“My joints make some exciting noises when I get out of bed in the morning,” commented one of our personal training clients, Natalia. “See? Watch this,” Natalia added as if demonstrating a magic trick. Natalia bent down to pick her exercise mat off the ground, and a few grinding and popping sounds could be heard in her joints. “Sometimes I think it sounds like I’m making popcorn in the microwave or grinding two marbles together throughout my back and knees.”
Natalia is a retired woman in her mid-sixties who enjoys traveling on expeditions to different continents two to three times a year, playing bocce ball, golf, and pickleball with her girlfriends, and loves hanging out with her grandchildren. She jokes that she’s a certified Uber driver who works for free because when her son and daughter are at work, she picks up her grandkids from kindergarten and middle school and drives through Napa to drop them off at music lessons, sports practice, or their friends’ houses. She might be retired from her previous career, but she keeps busy.
A consistent exercise routine assists Natalia in maintaining her physical and functional abilities so she can continue to do what she enjoys post-retirement. The ability to hang out with her buddies while golfing and enjoying multiple seasons of bocce league throughout the year is something she holds near and dear to her heart. Her recreational activities, as well as the ability to have energy to be able to interact with the various people who depend on her, are reinforced by her optimal fitness levels. However, as demonstrated by Natalia’s sense of humor when she jokes about the audible crackling, grinding, and popping her joints make when she moves, she understands that general age-related progressions in bone and joint degeneration can occur.
Osteoporosis can be defined as a condition in which the quality of the structure of bones changes when bone mineral density and bone mass decrease. “Osteo” refers to bone, and “porosis” refers to porous. Combine the two words, and you have a term that means “porous bones.” In advanced forms of osteoporosis, the bone’s molecular integrity can transform into a more brittle infrastructure. Imagine the rigidity and strength present in a fresh piece of redwood that has been processed from a wood mill and is ready to hold together the framing of a new house. Then, compare that piece of redwood to the bark of a cork tree set out to dry in the sun. If osteoporosis progresses to advanced stages of bone degradation, bones that we depend on, such as the spine, hips, and lower extremities, can become porous and worn down like a piece of wood that has been set out to dry, to become a flimsy, brittle, and weak structure.
Another symptom that appears as humans progress in age is arthritis, the degradation of the cartilage coating the ends of bones. Cartilage acts as a cushion and lubricant meant to aid in the efficient gliding of joints in actions such as when the knees flex and extend when stepping up and down stairs. Advanced forms of arthritis feature cartilage degeneration at the ends of joints. As joint cartilage diminishes, sensations and sounds of crepitus can appear alongside increased joint pain due to bone-to-bone contact.
Bone cells reside in the connective tissue family, like their cousins ligament, tendon, and muscle cells. Equipped with a blood supply, bone cells are comprised of organic tissue that reacts to the environment they are exposed to, in which they can either grow and become more dense or atrophy and shrink in size. A commonly understood concept is that when muscles are broken down from the effects of a concentrated exercise session, the muscles will heal over time and become bigger, stronger, and more durable to lift more weight and last longer throughout future exercise sessions. Bones react similarly by becoming stronger and more dense when a consistent, safe, and effective exercise routine is applied.
Without going into too much scientific detail, bone cells and other connective tissue throughout the body react to exercise by adapting to the imposed demand applied via exercise. In exercise physiologist lingo, we sometimes use the SAID principle, an abbreviation for “specific adaptation to imposed demand”. If we apply the SAID principle utilizing exercise to imply a specific demand for bone strengthening, then exercise would act as a type of productive stress to disturb bone cells by the force applied to them by a form of resistance training. As the bones detect this stress, their natural reaction is to regenerate new bone cells at the microscopic level. Over a period of time of consistent and injury-free resistance training, more bone cells are produced, and bone mineral density can be significantly increased. In contrast to how bones adapt to become stronger over time by practicing skillful exercise adherence, bones can shrink and lose mass when physical activity levels decrease or exercise is absent. Additionally, developing muscular and tendon strength from routine exercise supports joints by helping them stay aligned, which can mitigate bone-to-bone friction present in advanced forms of arthritis.
Natalia has a healthy relationship with the current state of her bones and joints. She’s lived on this earth for over fifty years, given birth to a few humans, worked her butt off in a successful career, and endured a few injuries along the way. She understands that the framework of her body has endured some stress and that skillfully conducted exercise reinforces her bone architecture. While exercise adherence is undoubtedly a staple in her life to reinforce her body, the most critical ingredient toward her success is her inspiration and drive to want to live her life throughout her sixties happy, healthy, and strong so she can enjoy the thrills of being a grandmother, a good friend, and never get off the roller coaster of adventure that is in front of her as she progresses throughout her post retirement portion of life.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
