CHOOSING EXERCISE ACTIVITIES: A GUIDE FOR WOMEN (PART 2)

Cycling falls somewhere in the middle, depending on how hard you're working your body (pedaling uphill is better, for example). Weight lifting itself is great for maintaining bone density. Barbara Drinkwater of The Pacific Medical Center in Seattle, a leading national expert on exercise and its impact on bone, says that at all ages, those who exercise have greater bone density (as much as 10% greater) than those who are sedentary. She points to frightening research done on people who were put to bed for long periods of time and lost as much as 1% of their bone density each week! Furthermore, Drinkwater notes that since exercise builds better strength, coordination and flexibility, we're less likely to fall and break our bones as we age if we stay fit.

Weight-bearing exercise helps more with weight loss than does non-weight-bearing exercise. Since many American women are overweight, activities where we have to lug our bodies around may be especially helpful.

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General health