A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (July 2006) found that athletic activity during adolescence is associated with long-lasting benefits to bone density in men, even after intense training has ended.
Researchers followed 63 male athletes and 27 non-athletes for eight years. The average age of participants at the start of the study was 17. Bone density measurements were taken at several points during the follow-up period.
At just over two years into the study, athletes already showed higher bone density than non-athletes. When measurements were repeated approximately 68 months after the study began, athletes continued to have greater bone density. By that time, 27 of the athletes had stopped training. Those who stopped training experienced greater bone loss than athletes who remained active.
A third assessment was conducted 94 months after the start of the study, at which point an additional 13 athletes had discontinued training. This group showed more bone loss than both the athletes who continued training and the non-athlete control group. Despite this decline, all former athletes still maintained higher bone density than non-athletes.
At the conclusion of the eight-year study, men who had participated in athletic activity during their teenage years retained higher bone density than those who had never been athletes, even if they were no longer training. These findings suggest that physical activity during adolescence may contribute to lasting skeletal benefits later in life.
