About this episode

The episode features Dr. Lora Giangregorio discussing the science of building bone through resistance training and debunking common misconceptions.

The Erics sit down with bone health expert Dr. Lora Giangregorio, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, to unpack what's actually known about how bone adapts to resistance training. The conversation covers why bone changes so slowly, the many sources of measurement error in DEXA scans, and why so much of the exercise-and-bone literature is underpowered and hard to interpret. Dr. G makes a central practical case: for building bone, the message shouldn't be "lift heavy" but rather "work hard." Emphasizing high effort over intimidating absolute loads lowers the barrier to entry, especially for older and osteoporotic populations, while still driving progressive overload. She argues the best current bet is combining moderate-to-high-intensity resistance training with impact work, introduced gradually on a foundation of strength. Along the way she debunks popular but weakly supported interventions, including weighted vests and whole-body vibration platforms, and discusses the difference between biological aging and simple chronic inactivity in bone loss. Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex…

People in this episode

Host: Erics

Guest: Dr. Lora Giangregorio

Topics covered

• bone health
• resistance training
• exercise literature
• osteoporosis
• progressive overload

Keywords

• bone adaptation
• DEXA scans
• exercise interventions
• high effort training
• impact work

Sponsors

MASS Research Review

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Waterloo, elitefts.com

More episodes of Iron Culture presented by MASS

• BONUS - Drop Sets & Myo-Reps: The Best Way to Use Them (w/ Eric Helms & Steve Hall) · September 9, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Ep 388 - What Most Bodybuilders and Their Coaches Miss (ft. Richard Collins) · September 3, 2026 · 1h 36m
• Ep 387 - Energy Cost of Building Muscle · August 26, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Ep 386 - Sleep, Hypertrophy, and Creatine · August 20, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Ep 385 - Do Studies on Untrained Lifters Apply to Trained Lifters? · August 12, 2026 · 1h 18m
• BONUS: Bulking Is Dead - Eric Helms & Steve Hall · August 5, 2026 · 1h 15m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Iron Culture presented by MASS podcast page.