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High Impact Means High Bone Density for Children

High impact activities like jumping and skipping has been shown to benefit bone health in adolescents. A ten minute school based intervention, provided twice a week for eight months, greatly improved bone and muscle strength in healthy teenagers when compared to regular warmups. Physiotherapist Ben Weeks said the warm-up, which included high intensity jumps and lunges of gradually increasing complexity and repetition, was specifically designed to stimulate skeletal growth. By the end of the study, students worked up to about 300 jumps per session.

According to Weeks, "Eighty percent of bone mass is accrued in the first 20 years and especially around puberty due to the circulating hormones. This study targets a window of opportunity in adolescence to maximise peak bone mass with high-intensity, weight-bearing activity."

The study of 99 participants with a mean age of almost 14, found boys in the intervention group improved whole body bone mass while girls' bone mass specifically improved at the hip and spine. Weeks claims the gender-specific response to the exercise program was like related to the different rates of physical development with girls reaching maturity at an earlier age than boys. He also noted that the improved bone strength at the hip and spine in girls was promising as those were the typical areas for osteoporotic fractures amongst the elderly.

While the study showed that a simple exercise intervention can result in worthwhile skeletal development in adolescents, Weeks said larger, longitudinal studies are needed. He claims it's still unclear whether these beneficial effects could persist through adulthood and reduce the risk of future bone fracture

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