Presentation to the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation
On January 24, 2025, I presented my expertise and experience to the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation. Thank you to Michelle Jones, of Great Lakes Learning ECHO, for this honored invitation. In this virtual lecture, I addressed reduced bone mass density, which can be directly correlated with overall weight reduction, and appropriate exercise selection for bone health.
I opened my presentation, “Defining Fitness for Bone Health,” with a poll asking health professionals to eliminate a style of branded fitness (Pilates) that isn’t an actual class. Spoiler alert: it was a trick question. I included nine distinct and valid Pilates styles to illustrate the variations in brand-name fitness and how their professional exercise recommendations must be rephrased and tailored to each patient/client. After a brief video demonstration of group-led yogic stretching transitions, I asked the audience to point out what they could see as problematic with their dynamic posture in group exercise classes. What cues could help recruit muscle engagement to prevent kyphosis? Harmful?
My learner objectives for BHOF:
Understand why recommending umbrella terms like ‘yoga’ and ‘Pilates’ can be confusing and potentially harmful.
Learn alternative recommendations specific to your patients’/clients’ needs before they step into an instructor-led exercise class or do a fitness Google search.
Learn four posterior chain exercises for the upper extremities, designed mindfully to pull on the bones that you can’t land on, for kyphosis prevention.
Highlight the importance of emphasizing body composition rather than total weight reduction to improve bone health.
I included physical demonstrations of these exercises for maintaining bone density in the upper extremities, because A. I can’t sit still, and B. to surface how this kind of program design benefits the whole body’s coordination and function. People want to fix a symptom rather than treat the root cause. For example, I was asked, “How do you prevent falls?” That is a brilliant question. However, I responded, “I make sure someone can get up from the ground in the first place.” While fall prevention includes agility and joint stability, I work backward and assume the fall already happened, even if it hasn’t.
Following this, I presented a clinical trial. I seized this opportunity to speak to physicians on a topic that matters to me and offered an Ozempic clinical trial: Bone Health After Exercise Alone, GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Treatment, or Combination Treatment, (Simon Birk Kjær Jensen, PhD1; Victor Sørensen, MSc2; Rasmus Michael Sandsdal, MD1; et al).
This clinical trial outlined the effects of different liraglutide combinations, with and without exercise, on bone mineral density. Spoiler: magic weight loss injections decrease your lean mass (muscle) and bone mass density. Holy bones! Who knew 😅, and I had my soapbox moment strategizing which exercises to recommend and which to avoid.
Weight loss and GLP-1RAs should always be prescribed in conjunction with active lean mass preservation!
<dramatic ballet curtsey>
At the time of my presentation, I couldn’t believe this hadn’t been a topic of interest or even discussed, considering we know the long-term effects of anorexia and gastric bypass surgeries. Exactly two and a half weeks after my presentation, on February 11, 2025, BHOF emailed a new headliner for its annual convention at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., stating, “This session will explore the relationship between obesity, weight loss, and bone health.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I made a dent in the system.