Load Your Skeleton

Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you hear or read an idea, belief, or theory, you end up encountering that same theory in a bunch of different places in a short period of time? That happens to me quite frequently since I am constantly reading books and articles and listening to podcasts about training. Lately, I’ve been bombarded with this idea of the importance of skeletal loading and how important it is for maintaining strength, bone density, balance, and coordination. I’m not citing any sources here for any of these claims, but you can Google it and find all kinds of information. Better yet, try it yourself for a period of six months to a year and see how your body changes and how much better and stronger you feel doing just about everything in life.

I guess I should clarify that by skeletal loading, what I really mean, in short, is lifting weights, and therefore forcing your skeleton and other body structures to support and move a load.

Most of my lifting these days, twenty or so years after I first started, consists of very basic human movements that allow me to safely and efficiently build my body. Squats, bench presses, overhead presses, deadlifts, chins, kettlebell swings, kettlebell snatches, loaded carries (sandbags and kettlebells of all sizes and variations), and sled work like rows, drags, and pushes give me everything I need to load my skeleton and stay strong. You may notice that my lifting does not really include the use of any machines. There is nothing wrong with using machines, especially if the alternative is doing nothing, but machines that effectively load your skeleton and require full body tension and balance throughout the movement are few and far between. They are also very expensive, a pain in the ass to move, and take up a ton of space. None of this is ideal for a home gym warrior like myself.

Below are a couple questions or ideas that I always see thrown out there when people are told they should lift weights. Reading my brief answers pales in comparison to what would be learned by giving lifting a chance and seeing how it improves your overall health.

Why not just do bodyweight exercises?

This is a good question, and there are certainly a number of very fit individuals who only use bodyweight exercises. I love movements such as bodyweight chins, push-ups, and dips, but doing them only using one’s bodyweight without ever adding weight is a much different stimulus than squatting, pressing, or carrying a heavy weight that can be incrementally increased over time. The effect of heavy skeletal loading simply cannot be replaced without actually loading your skeleton.

I run/bike/do some other form of cardio so I should be good, right?

When many people think of working out, they think of doing long and slow sustained cardio for an extended period of time. Don’t get me wrong, I love cardio and have logged a lot of miles on my bicycle this summer, but while these activities do have their benefits, they are not replacements for all the aforementioned positives one gets from skeletal loading. It all comes down to force production and the way one’s body interacts with its environment. Steady state cardio, unfortunately, does not do much in terms of increasing the ability to produce force against an external object. Look at an old person who cannot maintain his/her balance while walking or standing up. This condition is undoubtedly a strength issue, and a better cardio base will not fix the problem.

Load your skeleton. You won’t be sorry.

Playing with a 40 kg kettlebell while looking out onto Lake Ontario at Breitbeck Park in Oswego, NY.