Brisk walking is one of the easiest weight-bearing exercises, and helps increase bone mineral density, which often decreases with age, but nearly 80 percent of walkers fail to walk at a pace vigorous enough to benefit bone density, the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association said.
Association director-general Chen Fang-ping (陳芳萍) said that a woman’s bone mineral density usually peaks between the age of 30 and 35, but it starts decreasing by an average of 1 to 2 percent after she reaches 40.
“The rate of decrease further accelerates after menopause, by 3 to 5 percent annually,” Chen said.
Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Taipei Times
Chen added that men aged from 61 to 70 have a fatality rate of 22 percent one year after suffering a hip fracture, compared with just 15 percent among women in the same age group.
Citing research published in 2007 by the English-language journal Bone, Chen said research showed a 0.4 percent increase in the bone mineral density of post-menstrual women after they completed a 15-week program of brisk walking, which required them to walk 4.8km at a pace of 6.3kph to 6.4kph five times a week.
“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Journal of the American Medical Association define brisk walking as a pace of from 4.8kph to 6.3kph, but nearly 80 percent of 500 respondents to a recent online poll conducted by Pollster Technology Marketing at the association’s request said they walked at less than 3kph,” Chen said.
Chen said in addition to doing weight-bearing exercise regularly, other effective ways to prevent osteoporosis — a disease in which the density and quality of bones is reduced — include increasing exposure to sunlight and boosting calcium intake.
Health and Exercise Association speed-walking instructor Tu Hsin-yu (涂馨友) said people should speed-walk to pop music of 90 to 120 beats per minute, such as Taiwanese diva A-mei’s (阿妹) Bad Boy, to lift their mood and help them work out longer.
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