Timmerie has heard for years that osteoporosis impacts many, and that about half of adults over 50 have some sort of bone mass loss. But now she’s hearing from young millennials who have been told the same thing. Why is it happening earlier and earlier?

Personal trainer and author of The Resistance Training Revolution, Sal Di Stefano points first to something simple: muscle weakness. “Barring severe nutrient deficiencies … what you have is essentially weakness, weak bodies,” he says. If you don’t challenge your muscles, your bones will become weak too. “Strong muscles, strong bones, weak muscles, weak bones.”

That’s why he says strength training matters. “Nothing is more effective than strength training for strengthening bone,” Sal explains, because “whatever strengthens muscle will strengthen bone.”

But he also warns that some “fitness fanatics” still develop osteopenia. The reason isn’t that they exercise too little. It’s that they essentially starve themselves by under-eating while following a lifting regimen. “You need to do both. You need to strength train and don’t starve yourself.”

And the bar for strength training is lower than many think. Sal says once a week is plenty—“about 30 minutes”—and he notes that preventing the muscle and bone loss after age 35 can take as little as once every two weeks. He ties this to another trend: “Grip strength … is the proxy for overall body strength,” and he says many college-aged males today have the grip strength of a 60-year-old in 1984.

Sal ended on a hopeful note: healthy bone density isn’t inevitable with age. It’s trainable. Stick to a workout regimen that emphasizes strength training, and don't starve yourself!

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