Turns out if you want to keep your bones healthy, you'd better start young and be specific about which exercise you choose. The New York Times reveals the findings of a new study which indicates that, contrary to popular belief, "any and all activity" may not benefit your bones.
In fact, as researchers investigate the effect of exercise on bone health, it has become increasingly clear that various kinds of exercise produces varying results on bone conditioning. Until recently, researchers believed that the impact of running, or any similar high-impact exercise, would transform the bone, "deforming" it just slightly. As a result of running, the bone would give slightly to the force of the physical activity, and the bone cells would stretch in response and adapt to the repeated exercise by adding cells and becoming denser. But this is not the case. In actuality, researchers have now found that the bone cells don't stretch; instead, when the bone bends, it "squeezes bone fluid" from one part of the bone "matrix" to another, and it's this extra fluid that causes the cells to add denser bone in response.
The key is that only certain types of exercise produce this kind of bone-bending, and the subsequent response to add dense bone-building. Says Alexander G. Robling, an assistant professor in the department of anatomy and cell biology at Indiana University School of Medicine, "large forces released in a relatively big burst” are crucial to building healthy bones, which is why activities like weight lifting won't help bone-bend or produce stronger, denser bones. But the exercises that will? Running, brisk walking at a fast pace, and surprisingly, repeated jumping.
Bunny Hug
will this work for leg bones only? or the whole skeleton?
1Interesting.
2So plyometrics would be great...ugh those workout kick my ass though!
3I second that great question, Allyta. I don't see how running and jumping can do much for my arms bones.
4I am all about yoga which I feel helps with all exercise!
5Tai Chi is supposed to be good for bone strength... the repeated tapping/hitting of the arms & wrists helps to build the skeleton. I believe it, if only because the elderly people I've seen doing tai chi in the park ALL have much better posture and appear stronger than, say, my grandparents who haven't been hitting themselves their whole lives
6I jump rope every day for at least 10 minutes so I get lots of bone-building activity. I'm guessing doing those explosive pushups where you come up off the ground would really benefit your arms, too.
7Yet another example of an academic doing a laboratory based study, without any understanding of how the body practically works on the field. Weight lifting done in the correct way produces such amazing amounts of force on joints and bones and done in an explosive manner would totally create the bone"squeeze" effect discussed in this study. The process of repairing muscles after training (especially when fuelling yourself with whole fresh food) not only increases metabolic functions in the body but also gives you strength to better perform in your day. Sprinting is an explosive movement that will definitely create the bone squeeze effect discussed in the study. But running? Please! Running, especially the running most readers of this article will go out and do in the attempt to improve their health, will do exactly the opposite. Long slow jogs wear joints down and create postural imbalances. Hopefully more academics will get out of their labs and actually start moving their bodies before they publish any more misleading information.
8Perhaps a better understanding of the nature of empirical research would help the previous commenter understand that the information reported was not "misleading".
9Alana,
Perhaps if you actually read the whole NYT article you would realize that the full version specified that the weight-lifting most people do doesn't strengthen the bones because they just do high reps on a weight machine or with a dumbbell that's much lighter than their max. Olympic-style weight lifting, with its explosive style and heavy weights, is good for the bones. But most people don't do that, certainly not most people who are at risk for osteoporosis. The results of the Japanese jumping study are much more useful for those people.
If you're going to question other scientific studies, you might also want to cite your research on how distance running, when done with proper form and correct footwear, is bad for people.
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