Southwest Florida wellness center provides workouts to strengthen bone health

A local wellness center is helping elderly people build their bone health and boost their balance.

OsteoStrong is a wellness center focused on reconditioning the body.

Falls can be catastrophic for the elderly even the slightest slip-up often leads to broken bones and a downward health spiral. It is the leading cause of injury or death in the country for people over the age of 65.

Patricia Lee is in the process of strengthening her bones and balances.

Lee is putting her life in balance after suffering a series of falls. The last one left her in a bad way.

“I now have a bolt in my hip, a rod down my femur screws in my leg. And it took me six months of physical therapy to regain all of my strength and mobility,” Lee said.

The CDC reports 36 million falls among older adults each year in this country. Those figures can improve by strengthening bones and balance.

Gregory Robrahn, Ph.D. in Physical Therapy and co-owner of OsteoStrong said, “having muscular power, the ability to recruit fast twitch muscle fiber, especially as we age is essential for good health.”

Grounded in science clients use specialized machines that increase strength and retrain muscle response.

Using short, focused workouts including brain-body balance exercises done on vibrating plates.

“We are always working against vibration. And that is making us a little more unstable,” Lee said.

Robrahn said they teach people how to get very strong very quickly so they can then develop very strong protective balanced responses, and then over time, improve their bone density to prevent a fracture.

“In two years. I haven’t had a fall. So I guess that proves that that works,” Lee said.

In the process, Lee strengthened her peace of mind.

The OsteosStrong method is based in isometrics. People are pushing against pressure with a force many times their own weight. Each workout cycle is synchronized with their personal data.

That goes for the balance training as well.