’ and my numerous injuries, and she remained calm even as this new accelerated bout of medical experiences prodded at her. She was enthused to tell me all about the stuck saw as soon as I emerged from anesthesia, between the episodes of violent tremors my body seemed to have taken to as a response to being put under.
I couldn’t help but immediately think of my coach and the “HA, SEE?!” I so wanted to point out about my weight and my dense bones, but what use would that be now? I felt validated anyway.
This knowledge that I have a high bone density seems to track throughout my life. I had many serious falls, and almost always only sustained soft tissue injuries. Of course, that is except the time I superman-ed through the air after attempting to save a missed squat on and dove towards the high bar after only 3/4 of a circle, subsequently breaking both big toes. Most of the injuries I sustained throughout gymnastics were more complex in diagnosing, often not receiving concrete diagnoses at all. Even when I allegedly broke my ankle and my wrist (separately), second opinions disagreed with a true fracture diagnosis.
This is all to say, I am quickly approaching the time in life when women are told to think about osteoporosis, and my instagram is in on the reminder. I came across a doctor this morning talking about bone density. Kudos to her because she provided scientific studies to support each fact she offered. Her lengthy video was worth the whole watch, and I appreciate her desire to spread solid information about real change you can make right now to improve bone mineral density.
The depth drop to rebound jump is one of my favorite exercises, and now I love it even more. Studies found that the drop jump from only an 8 inch height produces Ground Reaction Forces up to 4x your body weight and the rebound jump can be up to 5x (1). Ground reaction force is the equal and opposite force produced by the ground up into an object in contact with it. This is important because a GRF of 3x bodyweight can increase bone density. The study found that simply doing 30 of the depth drop or rebound jumps, 3x per week, for 6 months increased hip bone density by 1%, and this was in post menopausal women (2) meaning it’s never too late to start.
So what now? Let’s get jumping! A few months ago I introduced the depth jump to rebound jump at a gym I was consulting at and was astonished, along with the coaches, to see how much the athletes struggled to coordinate their arms swing with their jumps. What seemed like an innate pattern to me, had at the very least been unlearned. Simply absorbing a jump and fluidly taking off again seemed to stump a large portion of the athletes. I have since made sure to introduce and/or observe this foundational pattern with each gym I visit.
This Instagram doctor (I did check in and she does hold an MD license) has put the movement back into the forefront of my mind. I want to expand on simply having it as a conditioning or vault station. What if we bring this to the larger gym community? Can we make improvements in the health of the entire family if we encourage and teach about this functional pattern? How can we get the whole family involved?
That is where you come in. I want to bring back the excitement of working out together. We all remember those Zoom sessions during Covid when parents and athletes worked out side by side. Let’s make that a norm; let’s start with jumping.
Of course, we must consider safety and preparation before adding exercise, specifically impact. Start this month with walking together. Even walking can produce GRF of 1.5x body weight (3) which will help maintain levels of bone density. Disuse is like being an astronaut in space or bedridden in the hospital. Wolfe’s Law says that the more a muscle/tendon pulls on a bone, the more it grows. Disuse doesn’t just limit your growth potential, it directly leads to a rapid decrease in bone density; so get outside and walk around the block or to the neighborhood park. Vitamin D from sunshine, mixed with increased force through your bones, and maybe even a decrease in stress hormones or increase in happy hormones will do each and every one of us some good.
If you like walking and want to stay on that level, do it! If you are looking for more as you continue your new ritual of exercising together, maybe you begin to turn those walks into runs. Running will create a GRF of 2.5x body weight and jumping rope produces 15% less than running but 40% more than walking (3).
If your body feels safe and is not alerting you with red flags, the depth jump is a great next step. Focus on the absorption and dissipation of force on landing before adding the rebounding jump. It should be noted that this rebound is different from the bounding we utilize on a gymnastics spring floor which typically only uses the joints of the ankles and feet to reverse the direction of force. We want to be utilizing our knees and hips, allowing the body to hinge smoothly like an accordion closing part way as we contact the floor.
This concept can be integrated into our gymnastics programming in so many ways. Performing a depth drop from a higher depth, rebounding multiple times for rhythmic patterning, using one leg instead of both, changing the surface such as a beam or a resi, adding weight, and so many other variables are at our disposal to fully expand on this movement pattern. I recently discussed working plyometrics on carpet bonded foam vs the spring floor with two esteemed Men’s coaches. They both agreed we need to work this depth jump and create our own force rather than only working through the springs. Of course there is a learning curve to adapt agility and power to the speed of the springs. This could be viewed as an extra step, but would our athletes have greater awareness, reproducibility, and generalization if they learned about their power with fewer external variables first?
There’s no question that gymnasts already have an extreme amount of jumping in their programming. So, how do we expand on this? Where can we be more deliberate and efficient in training? What kind of jumping are we really doing and why?
1. Clissold TL, Winwood PW, Cronin JB, De Souza MJ. Do Bilateral Vertical Jumps With Reactive Jump Landings Achieve Osteogenic Thresholds With and Without Instruction in Premenopausal Women?. J Appl Biomech. 2018;34(2):118-126. doi:10.1123/jab.2017-0114
2. Basat H, Esmaeilzadeh S, Eskiyurt N. The effects of strengthening and high-impact exercises on bone metabolism and quality of life in postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2013;26(4):427-435. doi:10.3233/BMR-130402
3. Mullerpatan R, Shetty T, Singh Y, Agarwal B. Lower extremity joint loading during Bounce rope skip in comparison to run and walk. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2021;26:1-6. doi:10.1016/j.jbmt.2020.12.014
