3 Workout Tips For Stronger Bones, Joints & Muscles, From An Orthopedic Surgeon 

We probably don't have to remind you that maintaining healthy muscle mass is crucial as we age. But our bones and joints are equally important to take care of—even if we don't pay them much attention until something goes wrong.

Make no mistake, prioritizing bone and joint health is key for longevity. On this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast, double-board-certified orthopedic surgeon Vonda Wright, M.D., M.S., says to start thinking about it even as early as your 30s to reduce your risk of falls and fractures down the line.

"I dynamically warm up every joint I'm going to use," Wright shares. "I do hip swings. I do deep squats to the ground to [stretch] my ankles, my knees, my hip joints… I'm warming up my lower back. I go through about 10 minutes of warm-up just to get all my joints that are going to move dynamically warmed up."

Warm-ups, you see, can make a significant difference when it comes to your performance and recovery. Cold muscles are harder to move, which makes them more prone to injury. No matter the exercise—HIIT, strength training, cardio—you'll want to get your body warm before diving right into the routine. 

It's especially important to keep in mind when weightlifting. "Before I do any heavy lifting, I warm up," says Wright. "I have a series of about 10 warm-up exercises: hip swings, body weight squats, I activate my glutes with banded monster walks… just to [help] my joints through their range of motion." Go here for the best warm-up exercises to try before your workout. 

For your workout, Wright recommends "push-pull on the arms, push-pull on the legs" for four reps in four sets. For the arms, this means any bench press or pullup type of activity. "I do not like people on machines. I like them under a bar or with free weights," she says. 

Of course, if you're worried about form or are new to the workout, please feel free to use a machine. "I would rather somebody do something than nothing, and I would rather not let the fear of injury or failure keep you from your best health," Wright explains. But if you can, she recommends taking off the training wheels, so to speak, and letting your body do most of the work with weights. 

"When was the last time your quads worked in isolation, sitting on a chair?" she says regarding extension leg curl machines. Rather, she recommends dead lifts or squats with a bar or free weights to better align with your body's functional movement. 

"That demands neuromuscular pathway development and the building of proprioception [aka, the sense of where your body is in space]," she notes. "It demands that your small muscles work with your big muscles because you're standing on your own legs and you're unstable." 

Finally, injuries tend to happen when your joints aren't prepared, says Wright. "This is what I see in my weekend warriors. We're really busy—we've got families and jobs to hold down—[so] we try to cram [workouts] in on the weekend because something is better than nothing," she explains. "But our tendons are short, our ligaments are not flexible, because we haven't done anything all week. Our muscles are not primed for action."

The solution isn't to commit to high-intensity workouts every single day (that can also lead to injuries, she notes) but to invest in your mobility and strength in simple, functional ways. Spend an hour in the gym, sure, but think about how else you can move throughout the day.

"Get up a lot at work, walk far to your car, take work breaks every hour, and walk up and down several flights of stairs just to build mobility into your body," she offers. "What I encourage people to do in our era of Zoom calls, conference calls, and working from home is to take those calls doing wall squats. Nobody knows what you're doing!" 

In our 2024 Well-Being Forecast, we predicted more emphasis will be placed on mobility exercises that improve range of motion, eliminate pain, promote joint health—and given Wright's expertise and passion on the topic, we can assume she's totally on board. Exercise is crucial for increasing health span, but you want to be able to perform the moves you love for as long as possible. These tips above (plus way more in the episode) can help you do just that.