Bone Building/ONERO™

Do you have Osteoporosis or Osteopenia?

Our bones are living tissue and constantly remodelling through our life. Osteoporosis or porous bone, is a disease whereby bone resorption is higher than the bone deposition reducing the bone’s density and quality, leaving it brittle and thus at greater risk of fracture. There are often no symptoms of this bone loss until the first fracture occurs.

Burleigh Heads Physiotherapy Centre can help you. We offer a groundbreaking bone building program called Onero.  Onero is Latin for “load” or “burden” and that’s what bone needs to maintain or improve its mass. We reach our peak bone density in our early 20’s. Unfortunately, most of us don’t do enough correct loading and which can lead to bone loss. As the saying goes - If you don’t use it, you lose it!

Bone loading needs to done in a specific way and to be done safely, you need close supervision from people who have specific training. That’s where Burleigh Heads Physiotherapy Centre can help.

It’s very exciting to have a proven* intervention to offer people who are interested in improving their bone health. We have an exclusive licence from The Bone Clinic in Brisbane so you can access this program right here in Burleigh. We are contributing data to their ongoing research on Onero. We utilize a proven bone building program designed by researchers at Griffith University, Parklands and at The Bone Clinic. All our physiotherapists and exercise physiologists who participate in this training program have completed further education provided by The Bone Clinic.

Read our - Bone Health FAQ's

How can we help you?

Bone building relies on many different factors eg diet, weight bearing exercise/loading bone, vitamin D and medications among others. We can help assess a few of these factors under the one roof. We have a team comprised of physiotherapists, a dietician and an exercise physiologist to provide you with a comprehensive look at your current status and we work out a plan specific for your better bone health. The research has shown that you need to do at least 2 bone targeted classes per week to improve your bone mass.

What next?

1. Complete the Pre-exercise screening tool (part 1 only) so we can determine whether you need to see your GP before you start with us.
2. Once you have returned your pre-screening forms to us, if you don’t need to see your GP first, we’ll ring you to book you in for your initial assessments.
3. Before starting you will require:
   1. Initial Assessment Consultation 45 minutes where we will complete tests for your balance and function. Please bring your bone density scans and reports with you for this initial consult.
   2. Dietitian consultation 45 mins, this allows you to go through your current diet, asses your calcium and vitamin D intake and discuss the optimal requirements for bone growth. (If you have already been to The Bone Clinic this is not required.)
   3. If you haven’t already had one, our physiotherapists can refer you for an EOS scan (bulk billed) to measure your thoracic angle and your GP will need to refer you for a bone density (DXA).
   4. 1 on 1 training session for 30minutes to teach exercise techniques and ensure you are doing them safely, determine load setting and any modifications that need to be made for you.
      Sometimes a second 1 on 1 training session may be required.
   5. You are now ready to join the classes. These are supervised classes of a maximum of 4 participants. You need to attend at least twice a week for bone growth and we book you in for standard time each week. We deduct your fee on a fortnightly basis in the form of direct debit. Please ask admin for terms and conditions.
   6. After you have been following the program for 12months we recommend a review with our dietitian, physio and another DEXA scan to examine how effective it has been.

We have many class times Monday-Saturday subject to availability. Our friendly admin team will help you find the times that suit.

Please note – Private health rebates do apply for the assessments or you may be eligible for the Chronic Disease Management (or EPC) program under Medicare which will give you rebates on the assessments and interventions. Ask your GP if you are eligible.

Private Health may cover your class costs under your exercise physiology /physiotherapy cover or under healthy living programs also so check with your health fund.

Read our - Bone Health FAQ's

*Watson SL, Weeks BK, Weis L, Horan SA, and Beck BR (2015) Heavy resistance training is safe and improves bone, function and stature in postmenopausal woman with low to very low bone mass: Novel early findings from the LIFTMOR trial. Osteoporosis International, 2015, DOI 10.1007/s00198-015-3263-2.

** Beck BR, Weeks BK, Weis LJ, Harding A, Horan S, Watson SL: Restoring Standing Height: Yet Another Benefit of Exercise for the Osteoporosis. ASBMR 2015 Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, USA, Oct 9-12, 2015