Bone biology basics, skiing is good for hip bones

How bones grow and shrink is not something I remember from my high school biology class.  Found a website by a physician and professor that is designed to teach kids about the different types of bone cells.  Much easier to understand than descriptions written for adults.  More fun too.

Bone Biology for Kids

One of the webpages is good news for older skiers, at least when it comes to the likelihood of breaking a hip.  The bone density for top athletes in various olympic sports differs quite a bit.  Gymnasts, volleyball players, and weight lifters tend to have pretty dense bones all over.  Cyclists and swimmers need to do other stuff to encourage bone growth in certain parts of their body, in particular the spine.  Cross-country skiers tend to have dense arm bones, as well as leg and hip bones.  Probably true of alpine skiers as well.  But skiers should think about what they can do off the slopes to increase bone density in their spine.

Comparison of bone density in spine, arms, hips, legs for a few common sports
http://depts.washington.edu/bonebio/bonStrength/exercise/sports.html

Based on this blog article by a physician in 2013 (includes a few references), it's easy to understand why skiers who do ski conditioning exercises in the off-season generally don't have to worry that much about breaking a hip.  The basic exercises he recommends are squats, lunges, and step ups.  Those are pretty standard for ski conditioning.  Of course, to build bone it's better to do them with weights of some sort.

Can Weight Lifting Increase Bone Density?