Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Kathy Killmurray wanted to get to know people in Sweet Home after she moved here last year, so she and a friend, Maggi Brown, joined the Better Bones and Balance class offered by Linn-Benton Community College last fall.
It’s paid off, in more ways than Killmurray expected.
“I really didn’t understand I had a balance problem until I took the class,” said Killmurray, who will turn 60 in March. “That was true for a number of other people also. The class brought out a number of things we hadn’t known before.”
The Better Bones and Balance class is taught Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, from 8:30 to 9:20 a.m. at Steelhead Strength and Fitness in Sweet Home.
The goal of the class, says instructor Tenille Sayer of Brownsville, is to “improve the quality of life and to build the bones” for students, who range in age from their 50s to mid-70s. The class is also taught in other locations through LBCC and, Sayer said, one student at the Benton Center in Corvallis is in her 80s.
“At age 30, women start losing bone mass,” Sayer said. “When they become post-menopausal, they really start losing bone mass.” She said men, too, especially once they get into their 70s, begin losing bone mass at about the same rate as women. She emphasized that the class, which numbers about 10 students now, is open to men as well as women.
The class uses exercises such as lunges, squats “and lots of fall prevention” to help strengthen students’ bones. They also do some toe raises and eventually will progress to jumping, which “loads the bones and shocks and surprises them,” which causes them to build mass faster than they lose it, Sayer said.
Research has shown that men and women who participate in sports requiring muscular strength and power, such as weight lifting, gymnastics and wrestling, exhibit higher bone mass than those primarily involved in such activities as running or triathlons, which require more endurance than strength.
Oregon State University Professor Christine Snow, director of the school’s Bone Research Lab, has done studies in the area of the effect of jumping on bone growth and developed the Better Bones and Balance class based on her discoveries in the area.
Snow and fellow researcher Janet Shaw of the University of Utah have developed exercises using jumping and exercises with weighted vests to help seniors build their bones.
Sayer said that some women who have taken the class have increased bone mass noticeably, including one whose mass increased 6 percent. Average rates of bone loss for seniors tend to be about a half to 1 percent per year.
She said that her current class, which she started teaching in September, is not using the vests yet and is not jumping because they are still building up to that type of more strenuous exercise.
She said it takes about nine months to see a “marked change” in most students, but the effects can be very noticeable.
“People who started in their 70s say they feel better in their 80s than they did in their 70s, before they started taking this class,” Sayer said.
“Many of them see this class as preventative,” she said. “Even if you don’t have osteoporosis or are losing bone mass as fast as you think you are, it’s still a good way to build the quality of your life.”
The pace is light so, although some students may feel some soreness initially, it doesn’t last long, though it’s the type of class that requires continual participation to keep the benefits coming, Sayer and students said.
“If you miss one or two classes, you probably won’t feel it,” Killmurray said. “But if you miss three classes, you’re probably going to feel it in your legs a little bit, and maybe in your back.”
Killmurray said the Sweet Home class is not only a good chance to get exercise, but is also fun.
“It’s kind of a loose class,” she said. “Jazzercise and aerobics are pretty much structured. This is too, but we laugh and joke.”
Brown, who is in her “late 50s,” said the class is a good excuse to get out.
“It gets us out of the house in the wintertime, when you kind of want to cocoon,” she said. “It brings you into contact with other people, which is kind of nice.”