Is Mini Stepper Good For Osteoporosis?
About 3 million people in the United Kingdom are affected by osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a condition that makes your bones weak and break easily. Osteoporosis develops gradually and is often only diagnosed when a fall or sudden fracture occurs. The bone density starts decreasing early on; the condition is called osteopenia.
Losing bone is typical with increasing age, but some people lose bone much faster than others which may lead to osteoporosis and an increased risk of broken bones. Some people are at higher risk, for example, those with small bones, low BMI, family history, those who smoke or people with Caucasian or Asian lineage. Osteopenia doesn’t always lead to osteoporosis, as it depends on many factors.
Osteoporosis is more common in women. One in five women aged 50 has osteoporosis. Once diagnosed, doctors recommend focusing on nutrition and eating foods that are good for bone health, increasing the intake of vitamin D and last but not least, leading an active lifestyle.
Having a regular exercise routine such as using the mini steppers helps maintain bone density, which in turn is good for osteoporosis.
Here is my favourite mini stepper that I recommend to all my clients:
- 【ORIGINAL STEPPER】This is the perfect portable stair step machine, with its sleek and compact form, you can achieve your cardio goals anywhere, whether you’re watching TV or working at your standing desk.
- 【FULL BODY WORKOUT】Dive into a holistic fitness routine! Engage your core, glutes, arms, and shoulders with this compact low-impact cardio training equipment. The included resistance bands ensure every part of your body gets a workout.
- 【TRACK YOUR FITNESS】Stay informed with the LCD monitor, tracking steps, time, and calories burned. Shape your exercise regime to be more effective and aligned with your goals.
Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
For women above the age of 50 (postmenopausal women); regular exercise can increase muscle strength, improve balance, decrease the risk of bone fracture, improve posture and relieve or decrease pain.
Exercising if you have osteoporosis means finding the safest, most enjoyable activities for you, given your overall health and amount of bone loss. There’s no one-size-fits-all prescription.
Does a Mini Stepper Help To Improve Bone Density?
To spur bone growth, high-impact aerobic exercises are a must. According to a paper published in Bone, walking was insufficient for preserving spinal density in post-menopausal women. But it did help maintain bone density in the neck of the femoral bone.
A study was carried out at Health Promotion Research in Finland to see the impact of step training on bone density. A group of 79 young women were divided into three groups. One group did a six-month lower-body strength training routine, while the other did high-impact step aerobics. The third group did no exercise.
It was observed that the two groups that worked out showed the most remarkable improvement in bone density. The group with high-impact aerobics showed better bone density than the lower body strength training.
In conclusion, a high-impact step training workout offers significant advantages in maintaining the density of your bones. Another study suggests that step aerobics may be more effective for boosting bone density than jogging or running.
One of the reasons may be that using a mini stepper involves changes in direction, which stimulates more significant bone growth than movements in a single order.
Research shows that resistance training can boost bone growth in the spine and hip area by as much as 1% over twelve months. Combining resistance training and high-impact aerobics offers greater bone density, cardiovascular benefits, and strong muscles. Plus, resistance training helps prevent lean body mass loss with age.
Is a Stair Stepper Good For Osteoporosis?
Much like a mini stepper, a stair stepper machine is considered a low-impact exercise therefore is good for people suffering from osteoporosis because your feet never leave the machine’s surface. In a nutshell, this means you’re sparing your hip, knee, and ankle joints on a stepper from high impacts the body has to endure while running or any aerobic exercise.
These activities require that your feet leave the ground and come back down many times with your weight pressing down on lower body joints with force. High-impact exercise may not be the best choice for older people (40 & up) or anyone dealing with joint pain, arthritis, or bone loss issues like osteopenia or osteoporosis. And so, using a stepper machine to get in our low-impact cardio workouts is a great alternative.
The mini stepper machine is better at providing a low-impact cardio workout for people dealing with arthritis. Their activities can be longer on a stepper & pain-free too because there’s no foot impact like when running or brisk walking on a treadmill.
A mini stepper provides moderate aerobic activity when you use it for your regular 30 to 60-minute steady-state cardio workout. Steady-state means that you’re going at the same pace throughout your workout.
The American Heart Association recommends we get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity in order to reap its benefits.
From all the various sources of information that we enlisted and what the ongoing research suggests, we can conclude that using mini steppers is beneficial for people who have osteoporosis. But each stage of osteoporosis is different, so any exercise regime should be conducted under the guidance of an expert doctor and trainer.