Out of the saddle climbing and bone density

chainstay

Well actually I do quite a bit of it standing up, but I am generally working on chest, shoulder, biceps, triceps, lats, abs, lower back and external obliques. I ran and mogul skiied for years, which theoretically should be good for bone density, but I pounded and ground down the cartiliage in my right knee to nothing---now have a bone on bone situation, and the doctor asked me to give up those two sports. Of course having some cartiliage removed previously didn't help the situation either.

How about all those folks over on the power forum doing all those 2*20 intervals this winter at their functional threshhold? Maybe they are exerting enough force in those intervals to keep up their bone density?

I still need to read a lot of the articles posted in this thread.

chainstay

Well I just checked the sticky acronym thread and I can't find any BDTP in the list----Bone Density Threshold Power.

bushido5

I may be a little confused but I think it is weight bearing exercises that builds bone with or without impact.

sogood

It's stresses of all form. Those baby osteoblasts/osteoclasts respond to dynamic stresses. Static weight bearing is just a part of the dynamic stress equation, hence acceleration and deceleration.

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If the osteoclasts break down bone in order to maintain blood Ph, wouldn't that imply that long climbs may work against bone density? Your blood gets more acidic and stays that way for a longer time, especially if you don't stop to sit down in the grass and rest at the end of the climb.

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bushido5

Check out this link from Velonews

http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/13527.0.html

chainstay

For what its worth, I have noticed that Hammer Perpetuem, my on the bike liquid food for long distance rides, has about 243 mg of calcium per 260 calorie serving. Most of my other bike food/drinks have way less calcium, or don't mention it at all on their labels. I can't say whether taking calcium supplementation during long distance rides is something we need to be concerned about, but it sounds sensible to me.