Simple jumping exercises during one school year can cause increases in bone mineral density (BMD) for children, according to Hawley Almstedt, assistant professor of natural science at Loyola Marymount University.
Almstedt and her team followed two groups of children through a school year, one that participated in jumping activities and a control group that maintained the normal physical education curriculum.
The children that participated in the Building Growing Skeleton in Youth (BUGSY) program performed a series of 100 consecutive jumps off a two-foot high box, three days a week. Shortly after the completion of the program, researchers found little difference in the bone mineral density between the BUGSY group and the control group. However, after an eight-year period, they found that the BUGSY children had significant gains in bone mineral density, compared to those who participated in the regular curriculum.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the findings recently published on its Web site.
“The unique part of this project is that the children were followed over several years,” said Almstedt. “What we found was that they still benefited from the jumping over their peers even years later.”
“Getting published on the NIAMS Web site is really rewarding after years of work on this project,” said Almstedt. “We are seeing positive results that can make a big impact and are looking to expand the testing with exercise intervention in colleges.
These results also indicate long-range positive impacts for adults. If the increases in BMD are sustained through early adulthood, it could seriously reduce the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures for them later in life.
“Physical activity, particularly high-impact activity, is extremely important for youth,” said Almstedt. “If we fill that window with activities like video games, we are missing an opportunity for our youth.”