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As the days grow colder, shorter, and altogether more miserable, it can be tempting to just stay indoors and curl up on the sofa, rather than to go out and exercise.
But this reduced physical activity can take a toll on our bone health, especially given the limited exposure to sunlight we get in winter and the higher risk of slips and falls on icy surfaces.
“Bone responds to the demand that we place upon it. Therefore, if you reduce the demand because the weather is cold and wet, expect to lose some of that protective strength,” Uzo Ehiogu said, who is a physiotherapist at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and a spokesperson for the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists.
Fortunately, taking intentional and proactive steps to protect and strengthen our skeleton can have a significant impact.
“Bone is living, changing, adapting tissue, so we can actually do things which change the way it behaves, so that it can adapt and reduce the speed of deterioration,” Ehiogu explained.
From exercising indoors to making small adjustments to your daily routine, there are plenty of ways to support your bone health throughout the colder months.
Here are nine simple ways to winter-proof your bones.
1. Get your steps in
“Cardiovascular exercise, such as walking and getting slightly out of breath, generally supports good health and is a weight-bearing activity, so can help our bones,” Ehiogu said.
Try to get out in the daylight when you can, but if it’s dark and slippery, you can always increase your step count indoors.
“You could use your house like a walking circuit, and march up the stairs and around each room until you accumulate around 10 minutes of activity,” suggests the physiotherapist.
2. Consider taking a vitamin D supplement
“Vitamin D is really important for bones and we get most of our vitamin D from sunlight. However, during the winter there’s less sunlight which means that there will be insufficient vitamin D production,” Ehiogu said.
“Therefore, UK guidance advises adults to consider 10 micrograms of vitamin D daily during autumn and winter. But if in doubt, speak to your pharmacist.”
3. Eat more calcium-rich foods
“Diet is really important and does need to contain an adequate amount of calcium in it because calcium has been shown to support bone health,” Ehiogu said.
Good sources of calcium include milk, cheese, green leafy vegetables, and fish where you eat the bones, such as sardines.
Adults aged 19 to 64 and over need 700mg of calcium a day, according to the NHS website.
4. Gently warm up your joints before exercising
“It can take a little bit longer for our joints to warm up in the colder months, so I would recommend doing some gentle mobility exercises to warm up before doing any exercise,” advises the physiotherapist.
“You could extend and flex your knee for two sets of 10 repetitions or do calf raises, for example. This will help will loosen your joints up and will help make them more mobile.”
5. Prioritise strength training
“Strength training is really important for our bone health, and you don’t even have to do it in a gym,” said Ehiogu. “You can do body weight exercises instead, such as squats and lunges.
“Strength training helps load the skeleton and also strengthen the muscles around the arms, the legs and the hips.
“You ideally want to do some form of strength training around three times a week if you want to maintain bone health and also muscle health.”
6. Do some repetition of sit and stand exercises
“Doing a sit-to-stand or a squatting-type exercise will help load your ankles, hips, all your long bones in your lower body and also your spine,” Ehiogu explained.
“You could do eight or 10 repetitions of sit-to-stand exercises, and if you find that too easy, you could pop a shopping bag of books between your legs to add some extra weight.”
7. Try some wall push-ups
“For your upper body, I would recommend starting with one horizontal pushing exercise, such as a wall push-up,” suggested Ehiogu.
“Position your legs away from the wall, put your hands against the wall, and lean in and press into the wall, and then press away.”
Do this for eight to 10 repetitions.
“If that’s easy, you can go onto the floor and do a box push-up where you keep your knees and hands on the ground and then gradually build up to a full push-up.” said the physiotherapist.
8. Lift a shopping bag over your head
“For a simple vertical pushing exercise, I would put a few cans of beans into a shopping bag and lift that above your head for a few repetitions each side,” Ehiogu recommended.
“You can do this in a sitting position or a standing position, and when it starts to feel easy, put some more weight into the bag.”
The physiotherapist highlighted how this shoulder press exercise mimics movements needed in everyday life,
“When you get on a flight with a cabin bag, you need to have the strength and capacity in your upper body to be able to lift your 10-20 kilogram bag into the overhead locker, so it’s a useful exercise to strengthen your bones and muscles for these practical situations,” Ehiogu said.
“These exercises are simple and don’t require any specialised equipment, so everyone can do them, regardless of age.”
9. Stay consistent
Little and often is key.
“Three or four slightly shorter sessions a week is going to be much more beneficial and easier to maintain psychologically than one really long session,” Ehiogu said.
Leaning on friends and apps for support can help.
“If you’ve got someone else who can do these exercises with you, that’s always really helpful because that means that someone is there to help keep you accountable,” the physiotherapist said.
“Most of us will also have a smartphone now, and there’s lots of apps out there that will help track your performance and progress. Seeing these improvements can really help boost motivation.”
