Power Training

Your body needs a variety of nutritional building blocks to build cartilage, muscle, and bone. So eating well and taking the right supplements is necessary. But it isn't sufficient. To grow muscle and bone, the body needs work. Muscles grow in response to the demands that are placed on them. Bones grow in response to the stress that a muscle exerts on it. Without that muscular stress, neither the muscle nor the bone will grow. And, unless pushed, the body simply stops building cartilage after a certain age.

I say, "unless pushed", because serious resistance training (e.g. weight training) does seem to be effective, as long as the building blocks are present. The right kind of weight training triggers a release of growth hormone that tells your body to put those materials to work. It then builds muscle, bone, and even cartilage.

Somewhere along the line, I read that cartilage only grows when growth hormone is present. And growth hormone levels tend to drop off as we age--much more so if we don't engage in the kinds of vigorous activities we used to do as kids. And from personal experience, I know that my knees improved after a serious bout of weight training.