Odd-impact loading results in increased cortical area and moments of inertia in collegiate athletes

Abstract

Load-specific changes resulting in improved measures of bone strength take place in athletes during a competitive season. These changes may result in improved resistance to fractures and stress fractures.

Increased Training Volume Improves Bone Density and Cortical Area in Adolescent Football Players

“…The bone characteristics shown to increase in response to increased training volume over 12 weeks are the same characteristics that have been shown to be higher in habitual, non-elite footballers when compared to control populations in cross-sectional studies (trabecular density [17]; SSI [22]; cortical thickness and CSA [28]). Increased training volume resulted in an increase in trabecular density at the 4 % tibial site in the present study; increased trabecular density has also been shown in response to participation in unaccustomed exercise intervention consisting of an increase in volume and intensity of exercise [4].…”

Bone stress in runners with tibial stress fracture

“…The clinical implications of these results are that exercises could be designed to enhance the structural characteristics of bone and efforts could be made to reduce stress during loading in order to reduce stress fracture odds. For instance, activities involving high forces delivered at a rapid rate with periods of rest inserted, as well as variable forces, could be prescribed to facilitate functional adaptation of bone to better resist applied loads (Honda et al, 2015;Warden et al, 2004;Weidauer et al, 2014). Additionally, runners with stress fracture may benefit from gait modification to reduce applied loads, in particular the sagittal plane bending moment acting at the tibia.…”

Vitamin D and the Athlete: Current Perspectives and New Challenges

“…Any training-induced increase in body mass contributes to the process of bone remodeling and forms mechanically appropriate bone structure [ 104 ]. The stimulus of loading the musculoskeletal system through high-intensity dynamic sporting activity is proposed to compensate for 25[OH]D deficiency, with the absence of poor bone health in athletes [ 102 , 105 ]. However, non-weight-bearing athletes are prone to the same detrimental skeletal effects [ 104 , 106 ] and are at higher risk for low BMD when vitamin D status is low [ 107 – 109 ].…”