Could lifting heavy weights be the key to stronger bones and a longer life? What if you could reverse bone loss—even in your 70s?

Philip (@witsandweights) tackles one of the most overlooked aspects of health: bone density. Learn why the traditional advice about osteoporosis falls short and discover the science-backed power of strength training. Philip shares practical tips and key principles to build stronger bones, improve mobility, and maintain independence at any age. Whether you're 30 and proactive or 70 and looking to regain vitality, this will shift your thinking about bone health forever.

📧 To learn more about lifting weights, workout programs, and tips for strength training and building muscle, join my FREE mailing list at witsandweights.com/email

Today, you’ll learn all about:

1:10 The reality of age-related bone loss
2:54 Common myths about bone health
6:51 Three key principles for bone adaptation
11:07 Why bodyweight exercises and cardio aren’t enough?
12:25 Misconceptions about lifting heavy weights
16:17 The transformative benefits of strength training
17:23 True strength training vs. lifting weights
19:42 How bone adaptation mirrors muscle growth principles
21:30 Outro

Episode resources:

• Join Philip's FREE mailing list at witsandweights.com/email

Related episode:

• Why Women SHOULD Load Their Spine for Stronger Bones

How Strength Training Prevents Osteoporosis

Traditional advice about bone health has it all wrong. While calcium supplements and light exercise have their place, the real key to maintaining strong bones lies in something far more powerful: strength training with weights.

Most medical professionals and fitness magazines push the same tired recommendations: take your calcium, get some vitamin D, and maybe do some walking. While these aren't inherently bad suggestions, they're woefully incomplete. They miss the fundamental principle of how bones actually adapt and grow stronger.

Your bones aren't static structures - they're living tissue that constantly remodels itself based on the demands you place on it. This is known as Wolff's Law: bones adapt to the forces placed upon them. When you only perform light activity, you're telling your bones they only need to be strong enough for light activity.

After age 30, we lose 3-5% of our bone mass every decade. For women after menopause, this loss accelerates dramatically. Without intervention, this gradual decline can turn a minor fall into a life-altering injury.

Strength training provides three key elements that make it uniquely effective for building and maintaining bone density:

1. Progressive Loading

Just like muscles, bones need gradually increasing loads to grow stronger. Light weights and bodyweight exercises eventually hit a ceiling - they simply don't provide enough stimulus for continued adaptation.

2. Compound Movements

Exercises like squats and deadlifts load your entire skeletal system, triggering bone adaptation throughout your body. This comprehensive loading pattern is far more effective than isolated movements or machine exercises.

3. Mechanical Tension

Heavy lifting creates significant forces that your bones must adapt to - forces far greater than anything you'll experience in daily life or traditional exercise.

Common Misconceptions About Lifting for Bone Health

"Isn't Heavy Lifting Dangerous?"

This fear gets it backward. While proper form and progression are crucial, the controlled stress of strength training is exactly what your bones need to grow stronger.

"I'm Too Old to Start"

Research shows significant improvements in bone density from strength training even in people in their 70s and 80s. Your bones maintain their ability to adapt throughout your life - they just need the right stimulus.

Beyond Bone Health: The Compound Benefits

Strength training doesn't just build stronger bones. You'll also experience:

• Improved balance and coordination

• Enhanced muscular stability around joints

• Better hormonal health

• Increased metabolic rate

• Greater body awareness

• Maintained independence as you age

Taking Action: The Path Forward

The science is clear: strength training is one of our most powerful tools for maintaining bone health throughout life. Whether you're 30 or 70, it's never too early or too late to start. The key is focusing on fundamental movement patterns - squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows - and progressively loading them over time.

Remember: your bones are literally getting stronger with every rep. The question isn't whether you should start strength training - it's whether you can afford not to.

📲 Send me a text message!

👩‍💻 Book a FREE 15-Minute Rapid Nutrition Assessment

🎓 Join Wits & Weights Physique University

👥 Join our Facebook community for live Q&As & support

✉️ Join the FREE email list with insider strategies and bonus content!

📱 Try MacroFactor for free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS. The only food logging app that adjusts to your metabolism!

🏋️‍♀️ Download Boostcamp for free and access 70+ evidence-based workout programs

🩷 Love the podcast? Leave a 5-star review or share on social and tag @witsandweights

📞 Send a Q&A voicemail

Have you followed the podcast?

Get notified of new episodes. Use your favorite podcast platform or one of the buttons below. Then hit “Subscribe” or “Follow” and you’re good to go!

Transcript

Philip Pape: 0:01

Most people know that bones get weaker as we age, but what if I told you that many of us are approaching this problem completely backward? Medicine has led us to believe that bone loss is inevitable, that calcium supplements and basic movement and exercise are our best defense. Yet research shows there is a far more powerful approach that not only prevents bone loss, but actually builds stronger bones at any age. Today, we're going to uncover how lifting weights yes, actual barbells, dumbbells, machines could be your best defense against osteoporosis and bone loss. You'll learn why the conventional wisdom falls short and how strength training might be what's missing in the longevity approach. Whether you're in your 30s and want to prevent bone loss before it starts, or you're older and concerned about maintaining independence, this episode could dramatically change how you think about bone health and aging. Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.

Philip Pape: 1:10

I'm your host, philip Pape, and when we talk about aging and health, bone density often takes a backseat to more visible concerns like muscle mass or body fat. But here is the sobering reality After age 30, we start losing bone mass at a very alarming rate. It's about 3-5% per decade. So for many people, especially women after menopause, this loss accelerates dramatically. The consequences are that even a minor fall that would have been just an inconvenience in your younger years could now lead to a life-altering fracture, hospitalization, getting on medication and other worsening side effects. But today's episode isn't about fear, although that can be a motivator. Today is really about empowering you with information to completely change your life. We're going to talk about how strength training with weights not just barbells although I think that is a very powerful and effective tool can be your secret weapon against bone loss. Now, if you want a lot more free content related to strength training and lifting weights, supporting your metabolism, building muscle and all of this and you want some exclusive insider content, just join my free email list using the link in my show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash email. I drop lots of emails with these kinds of mind shifts and what to do about it, and addressing the things that those in their 30s, 40s and beyond often care about and bring up as questions in their fitness journey, and osteoporosis and bone loss is definitely an important one. So, again, join my email list. You'll get those free emails that I don't send anywhere else Go to witsandweightscom slash email or click the link in my show notes.

Philip Pape: 2:54

All right, so I'm very excited about today's topic because I think it's the first time we've ever discussed osteoporosis and bone loss in detail on the show, even though I've alluded to it many times in the context of strength training. And so, to set up the episode for you, we are going to first talk about why traditional approaches to bone health, like the ones that you read about in the newspaper fitness magazines, are often not enough. They're just not adequate. Then we're going to dive into the principles of strength training that make it so effective for bone density, and then we're going to uncover why alternatives like body weight exercises, often aren't enough, followed by the connection between muscle and bone development, and then we'll look at some misconceptions. So I'm trying to pack a lot into this episode, but there are aspects that come up frequently among clients and listeners you know like is heavy lifting safe? It is, you know, high impact worth it for osteoporosis, things like that, and so I want to get into each of those and then reveal the benefits of all of this stuff that even go beyond bone health, just to tie it all up. So let's start with why the conventional wisdom, I think, needs to be addressed.

Philip Pape: 4:03

As always, right, we talk about misinformation and it's disinformation. Misinformation or just people run with the same standard advice that has gone on for years and then they never actually addressed the thing that's going to impact you the most. It really frustrates me. So I still read the paper, the physical paper, I think. Sunday they always have like a little health article and I was excited because the other day they had an article about you know why you should lift weights and muscle mass and all of this, and it was great. They actually, I think, mentioned Mike Zordos, who's a evidence based guy, and I'm like, wow, to see this in the paper is incredible. But 99% of the time it'll be something like I have osteoporosis, what do I do? And then the standard advice is all right, you got to look at your calcium supplements, your vitamin D, you need to make sure you're moving, you're doing some exercise, you know, go ahead and walk, all of that, and it's like where is the? You know, learn to lift weights and load your muscles and bones, because that's going to not only help with the situation, it could potentially reverse it right.

Philip Pape: 5:03

Here's what most people don't realize Bones are living tissue. Bones are constantly remodeling themselves based on the demands we place on them. You know we think of muscle because muscle's, you know, soft Actually I hope my muscle's not too soft anymore, but muscle is like you know, it's soft tissue. We think of bones as these firm, you know, solid structures. It's like adamantium and wolverine right, like they're just fixed in place and they don't change. But it's not true. They are a living tissue that can adapt and remodel themselves. And there's something called Wolff's Law, w-o-l-f-f where bones adapt to the forces placed upon them. Ah, just like muscle. Oh, so that's a huge clue. We can do something about it. We can cause stress and adaptation to our bones.

Philip Pape: 5:46

When you're only doing light activity, you're telling your bones they only need to be strong enough for light activity, which is our baseline. Just walking around, just doing light stuff, carrying the groceries that's light activity. Unfortunately, as you get older, that light activity is offset by the reduction in bone density to where you know you have less and less of it. Right, and think about when someone is bedridden they lose bone density rapidly. Or even somebody, unfortunately, in like a nursing home who's sitting down all day. It's because the bones aren't experiencing any significant stress whatsoever, and so the body adapts. So if that happens and we know the opposite is also true when you place appropriate stress on bones through weight-bearing exercise or I'm going to use the term training because it needs to be methodical, systematic and progress over time your bones respond by becoming stronger, just like your muscle.

Philip Pape: 6:41

Now, what makes strength training itself so uniquely effective, uniquely effective over anything else in the world in existence for bone health? I think that it comes out of three principles, three key principles that drive bone adaptation. And then, if you can understand the principles, you can change how you think about your exercise and training program, as well as aging itself. Exercise and training program as well as aging itself this is the powerful stuff that made me realize when I turned 40, that I could do things that made myself a year younger every time I got a year older. And that's just a simple concept. I mean. In reality, it's not that exact one-to-one type of deal, because otherwise I'll be like Benjamin Button and I'll be five years old when I'm 90. It's not what I mean. But what I mean is I am not beholden to age, and neither are you, all right. So the first principle is progressive overload.

Philip Pape: 7:33

Now I like a different phrase that I heard from Dr Jordan Feigenbaum. He calls it progressive loading, the idea that we're not actually overloading our muscles, we're just loading them enough right to their limit so that they have to adapt. But anyway, just like muscles will not grow stronger if you lift the same weight forever, if you're doing the same pink dumbbells or the same cable stack weight on the machine, your muscles aren't going to get stronger, they're going to get just strong enough to do that and then that's it. Same thing with bones. Bones will not get denser without gradually increasing the load over time, and this is where the traditional exercise programs for bone health fall way short. We're talking about stretching and mobility and yoga and walking. Okay, it's great to be active, but none of that is going to help you progress your bones beyond what they are needed to be to support your body weight or very light loads. Just by definition, you as an organism don't need to because you're telling yourself I don't need to. So progressive overload, progressive loading, which you're going to do anyway for your muscles guess what? They help your bones. Great, two for one.

Philip Pape: 8:37

The second principle is compound movements. Okay now, compound lifts, compound movements are those exercises that involve multiple joints and large muscle groups working together as a system in a movement pattern. Think about a squat. It loads your entire skeletal system, from your shoulders down through your spine, your posterior chain, your hips, your legs, even your calves and feet to an extent even your calves and feet to an extent. And this comprehensive, systematic loading pattern is a natural human movement and it triggers bone adaptation throughout your body, not just in an isolated area. This is why I don't like isolation movements as a singular form of training, like if you've never lifted before and then you go and just do isolation movements. Not only do I not think that cuts it, I think you're setting yourself up for potential injury simply because you're trying to hit one spot and you're not working on the rest of the muscles and joints and bones around it, and therefore the weak spots can really be a bottleneck or a potential source of injury. So, compound lifts, using your whole system. I think the older we are, the more important that actually becomes, particularly for bone density, because you're using your whole system All right.

Philip Pape: 9:52

The third principle, then, is mechanical tension. Now notice, all of these principles apply to strength training and muscle mass as well. So mechanical tension is not just your moving weight, it's you're creating significant force, you're applying significant force that your bones then have to adapt to. And that's the key right Is that when you're combining that with progressive overload, going right to that limit, your bones then get a signal, or your hormones get a signal that your bones have to adapt to be a little bit more dense, thus stronger the next time, along with your muscles. They all go hand in hand. So this is why heavy lifting, when done properly, is so effective.

Philip Pape: 10:33

The forces involved in a heavy deadlift or squat are far greater than anything you'll experience in daily life or traditional exercise, and therefore they equip you for well more than what you need there in daily life and will offset the decline that you would otherwise experience with aging, and it'll make you way more capable as an older person than all the other older individuals. You see, which is great. I mean that lets you show up, that lets you live a long, healthy, vibrant life, keeps you off medication, keeps you out of the hospital, keeps you from disease. And this brings us to an important question then why aren't body weight exercises enough? Why is cardio not enough? All right, now, don't get me wrong. These all have their place in an active lifestyle, but it comes down to physics. A push-up might engage your upper body, but the load is limited to your body weight. Of course, you can put your feet up higher at an angle. Now you've got a little bit more body weight, but it's your body weight. In fact, it's a fraction of your body weight. Right, because some of the load is being transferred into the ground.

Philip Pape: 11:34

A typical barbell bench press, on the other hand, can safely, safely, very safely, expose your bones to two, three or four times that force. Same applies to your lower body. Right, walking or jogging doesn't create enough mechanical stress to optimally stimulate bone growth, whereas a squat absolutely is going to. And keep in mind, a barbell is probably the most effective tool for the job because it's safe. Right, you can set up spotter arms. It's symmetrical. You can load it progressively, even with small increases in weight. You can use microplates and load it progressively forever, effectively. Right, and we know that we can use our normal human movement patterns with a barbell. Right, picking up deadlift, squatting, squat, you know. Vertical press, horizontal press, you know you've got rows, you've got pulls, all of that good stuff. So that's kind of the foundation.

Philip Pape: 12:26

Now where it gets interesting is the connection between muscle and bone development, because when you're strength training, you're not just building muscle or just building bone. You're actually triggering a cascade of adaptations throughout your body. So listen to me carefully here. Strong muscles create greater forces on bones. Those forces then stimulate bone growth. The process of building muscle increases production of hormones that also support bone health, and so it's a beautiful synergy that you can't replicate with anything else. It's all cascading together. All right.

Philip Pape: 13:02

Now let's talk about some of the misconceptions that I think still hold people back, that I hear all the time. This is kind of like my Q&A segment in here, just with the A part, the answers. So first is the idea that lifting heavy weights is dangerous, which is ridiculous. Okay, lifting weights is probably the safest activity that we know. When you compare it to like all forms of movement and activity in sports and you look at the rate of injury it's one of.

Philip Pape: 13:30

If you're older, if you're worried about bone density, I think this fear is actually backward, because, yes, you have to start appropriately and progress gradually, but the controlled stress of proper strength training is exactly what your bones need. It's like thinking that you shouldn't brush your teeth because it might wear them down. The opposite is true. Right, they're going to wear down unless you brush them Another misconception I'm too old and I can't get started. I'm already too weak, my bones are already brittle. I already have osteoporosis. I'm already taking Boniva or whatever it is. I already have to take my calcium supplements. I think the research completely debunks this. Studies show significant improvements in bone density from strength training, even in people in their 70s and 80s, just like we see with muscle mass, and so I'm firmly convinced at this point it is never too late to start. Never, never, never.

Philip Pape: 14:24

Your bones maintain their ability to adapt throughout your life. You're human. That doesn't change. All they need is the right stimulus. So the benefits of strength training, as I've alluded to before, go far beyond just preventing fractures, although that's extremely important, because falling is one of, if not the top, cause of death. When you look at like proximal cause, it leads to other things. That then often leads to death down the line, and I've seen it with people in my life as well, where it just upends your life completely and makes so many other things harder to do. And then we also, if you've never been strength training before and you have a fracture. You're then even less likely to start it because you think, well, now I can't because I've had this fracture or some other injury.

Shonnetta: 15:10

Hi, my name is Seanetta and I want to give a big shout out to Philip of Wits and Weights. I discovered his podcast just a few short months ago, but I quickly realized how valuable his content is. With all the many fitness and nutrition influencers out in the world today, I often suffer from information overload, but Philip poses careful questions to his guests that get to the meat of the subject matter, while most everyone offers free guides to this, and that what I found most unique about Philip is his live training and weekly Q&A sessions. If I can't make it live, I can always catch the replay. I am very grateful to find someone I feel is so passionate and genuine to his purpose, while also being hands-on within the Wits and Weights online community. He is truly only a click away. Thanks, philip, for all you do. Online community.

Philip Pape: 15:55

He is truly only a click away. Thanks, philip, for all you do. So. Obviously, training and developing strength and bones are going to prevent them as well. So if you fall even if you do fall because I can fall I'm 44 and I can trip on a rock and fall I fell when I was like 10 and I broke my arm you are much less likely to have a fracture or much less likely for it to be an issue, because you're stronger.

Philip Pape: 16:13

You have stronger bones, stronger muscles, especially like those little, like a small fall that for a younger person, would be no big deal. And so when you train with weights, especially compound movements, you're also building and improving balance and coordination and mobility. You're building stronger connective tissue between all the joints. You're enhancing the stability of your muscles around the joints. You're boosting your hormonal health Ladies right, hormonal health. This is a massive lifestyle change that will help with your hormones. You're going to increase your metabolic rate so you burn more calories, you can eat more food, have more energy coming in. You're also going to have better metabolic rate, so you burn more calories, you can eat more food, have more energy coming in. You're also going to have better body awareness, whether you want to call that mind-muscle connection or just balance and mobility. It's very important because then you're not going to fall as much, you're going to have more independence, you're going to have better long-term health. You're not just avoiding osteoporosis, you're maintaining the ability to live life fully as you age. Every one of those reps in the gym with that load that's pushing you is literally reshaping your body's architecture to be more resilient.

Philip Pape: 17:32

So let's talk about what strength training looks like compared to what most people think of as lifting weights, because that's another pet peeve of mine of as lifting weights, because that's another pet peeve of mine, right? A lot of traditional workouts or YouTube videos or what used to be in the magazines, or people who just go to the gym and they don't have a plan. What they end up doing is a ton of repetitions with lightweights, like they just do lots of reps, lightweights, 10, 20, 30 reps, lightweights. They use the machine, the circuit program, and they do the same weights every time, and I mentioned before that that is not going to help. That's only going to get you to a certain point, and oftentimes they're focused on isolated movements. You think of some of these machines. They put you in a fixed plane and you're just doing this isolated, one joint movement.

Philip Pape: 18:08

Now, is it better than nothing? Sure, when I see an older person in the gym, just there, I'm like, okay, I'm super excited for them because they're at least focused on trying to be healthy. But then when I see no progress being made, I'm like, well, you're kind of maintaining a minimal. That's probably better than most people, but a far cry from where you could be to really thrive and get the benefits of true strength training. And it's training, true strength training. You're not actually training when you're just using the machines randomly and the weights aren't going up, because the magic happens when you focus on those fundamental movement patterns. The squats, hinges, deadlifts, presses, rows right. Those movements, when progressively loaded over time, create the environment for muscle and bone development. Like we mentioned before, they train your body as an integrated system rather than a collection of parts. So it's super important and if you hear this and you're still not sure what to do, that's okay.

Philip Pape: 19:05

My plan isn't to like tell you how to lift weights today. I have a lot of other episodes that do that but I would say, just reach out to me or join my email list and reply and say, hey, I heard your episode about osteoporosis. What do I do next? Because I need to understand your level of training, advancement, your equipment, how many days per week you can work out things like that, just to kind of put you in the right direction, even if it is to send you to a template or video or resource that I have, all of which are free. You know, I don't charge for any of this stuff unless you tell me then, hey, I need the accountability, support and personalization that a coach provides. Then you know, let me know, but I do have a lot of free resources that'll get you going.

Philip Pape: 19:45

Now, something fascinating that most people don't realize about all of this that the way that bones adapt to strength training is remarkably similar to how muscles grow. I mean, I mentioned it earlier that they're living tissue, right, but even if you weren't thinking about muscles and you only cared about bones, bones need increasingly challenging loads to maintain and build density, and that will be way more effective than any medication or supplement. And I'm not a doctor. It's outside my scope of practice to tell you to take or not take anything like that that your doctor told you to. But seriously, folks, the same principles that help us build muscle and strength are also helping us build stronger bones, and that's the two-for-one benefit that you simply can't get from any of the other approaches. And so you know, just to put Bo on that, all right. As we wrap up, I want you to remember this isn't just about osteoporosis or osteopenia or, you know, just preventing fractures. It's building that foundation for a long, active and independent life.

Philip Pape: 20:44

Think of the things that you want to do when you're 70, 80, 90. Look around you, look at your family, think of your family history and what happens to people when they get older. And whether you want that or not I'm guessing you don't but what do you want? Take it a step further what do you want, what is aligned with your values that you want to do, and don't let the limitations of traditional getting old thinking get in the way. Assume I want you to assume, that you will be able to be as strong and fit and healthy as a 50-year-old when you're 70, 80, or 90. As a typical 50-year-old, you're going to be at least as strong, healthy and fit 70, 80, 90. And assuming that, what does that look like for you? And tell yourself that that is why you want to lift weights right, not just to build stronger bones, but a stronger person, a functional person.

Philip Pape: 21:34

Now, if you're listening to this and you're 30 or you're 70, doesn't matter. Never too late, never too early to start. You start now. I want you to start now. I want you to either reach out if you need help with how to train and what kind of programming would work for you, or just go out and do it. If you have the resources, if you have support, if you have a coach, whatever, I don't care, go do it. If you have the resources, if you have support, if you have a coach, whatever, I don't care, go do it. Go do it.

Philip Pape: 21:56

The research is clear Strength training is one of the most powerful tools we have for maintaining bone health throughout our lives. All right, so remember, if you want some weekly evidence-based tips about strength training, building muscle, also losing fat, hormones, optimizing your health and you're not going to find these anywhere else with the approach that I take, in the way that I take it, plus my quirky personality, you're not going to get anywhere, of course, until I'm able to clone myself someday in the future. Join my email list using the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash email Again. Just join my email list. That's also how you can reach out to me and we can have a conversation. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember your bones are going to get stronger with every rep, no matter your age. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.