Living Together at East Hill Farm

Several artists affiliated with the Rochester Folk Art Guild live together in a commune launched more than 50 years ago in the Finger Lakes. They share meals, create art and grow food. P. 30

Meet a Clown. A Real One Lillian Faison worked 41 years as a nurse. Now semi-retired, she spends a great deal of time working as a clown. P22

Bone Health

Got flabby bones? Bone Gym to the rescue

or Liz Lehmann, this is personal. Her grandmother had the classic dowager's hump, her mother is the incredible shrinking woman, and she's been battling Osteopenia for 15 years.

“Like many women, I kept looking for alternatives to the drugs,” said Lehmann.

Until she found this really interesting device, called a bioDensity machine, that builds bones naturally. It's similar to a workout machine for muscles in a gym, but it's optimized to build bone.

As Lehmann explained, “The best you can do with weight-bearing exercises is about 1% increase in bone density. With the bioDensity machine someone can reach up to 14% density increase per year, based on clinical studies. The results will vary, of course, depending on genetics, diet and your general health.”

Science of Osteogenic Loading

The reason the bioDensity machine is so good at building bones is because it's based on the science of osteogenic loading.

(osteo bone; → genic producing → ) Since the 1880's, doctors have known that bones remodel themselves after a load is placed on them, known as Wolff's Law.

As it turns out, bones and muscles are similar and different – both have the use-it-or-lose-it process.

To build muscles you have to do

What clients are saying

“The circuit is quick & simple. Everyone should find 15 minutes a week to build those bones!” ~ Amy long workouts a couple times a week and your muscles need a day or two to recover.

Bones, on the other hand, only require five seconds of stress and the recovery time is a week. But the stress needed to start the bone building process is multiple times a person's body weight. For a 130 lb woman, it would take about 550 lbs of force on the leg bones to make them denser, which is not really possible at a gym.

15 minute “no sweat” Sessions

“What is unique about the bioDensity machine is that it isn’t doing anything to them,” Lehmann explained. “They’re pressing or pulling on the machine and it’s simply

Sessions are by appointment only. The free initial orientation (a little over 1 hr) can be scheduled on bonegym.com measuring their muscle efforts, and therefore how much stress is applied to their bones. People have complete control over their session. Plus, they don't sweat because it is so quick.”

Building Bones from the Inside Out

During each session, a client tries to produce maximal force for five seconds in four different exercises: chest press, leg press, core pull, and vertical lift. The force would be similar to pushing or lifting an object of significant weight and size.

As a result, these exercises build denser bones from the inside out by remodeling and strengthening the interior bone matrix – the way bones get stronger naturally.

“Coming to the Bone Gym to help with my osteopenia has been great. Liz explains everything clearly.”