I've been preoccupied lately with what to do about exercise. While the bone screening people said that I'm doing okay, it seems to me that I need to be doing more to keep my bone density up. I have changed my diet to include more calcium, have taken up a hard-form martial art, and am doing dumbbells more consistently. That isn't much more than I was, which was tai chi, yoga, and a little walking. Those are okay exercises for people trying to maintain bone density, but I need to more than that. There are books about building bone density through yoga, so I contacted the National Osteoporosis Foundation and asked the burning question: does yoga do that or not? They replied yesterday that it's controversial and they are preparing an article about for their newsletter, which I would get if I was a member, hint, hint.

Weight-bearing exercises put strain on the bones because the muscles are pulling against the weight, and that stress encourages bone mineralization.

Because it turns out that I'm at risk for osteoporosis, though a bit late to react now, I've been wasting my time with these low-impact exercises when I should have been doing more active to build bone these past years. That is annoying and I feel, I don't know, depressed about that.

Because impact exercises are the best, I'm thinking about getting a punching bag to practice punching and kicking. Those activities are good for bones because of the stress placed on the bone in the impact against the relatively hard surface. That's how impact exercise works. I think it would be good, but the cost makes it more of an investment than I would like. Then there's finding a place to put it, where it would still be useable. There are two types of big bags: hanging and freestanding. The hanging ones are considered better, but need a strong ceiling joist or wall stud to support it. There are also stands to hold them, put that takes up more space. The freestanding type has a lot of weight in the bottom to make it stable. They can be rolled around when tilted at an angle, like a barrel. The wife says it would have to go in the garage. I don't know if that would be the death knell for it. I have read that equipment needs to be readily accessible to be useable and used. Like of like those pieces of foldable exercise equipment. If you have to go through extra effort to get them out, then it doesn't come out and ends up being clutter hiding in the corner of the room or in a room you don't use.