Abstract
Background
Jumping exercise is frequently regarded as an optimum strategy for increasing pubertal bone growth, but its role in promoting or preserving adult bone mineral density (BMD) is still undefined.
Objectives
This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the evidence for the influence of jumping exercise on BMD in premenopausal women and to define the effectiveness of high-impact exercise in improving or maintaining female bone health.
Methods
We searched MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, Google Scholar and BIOSIS up to 1 September 2013 for jumping exercise influence on BMD in premenopausal women. The search terms used were ‘jumping’, ‘skipping’, ‘brief exercise’, ‘high impact’, ‘bone density’, ‘BMD’, ‘femoral neck’, ‘lumbar spine’, and ‘trochanter’, and the search was limited to females. Six papers met the search criteria.
Results
Six studies on BMD in the femoral neck (Q = 2.63, p = 0.854, I 2 = 0.0 %), trochanter (Q = 2.10, p = 0.10, I 2 = 0.0 %) and lumbar spine (Q = 1.17, p = 0.979, I 2 = 0.0 %) were highly homogenous in determining skeletal responses to jumping exercise. Jumping exercise significantly increased BMD in the femoral neck {weighted mean difference (WMD) [fixed effect] = 0.017 g/cm2, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.014–0.20, p < 0.001} and trochanter (WMD [fixed effect] = 0.021, 95 % CI 0.018–0.024, p < 0.001). However, the lumbar spine seemed to benefit less from such high-impact exercise (p = 0.181). Visual inspection of the plots implicated some degree of asymmetry, indicating a slightly positive treatment effect at the femoral neck and trochanter sites.
Conclusions
Based on meta-analysis of existing studies, the sensitivity of skeletal response to jumping exercise in premenopausal women is significant and site-specific, with significant benefit from high-impact exercise noted, especially at the hip.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.





References
World Health Organization. Assessment of fracture risk and its application to screening for postmenopausal osteoporosis. WHO Technical Report Series. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1994.
National Osteoporosis Foundation. America’s bone health: the state of osteoporosis and low bone mass in our nation. Washington, DC: National Osteoporosis Foundation; 2002.
Zhao D, Wu H, Liu Z. Epidemiology of osteoporosis. In: Liu Z, editor. Bone mineral and clinic practise. Beijing: Science and Technology Press; 2006. p. 5–6.
Riggs BL, Melton LJ 3rd. The worldwide problem of osteoporosis: insights afforded by epidemiology. Bone. 1995;17(5 Suppl):505S–11S.
Vondracek SF, Hansen LB, McDermott MT. Osteoporosis risk in premenopausal women. Pharmacotherapy. 2009;29(3):305–17.
Kohrt WM, Bloomfield SA, Little KD, et al. American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand: physical activity and bone health. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36(11):1985–96.
Wallace BA, Cumming RG. Systematic review of randomized trials of the effect of exercise on bone mass in pre- and postmenopausal women. Calcif Tissue Int. 2000;67(1):10–8.
Wolff I, van Croonenborg JJ, Kemper HC, et al. The effect of exercise training programs on bone mass: a meta-analysis of published controlled trials in pre- and postmenopausal women. Osteoporos Int. 1999;9(1):1–12.
Chilibeck PD, Sale DG, Webber CE. Exercise and bone mineral density. Sports Med. 1995;19(2):103–22.
Forwood MR, Larsen JA. Exercise recommendations for osteoporosis. A position statement of the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society. Aust Fam Physician. 2000;29(8):761–4.
Bassey EJ, Ramsdale SJ. Increase in femoral bone density in young women following high-impact exercise. Osteoporos Int. 1994;4(2):72–5.
Bassey EJ, Rothwell MC, Littlewood JJ, et al. Pre- and postmenopausal women have different bone mineral density responses to the same high-impact exercise. J Bone Miner Res. 1998;13(12):1805–13.
Kato T, Terashima T, Yamashita T, et al. Effect of low-repetition jump training on bone mineral density in young women. J Appl Physiol. 2006;100(3):839–43.
Niu K, Ahola R, Guo H, et al. Effect of office-based brief high-impact exercise on bone mineral density in healthy premenopausal women: the Sendai Bone Health Concept Study. J Bone Miner Metab. 2010;28(5):568–77.
Vainionpää A, Korpelainen R, Leppaluoto J, et al. Effects of high-impact exercise on bone mineral density: a randomized controlled trial in premenopausal women. Osteoporos Int. 2005;16(2):191–7.
Winters-Stone KM, Snow CM. Site-specific response of bone to exercise in premenopausal women. Bone. 2006;39(6):1203–9.
Bailey CA, Brooke-Wavell K. Optimum frequency of exercise for bone health: randomised controlled trial of a high-impact unilateral intervention. Bone. 2010;46(4):1043–9.
Heinonen A, Kannus P, Sievanen H, et al. Randomised controlled trial of effect of high-impact exercise on selected risk factors for osteoporotic fractures. Lancet. 1996;348(9038):1343–7.
Sugiyama T, Yamaguchi A, Kawai S. Effects of skeletal loading on bone mass and compensation mechanism in bone: a new insight into the “mechanostat” theory. J Bone Miner Metab. 2002;20(4):196–200.
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, et al. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Ann Intern Med. 2009;151(4):264–9.
Manolagas SC. Birth and death of bone cells: basic regulatory mechanisms and implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis. Endocr Rev. 2000;21(2):115–37.
Parfitt AM. Osteonal and hemi-osteonal remodeling: the spatial and temporal framework for signal traffic in adult human bone. J Cell Biochem. 1994;55(3):273–86.
Jadad AR, Moore RA, Carroll D, et al. Assessing the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials: is blinding necessary? Control Clin Trials. 1996;17(1):1–12.
Cummings SR, Black DM, Nevitt MC, et al. Bone density at various sites for prediction of hip fractures. The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures Research Group. Lancet. 1993;341(8837):72–5.
O’Coventry E, Connor KM, Hart BA, et al. The effect of lower extremity fatigue on shock attenuation during single-leg landing. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2006;21(10):1090–7.
Vainionpää A, Korpelainen R, Sievanen H, et al. Effect of impact exercise and its intensity on bone geometry at weight-bearing tibia and femur. Bone. 2007;40(3):604–11.
Martyn-St James M, Carroll S. Effects of different impact exercise modalities on bone mineral density in premenopausal women: a meta-analysis. J Bone Miner Metab. 2010;28(3):251–67.
Nikander R, Sievanen H, Heinonen A, et al. Targeted exercise against osteoporosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis for optimising bone strength throughout life. BMC Med. 2010;8:47.
Ahlborg HG, Johnell O, Turner CH, et al. Bone loss and bone size after menopause. N Engl J Med. 2003;349(4):327–34.
Blair SN, Kohl HW, Gordon NF, et al. How much physical activity is good for health? Annu Rev Public Health. 1992;13:99–126.
Winters KM, Snow CM. Detraining reverses positive effects of exercise on the musculoskeletal system in premenopausal women. J Bone Miner Res. 2000;15(12):2495–503.
Kontulainen S, Heinonen A, Kannus P, et al. Former exercisers of an 18-month intervention display residual aBMD benefits compared with control women 3.5 years post-intervention: a follow-up of a randomized controlled high-impact trial. Osteoporos Int. 2004;15(3):248–51.
Friedlander AL, Genant HK, Sadowsky S, et al. A two-year program of aerobics and weight training enhances bone mineral density of young women. J Bone Miner Res. 1995;10(4):574–85.
Rubin CT, Lanyon LE. Regulation of bone formation by applied dynamic loads. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1984;66(3):397–402.
Umemura Y, Ishiko T, Yamauchi T, et al. Five jumps per day increase bone mass and breaking force in rats. J Bone Miner Res. 1997;12(9):1480–5.
Robling AG, Burr DB, Turner CH. Partitioning a daily mechanical stimulus into discrete loading bouts improves the osteogenic response to loading. J Bone Miner Res. 2000;15(8):1596–602.
Srinivasan S, Weimer DA, Agans SC, et al. Low-magnitude mechanical loading becomes osteogenic when rest is inserted between each load cycle. J Bone Miner Res. 2002;17(9):1613–20.
Donahue SW, Donahue HJ, Jacobs CR. Osteoblastic cells have refractory periods for fluid-flow-induced intracellular calcium oscillations for short bouts of flow and display multiple low-magnitude oscillations during long-term flow. J Biomech. 2003;36(1):35–43.
Donahue SW, Jacobs CR, Donahue HJ. Flow-induced calcium oscillations in rat osteoblasts are age, loading frequency, and shear stress dependent. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2001;281(5):C1635–41.
Lanyon LE. Functional strain in bone tissue as an objective, and controlling stimulus for adaptive bone remodelling. J Biomech. 1987;20(11–12):1083–93.
Hahn S, Williamson PR, Hutton JL, et al. Assessing the potential for bias in meta-analysis due to selective reporting of subgroup analyses within studies. Stat Med. 2000;19(24):3325–36.
Acknowledgments
This article was based on work funded by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers Y2110954 and LY14H070001. Renqing Zhao, Meihua Zhao, and Liuji Zhang have no potential conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, R., Zhao, M. & Zhang, L. Efficiency of Jumping Exercise in Improving Bone Mineral Density Among Premenopausal Women: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Med 44, 1393–1402 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0220-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0220-8