Does running strengthen bone?

Abstract

Bone is a living tissue needing mechanical stress to maintain strength. Traditional endurance exercises offer only modest effects on bone. Walking and running produce low impact but lead to bone fatigue. This article is specifically addressed to therapists and explains the mechanisms involved for the effects of exercise on bone. Intermittent exercise limits bone fatigue, and downhill exercises increase ground impact forces and involve eccentric muscle contractions, which are particularly osteogenic.

Preventive Moderate Continuous Running-Exercise Conditioning Improves the Healing of Non-Critical Size Bone Defects in Male Wistar Rats: A Pilot Study Using µCT

“…Physical exercise (PE) has unquestionable beneficial effects on bone health [1][2][3][4][5]. Using rats as a model, the effects of different exercise modalities on bone biochemical characteristics and biomechanical properties have been previously investigated [6][7][8].…”

The effect of intermittent running on biomarkers of bone turnover

“…Moreover, owing to the desensitisation of bone tissue following multiple loading cycles, osteogenesis is enhanced if the mechanical loads are applied intermittently with periods of rest (Robling, Burr, & Turner, 2001) allowing the mechanosensory network to re‐sensitise. As such, intermittent exercise characterised by periods of high‐intensity loading interspersed with periods of rest or lower intensity loading might provide an ideal training environment to stimulate bone remodelling (Boudenot, Achiou, & Portier, 2015). This concept has been well established using animal models, in both the growing (Robling et al, 2001) and mature skeleton, (Srinivasan et al, 2003) with as little as 10 s (Srinivasan et al, 2015) and up to 8 h (Robling et al, 2001) recovery enhancing osteogenesis.…”