By Christine Mofat
Edy Seaver, a 61-year-old artist who swims and kayaks for fitness, had osteoporosis. Yes, had —
as in past tense. After four months of once-a-week 10-minute workouts at OsteoStrong, a
wellness concept that features proprietary resistance machines, a DEXA scan showed that her
bone density improved by more than 7%. That moved her up out of the osteoporosis category
into osteopenia, a less severe degree of bone thinning. “This is a radical improvement in a tiny
period of time — after years of getting worse and worse,” she says. “And on top of that, I feel so
much stronger that I can swim 20 laps instead of my old 12.”
Jim O’Brien, a 73-year-old Greenwich native and realtor at William Raveis had back pain that
limited his activities. He also began once-a-week sessions at Osteostrong, and after a couple
of months, he was able to enjoy a day at his beloved boat without back pain. It gets better: he
is also back on cross-country skiing, as stronger as many years ago.
Thinning bones, loss of strength, and bad joints impact health, longevity, and athletic
performance, but addressing them usually falls between the cracks of regular exercise training.
That has presented opportunities for new franchise operations such as OsteoStrong, which in
the last few years have emerged as a key player on the fitness scene.
OsteoStrong was founded in Texas in 2012 by entrepreneur Kyle Zagrodzky and biomechanics
engineer Dr. John Jaquish. Dr. Jaquish wanted to help his mother, a lifelong tennis player who’d
been diagnosed with osteoporosis. He found some interesting information in a study from the
osteoporosis research center at Jyväskylä University in Finland, which said that the world’s
densest bones belong to gymnasts — due to their ability to absorb the force of 4.2 times their
body weight when they “stick the landing.”
Knowing that his mom wasn’t likely to do a pike-position dismount, Jaquish set about creating a
safe, doable gymnastics level of “osteogenic” loading. The result: Four super-resistance
machines that cover every section of the body — upper body, lower body, core pull, and
skeleton-stressing vertical lift — that resemble standard gym weight machines without weight
stacks and include digital feedback monitors, which give clients instant numerical feedback
on their effort.
Wearing comfortable clothes, OsteoStrong clients come in once a week, briefly stand on
vibration platforms to warm up, then exert 30 seconds of all-out force at each workout station.
The handlebars they push barely move, even when the data on the screen jumps. For some,
that two minutes of total workout time has yielded striking and documented results.
With DEXA scans to prove it, Dr. Susan Guiney, excited to help others take control of their own
life stories as a clinical hypnotherapist in Thornwood, NY, grew bone density in her femoral neck
(top of the leg bone) by about 4% in 8 months, from April 2019 to January 2020. “I will shock
my doctor,” she said. “I started with osteoporosis, and now I’m on the borderline of osteopenia,
but growing this much bone back, this fast is just not done.” She has continued with weekly
visits.
OsteoStrong now has about over 130 locations worldwide, most in the US. The first studio in the
US Northeast opened one year ago, in Greenwich, CT, followed by Darien a few months later.
Now Manhattan, Westfield, NJ, and many locations in Long Island have an OsteoStrong Center.
The franchise growth is impressive: Osteostrong opened about one new Center per week in
2019. Plans prices vary per location, and on average, it costs $ 200 per month, and veterans
and seniors have discounts.
