One form of training that is being recommended by certain people to individuals that have osteoporosis is water fitness training. What needs to be determined is whether this form of training is advantageous for people that have osteoporosis. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of water fitness training on individuals that have osteoporosis and its resulting effects on maintaining and increasing bone density.
Before we decide which types of training techniques should be incorporated into a well-designed osteoporosis fitness program, we must look at what we are trying to accomplish. What I mean by this is that the foundation of any training decision must be made by looking at the physiological response to the training techniques being implemented.
In order to maximize gains in bone density, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration from a physiological perspective. Increases in bone density are dependent on the ability to put force on people’s bones. One of these protocols involves strength training. The question is, does water fitness training and strength training provide the proper stimulus to accomplish this goal? The answer appears to be no. Performing strength training exercises in the water does not provide the individual with the best possible result for the following reasons: the speed of contractions cannot be fast enough to elicit the best possible adaptation and no eccentric load is being placed on the muscles during water fitness training. Eccentric load refers to the negative part of the weight training movement. It is responsible for providing the highest gains in strength and the highest application of force. It is the application of force that is responsible for gains in bone density.
Water training resistance is increased by the position of the hands, the use of gloves and styrofoam dumbbells. These factors contribute to an increase in drag force and not the load, and as a result, do not provide people that have osteoporosis with the possible environment to put force on their bones. In addition, training in water produces the opposite of what we are training to achieve. This is because water fitness training provides an unloading effect on bones, resulting in bone loss for people that spend a lot of time training in water.