Your Assessment
Recommended Exercises
Movements to avoid or modify
- Spinal flexion — traditional sit-ups/crunches, toe-touches (standing or seated), and rounding your back to pick things up.
- Combined flexion + rotation — twisting while bent forward, some yoga and Pilates poses, forceful golf or bowling-style swings.
- Pilates "roll-downs" or "roll-ups" — ask for a spine-neutral modification instead.
- High-impact activity (running, jumping, contact sport) — particularly if you have a history of vertebral fracture.
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Your Progress
Session History
| Date | Category | Exercise | Detail | Notes |
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How this works
Your T-score compares your bone density to a healthy young adult, measured in standard deviations. The World Health Organization classifies it as: normal (−1.0 or above), osteopenia (between −1.0 and −2.5), or osteoporosis (−2.5 or below).
But T-score alone doesn't tell the whole story for exercise safety. Whether you've had a fragility fracture — especially a spinal one — matters just as much, because it indicates your bones (or a specific vertebra) may already be more vulnerable to the forces involved in certain movements, regardless of what the T-score says. This tool combines both to sort you into one of three exercise risk tiers, following the approach used in the Royal Osteoporosis Society's "Strong, Steady and Straight" consensus statement and Healthy Bones Australia's exercise prescription guidance.
References
- World Health Organization Technical Report Series 921, Prevention and Management of Osteoporosis (2003)
- Royal Osteoporosis Society / Brooke-Wavell et al., "Strong, Steady and Straight: UK consensus statement on physical activity and exercise for osteoporosis", British Journal of Sports Medicine (2022)
- Healthy Bones Australia, Exercise Prescription to Support the Management of Osteoporosis (2024)
- American College of Sports Medicine / Exercise is Medicine, Exercising with Osteoporosis
- Mayo Clinic, Exercising with osteoporosis: Stay active the safe way
- International Osteoporosis Foundation, Exercise for individuals with osteoporosis
Frequently Asked Questions
From a DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) bone density scan, ordered by your doctor. It's usually reported for the hip, femoral neck and spine — use the lowest of the three if you're not sure which to enter.
Yes — and it's genuinely one of the most useful things you can do. Exercise doesn't cause fractures; the right kind of exercise, done appropriately for your risk level, helps maintain bone density, builds the muscle that protects your bones, and improves balance to reduce falls in the first place. The key is matching the exercise to your individual risk, which is what this tool tries to help with.
A T-score is an average measure of bone density. A fragility fracture, especially in the spine, tells you a specific bone has already failed under low force. The concern with movements like spinal flexion isn't really about overall density — it's about the load placed directly on a vertebra that may already be compromised. That's why this tool asks about fracture history separately, rather than relying on T-score alone.
In general: spinal flexion (sit-ups, toe-touches, rounding your back under load), combined flexion with twisting, and high-impact activity if you've had a vertebral fracture. See the "Movements to avoid or modify" box above for the full list.
Yes. Your assessment and session log are stored only in this browser's local storage — nothing is sent anywhere. Use the Export Backup button to save a copy or move your data to another device, since clearing your browser data will erase it.