Exercise important to help kids build strong bones

It's never too early to save for a rainy day. That's goes for saving money and it definitely applies to your bones. You want to build strong bones early in life.

Dr. Ed Laskowski, an expert in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic, says bone is very much alive, growing and remaking itself.

“And it remodels itself according to the stress placed on it,” he explained. “That's why we tell people who are at risk of osteoporosis to do weight bearing exercises, so that the bones remodel to the stress and gets stronger."

Dr. Laskowski believes it’s important for parents to encourage their kids to get involved in weight bearing activities. This will cause the bone to build itself up and get stronger.

"We're kind of filling the tank early in life for later in life. If we can build the most bone early in our life, by doing these weight bearing activities, we'll go into later life with a better stock and a better store of bone mass,” he said.

And that's important because it's harder to rebuild bone as we get older.

You don't have to life weights to strengthen your bones – hiking, walking briskly, yoga, dancing, and racquet sports (like tennis and squash) are all weight bearing exercises.

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