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Jordan Pysz / ifoundmydoctor.com
Kimberlie’s DEXA scans show that her bone health has improved since beginning the OsteoStrong program. The Pennsylvania transplant enjoys a round of golf once or twice a month with plans to play more after retirement.
The opportunity to play golf a little more regularly was near the top of the list of reasons why Kimberlie Rogers-Bowers and her husband moved from Pennsylvania to Florida a few years ago. But a funny thing happened on the way to the first tee. “The beach got in the way,” Kimberlie says with a chuckle. “I love to go to the beach, love to go boating and bike ride, and there are so many of those kinds of things to do here in Florida that we actually don’t golf as much here as we did in Pennsylvania.” Kimberlie, 60, hasn’t given up golf completely. She plays once or twice a month and says she’ll likely devote more time to the game after retirement. For now, though, she’s doing her best to take advantage of everything else that the state offers. “We’re really enjoying it here,” says Kimberlie, who made the move to Florida after “doing the snowbird thing” for a few years and brought with her a medical condition that has the potential to greatly limit her activity level: osteoporosis. Along with its precursor, osteopenia, osteoporosis develops when bone growth fails to keep pace with bone degeneration to the point where bone mineral density becomes dangerously low. Found most often in postmenopausal women, osteopenia and osteoporosis increase the risk for hip, spine and wrist fractures. Those conditions can also lead to a stooped posture, which can cause balance disorders and dangerous falls. Considered a silent disease by many physicians, osteoporosis affects 54 million Americans, including many men, and it often goes undetected until a fracture occurs. Kimberlie was fortunate to learn of her condition through a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. “I was originally diagnosed with osteoporosis,” Kimberlie explains. “After that, my doctor put me on medication, and my osteoporosis actually improved. It reverted to osteopenia. “After I came to Florida, I had another DEXA scan that showed that everything was remaining steady, which was a good thing. But I told my doctor that I didn’t want to stay on the medication because it has some long-term side effects. “That’s when he asked me if I had ever heard of OsteoStrong. I said, No, I haven’t. And he said, I have a couple of patients who have tried it, and I’ve heard some good things about it. It would probably be worth your time and effort to check it out to see if it can help you get off the medication.”
Resistance-Based Program
OsteoStrong is a revolutionary exercise program that has helped more than 25,000 people reverse the effects of osteoporosis and osteopenia by using specialized biomechanical equipment once a week for about 15 minutes. The equipment is designed for resistance-based pushing and pulling with the arms and legs. During the resistance motion, a pressure many times the user’s body weight can be safely applied. “The difference between OsteoStrong equipment and the equipment at a traditional gym is that ours does not involve a counter force,” states Mark Brady, president of OsteoStrong in South Pasadena. “Because there’s no force pushing against you, you create a force within your comfort zone, and you’re in control at all times. “For example, on our lower body machine, I’ve had women in their 80s who weigh 100 pounds exert forces in excess of 1,000 pounds. For a 100-pound person to develop new bone working out on traditional weight equipment, they would need to create a resistance of over 400 pounds. That simply can’t be done by 99 percent of all people in a gym environment because it involves weights they couldn’t physically move. Or, if they could move them, they’d be at high risk of injury.” To understand the difference, Mark invites people to come in and try the OsteoStrong equipment during a free orientation session that will allow them to learn more about the science behind the program. “This is an amazing concept that is the culmination of 12 years of research that looked into the body’s adaptive response to growing bone and muscle to improve the density of the bones,” he says. “Medical research has shown when you put certain forces on the bones, the body responds by growing new bone tissue. That’s what OsteoStrong does.” According to Mark, studies have found that OsteoStrong improves bone density 7 to 14 percent per year. In addition, people will increase their strength by an average of 73 percent over their first year at OsteoStrong. “The results of these short sessions are absolutely amazing,” he impresses. Mark also points out that doing an OsteoStrong session more than once a week does not promote additional benefit. As a result, workouts are effective and time efficient. Mark also notes that bone loss is not exclusive to any age group. “Osteoporosis is not something that only happens to old people,” he explains. “As a result, we have clients from young to old. And men are not immune. When men start losing their testosterone, their bone loss becomes more rapid. “At OsteoStrong, we also offer people an opportunity to learn more about osteopenia and osteoporosis and why the OsteoStrong program is so effective at fighting them.”
“Well Worth It”
Encouraged by her doctor’s suggestion, Kimberlie began researching OsteoStrong. That led to a visit to the OsteoStrong location in South Pasadena, where she soon joined the program. More than three years later, she’s glad she did. “I go religiously once a week, and one of the things that I really love about the program is that it doesn’t take much time out of your day,” Kimberlie relates. “For me, the drive to get there takes longer than the actual work on the machines, so you’re in and out pretty quickly. “What’s best of course is that the program works. When I got the results of my last bone density test toward the end of last year, it showed that my numbers had actually improved a little bit from where they were in the past test. “The improvement wasn’t significant, but there was improvement, which is the key, and that made my doctor very happy. She said that at my age and with my bone structure, which is very, very small, any kind of improvement is significant.” Kimberlie began OsteoStrong workouts largely in an effort to get off osteoporosis medication. The program has allowed her to do just that. As a result, she gladly recommends the program to others. “I would absolutely recommend OsteoStrong,” she confirms. “In fact, I already have recommended it. “The way I see it, if doing some simple exercises once a week for 15 minutes can get you off the medication, it’s well worth it. I support the program 100 percent.”
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