OSTEOPOROSIS: Weighty Benefits

How weight training helps

BY:MYRA DEMBROW

A study published in the December 2006 issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, found that weight training may cut the risk of stress fractures by stimulating the production of growth hormone. The hormone, produced in the pituitary gland, helps fight tissue breakdown while helping to build muscles and bones.

“We found that growth hormone was responsive to moderate and heavy exercise regimens having three to twelve repetitions with varying weight-loading,” says principal author William J. Kraemer, PhD, professor of kinesiology, physiology and neurobiology, and medicine at the University of Connecticut.