UMaine RSVP Launches “Bone Builders” Exercise and Osteoporosis Program
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Dozens, if not hundreds, of older people will start beefing up on bone mass soon as the University of Maine’s RSVP program launches more new “Bone Builders” classes at three new sites in Bangor and Bar Harbor.
RSVP, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, operated through the UMaine Center on Aging on the Orono campus, has received a $5,844 grant from the Maine Community Foundation to provide weights and training materials for classes for older men and women who are at risk for osteoporosis, a bone-diminishing disease that afflicts 28 million Americans, mostly women whose estrogen levels drop after menopause.
The new classes, which are free to participants, began recently at Bangor’s Hammond Street Senior Center and are generating overwhelming enthusiasm, says Jane Harris Bartley, director of the UMaine RSVP.
“We’ve received the best response to this Bone Builders program of any of our programs,” she says. “We’ve been getting calls from throughout Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Washington counties.”
In September, RSVP will launch the community-based osteoporosis prevention program at the Bangor-Brewer YWCA, the Women’s Collective and the YWCA of Mount Desert Island, both in Bar Harbor and possibly the Old Town YMCA.
“It’s off and running,” says Hammond Street Senior Center staff member Louise Bonawitz, a 2004 UMaine graduate who worked with Harris Bartley to bring Bone Builders to Maine. She also is one of several professional trainers preparing instructors to lead the classes. “I suspect this is something we’ll see in many, many locations.”
Bonawitz believes these are the first programs in Maine specifically offered to provide weight training and education to combat osteoporosis.
“The Hammond Street Senor Center is really pleased to participate and to offer our site for Bone Builders,” says Bonawitz. “We have a class of 14 participants and all of them are noticing improvements in their strength, their balance and their posture. They’re learning about health generally and osteoporosis specifically and they’re having a good time doing it.”
The program uses light ankle weights to build muscle strength and bone mass in older people whose muscles and bone strength begin to weaken and diminish as they age. Research has shown that weight training is one of the most effective ways to combat osteoporosis.
The twice-weekly classes will be kept to about 15 people, Harris Bartley says. Additional class sessions can easily be added as participation increases, she adds.
“My vision is to have enough classes operating over the next four years to have at least four to five classes in each of the four locations in the four counties that we serve,” Harris Bartley says.
In addition to gentle, no-impact weight training, the hour-long classes cover weight training, balance training and discussions about diet, nutrition and healthy living.
The RSVP Bone Builders program is a striking success in Rutland, Vt., where Harris Bartley visited to learn about the program before enlisting professional trainers to teach volunteers here in Maine. Begun there four years ago, the Rutland RSVP has offered more than 50 classes to more than 650 participants, according to Harris Bartley.
Harris Bartley expects the Bone Builders program will help reduce some of the estimated 1.5 million fractures that are blamed each year on osteoporosis. Because the program depends mostly on grants rather than university funds, “this would not have happened without the support of the Maine Community Foundation.”
The grant provided seed money to buy weights, handouts and to pay instructors to train volunteer class leaders.
UMaine RSVP is known for programs that rely on more than 550 community volunteers to help prepare, deliver and serve meals for older people and shut-ins, reading time for day care and preschool children, companionship and emergency preparedness programs for older Mainers and help with American Red Cross blood drives. Housed at Crossland Hall at the University of Maine in Orono, the RSVP program is funded by state, federal and United Way grants and serves nearly 20,000 people in its four-county territory.
More information about the Bone Builders program can be obtained by calling Harris Bartley at (207) 581-4418.