Buy Your Child a Skipping Rope

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Most of us think that osteoporosis is only a problem for older people.  But the fact is that bones reach their peak density in the teenage years.  After that, it is down hill all the way!  Bones are made to be very strong, but they need to be stressed by exercise to fully develop.  All the evidence indicates that we get the bones we deserve.  Children and adolescents who spend more time watching videos and playing computer games than doing exercise are building themselves a skeleton that is only strong enough to support a couch potato.  And they are setting themselves up for broken bones later in life.

Researchers have recently found that girls who do regular exercises, such as skipping at least three times a week, had a five per cent gain in bone minerals.  All that skipping, and jumping done in childhood can delay bone loss by up to five years for post menopausal women.

It turns out that weight-bearing exercises such as running or skipping give better results than non-weight bearing exercises such as swimming or cycling.  It seems that this type of exercise better stimulates the chemical processes that are involved in the repair and building of bones.

If skipping and jumping is supplemented by encouraging children to drink three glasses of milk a day, scientists now feel that bone strength will be optimal in later years.

So next time you see the kids jumping around the yard, don't stop them, applaud them.