Ep 382 - The Science of Building Bone (ft. Dr.Lora Giangregorio)

The Erics sit down with bone health expert Dr. Lora Giangregorio, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, to unpack what's actually known about how bone adapts to resistance training. The conversation covers why bone changes so slowly, the many sources of measurement error in DEXA scans, and why so much of the exercise-and-bone literature is underpowered and hard to interpret. Dr. G makes a central practical case: for building bone, the message shouldn't be "lift heavy" but rather "work hard." Emphasizing high effort over intimidating absolute loads lowers the barrier to entry, especially for older and osteoporotic populations, while still driving progressive overload. She argues the best current bet is combining moderate-to-high-intensity resistance training with impact work, introduced gradually on a foundation of strength. Along the way she debunks popular but weakly supported interventions, including weighted vests and whole-body vibration platforms, and discusses the difference between biological aging and simple chronic inactivity in bone loss.
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Chapters 0:00 Intro 4:13 Meet Dr. Lora Giangregorio 7:44 Why bone adapts so slowly 11:42 DEXA error & why to be skeptical 23:07 Does load matter? 33:58 "Heavy" vs "hard" & barrier to entry 42:42 What is impact training? 47:31 The science communication problem 52:55 The weighted vest myth 58:13 Muscle pull, compression & light loads 1:06:48 Do vibration platforms work? 1:09:54 Aging vs. inactivity 1:15:46 Drugs & HRT for bone 1:20:24 How the medications work 1:24:27 Wrap-up & where to find Dr. G