How to specifically improve the spine?

Nicola I am no expert but can tell you yoga is all about the spine. Every class should include the six ways it can be moved. Try a couple of youtube videos, or if you've practiced before, pull out all of those stretches/twists. (I had to stop for a while after my last surgery but just the last few days have been doing a tiny bit on my own before leaving the gym--and I've definitely targeted spine movement. I think that's what I miss the most.)

Nicola--I asked my personal trainer son and got this response:

"Squatting or deadlifting. She needs axial loading. Squatting with a bar on her back. She needs enough weight to stimulate bone production."

Nicola & Ingerp - Amen. The mighty squat and deadlift are an enormously vital foundation to strength training/bone building. I do these (along with lunges) during every work out. If I can suggest that you start VERY slow. Jumping in too fast can cause injury & pain especially if your form is off. Form is vital. Start with squats, body weight only. Keep the knees inline or behind the toes as you do down if you don't want knee injury. Don't stick your butt out, keep the pelvis forward. These are excellent beginners videos:

Squats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVpojWs8lQg

Lunges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDJ1SsVQn3o

Deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiGk8g3e41w

Be sure to start with body weight or very light weigh only (cans of peas). Progress and add weight slowly. As for the deadlift, start with the dumbbell like stance in the video and change over to a broomstick if you want to place the weight on the shoulders. I recommend doing 3 sets of 4-8 repetitions 2-3 times a week in the beginning. Any more might turn you off, it's not a race. Slow and steady. Cheers!

I should be at the gym right now LOL! Off I go. Cheers!

Ingerp - awesome! Another gym rat!!! The reg deadlift is a recent addition to my workout (6 months or so now). I had huge problems with my armpit putzing out at first with a lot of upper body lifting, hence the vid I posted...I think it built my endurance/ability for the regs. The first time I stepped into the rack I was petrified I would look like this:

(Yeah that’s a squat but you get the idea lol). Wonder where he got those pink leggings?

You’re spot on, hams and glutes should be feeling it. Some days my DOMS make it hard to sit topee lol...yeah ok egads, TMI!

Nicola - Skipping is def going to add benefit, to heart, core, upper & lower muscle and bone! It's listed as one of the many exercises to ward off osteo.(by osteo foundation). It is considered high impact however (depending on the intensity), so you might want to check with your doc first. Actually check on all weight bearing exercises first, considering your recent scans you have to err on the side of caution. You'll most likely be told that strength/endurance exercise is essential, but to proceed cautiously. Definitely proceed with approval though, and as I said before, go slow and steady.

Ingerp - Ditto, I was athletic as a kid and into young adulthood....my god we must have danced 5 nights a week (the 80s were great, the big hair and Final Net hairspray must have added weight lifting to the mix lol)....then zilch. My keister was just as dormant, in hibernation actually for 20+ years. Just before the cancer I was packing 20-25 lbs extra that I kept putting off losing until 'tomorrow'. After chemo I'd added another 25 lbs for good measure. I ate like a maniac! At the half way point my BS said "wow you look....ummmm...robust!" I replied "dude, say it, you're fat". I started the gym after treatment but didn't do much more than elliptical and remained fat until I hired a trainer and went Paleo. My "transformation" was pretty swift after, and the weights became addictive. Today (3-5 days/week) I still have ground to cover...the last stubborn 10 lbs that of course sits like a hovercraft balloon on my tummy. I swear it's declared squatters rights! I'mholding my own from a fitness perspective but like you trying to avoid a miserable retirement. As far as I'm concerned you deadlift and squat so that puts your membership in the Gym Rat Swole Sister club permanent!

PS if your gym has an Arc Trainer switch up from the elliptical, better cardio/strength machine that keeps the knees firmly in form, less injury. Rowing machine is another great choice to avoid injury and build strength when the knees/joints kick up.

Nicola--you might look at it like think how much worse it might have been if you *hadn't* been doing the exercise?

Egads--I undertook a substantial change about two years ago. Was having a post-rads follow-up with my RO, and I was asking some general health questions (along the "what do *you* do?" line) when she told me all of the non-weight-loss reasons she was intermittent fasting. Something about insulin resistance and . . . ?, but I got home from that appt, read up on it, began skipping breakfast, and am still doing that. Along with slight changes in diet, stepping it up at the gym just a bit, and getting on the dang scale, I lost ~35 pounds in like 10 months. I haven't weighed myself since last summer but I know most of that weight is still gone. I googled the arc trainer and it does not look familiar, but it occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I haven't thought about my knees, like, at all lately. One got a new ACL 15 years ago but the other one is more arthritic and has been crankier in recent years. The elliptical/stationary bike combo must be working well for them. (FWIW, hubs knows way too much about knees through various injuries and tells *everyone* who comes to him with a knee issue to get on a bike. All of that synovial fluid stuff.) (And I will absolutely take the Gym Rat Swole Sister moniker!!)