JUMP! (for your bónes)

High-impact workouts, which can help prevent or slow osteopenia and osteoporosis, can be intimidating even if you don't have problems with your joints. But there may be ways to get the benefits without the ouch. Here, all you need to figure out how to incorporate some flight into your routine.

- BY STEPHANIE DOLGOFF

We love walking—you know Prevention is all about walking! But sometimes when you're out there hoofing it and a runner blows by you, you might have a twinge of “OK, fine!” and wonder if you should be picking up the pace.

There are lots of reasons you don’t see too many 50-plus women out there pounding the pavement. One is that many of us have developed knee, ankle, or hip issues or have had them in the past and don’t want to stir them up again. Or, if you're relatively new to exercise, you may simply think, That looks hard!

Fair points. But you may already be doing high-impact exercises like running without even realizing it—or knowing how they can help you build up your bones and muscles. If you've ever raced up stairs, sprinted for a bus, or leaped away as your dog charged at you for hugs when you got home, you're no stranger to high-impact exercise.

Hop To It

What exactly is it? Not to be confused with high-intensity interval training (or HIIT), in which you do short intervals of vigorous, fast-paced cardio, high-impact exercise refers to moves and routines in which both of your feet leave the earth—running, hopping, and jumping, for example. “High-impact training is intentionally stressing the muscles and bones,” says Heather Fields, M.D., an internist at Mayo Clinic. The benefits of doing so are all about mechanical load—the force that travels through your bones, joints, and connective tissue when your feet hit the ground.

We're generally told to minimize stressors, but this kind of stress is positive: The impact and force created when you land after being off the ground signals your bones to strengthen themselves. “Our bodies are built to rise to the challenges we present to them,” says trainer Tina Tang, C.P.T., owner of Iron Strong Fitness.