I recently got diagnosed with severe osteoporosis in my spine (T-score -4.1) and severe osteopenia in my femurs (T-score -2.3). The results don’t lie but I have had an lot of drunk accidents in my past and didn’t broke my bones. The score in my spine is really bad (-2.5 is the treshold for osteoporosis). My doctor advised me to make lifestyle changes so I quit drinking alcohol, using drugs and tabbacco 1.5 year ago. My nutrition is great and even take extra Calcium/Vitamin D suppluments. I also take medication to make my bones a little stronger. My doctor also advised my to exercise a lot, but didn’t give any exercise advise or restrictions because it is really uncommon for someone my age to have osteoporosis (the cause is hormonal and i take testosteron injections for that).
At first i did cardio 4 times an week and I started two months ago with resistance training. I am really at love with weightlifting because it gives me life lessons. It is amazing to see strength improvement every session and due 400 cal surplus I gained around 3 pounds of muscle mass already, but my primary goal is increase my strength.
I researched a lot about the optimal training program to build muscle and get stronger. I believe that that major big compound lifts are the greatest to implement in my training regime. Barbell exercises are natural movements and are therefore functional. I really want to do the big lifts and bought Starting Strength to read about them, however I am scared that deadlifts, OHP and Squats will cause compression fractures. I love the fact that you could increase the weight a little each lifting session and the fact that you will get stronger each time.
Right now I follow my modified version of a PPL-routine (6 days/week):
PUSH
5 x 5 or 3 x 8-12 Barbell Bench Press
5 x 5 or 3 x 8-12 Dumbell Shoulder Press
3 x 8-12 Incline Bench or Dumbell Press
3 x 8-15 Triceps Overhead Extensions and 3 x 8-15 Lateral Raises (Superset)
3 x 8-15 Triceps Pushdown and 3 x 8-15 Lateral Raises (Superset)
Pull
3 x 8-12 Seated Cable Row
3 x 8-12 Lat Pulldown (right now I have trouble with lat activation so I often do ‘warm-up sets’ with 15-20 reps)
3 x 8-12 Seated Machine Row (Chest Supported Dumbell Row gives me a lot of back pain so I do this instead)
4 x 8-15 Dumbell Biceps Curl
4 x 8-15 Hammer Curl
Legs
4 x 6-12 Seated Cable Leg Press
4 x 12-20 Leg Curl Machine
4 x 12-20 Leg Extension
3 x 12 Calf Raises
Altrough I made some progress, I don’t think my training schedule is best for me. My wish is to replace the program for Starting Strength so I don’t have isolation exercises but the functional big compound lifts. I know this are questions I should ask my doctor but she couldn’t give me advice, even physical therapists couldn’t give me answers.
- Do you think it is possible to do Starting Strength with severe osteoporosis?
- Should i do my linear progression in an slower tempo?
- Are there exercises that are unsafe for me?