From protecting organs such as the heart or brain from injury, to supporting our bodies and allowing us to move, our bones can take on incredible amounts of stress and a lot of the time, people disregard the importance of prioritizing these lively structures. People forget that exercise plays a key role in not just our cardiovascular system and muscles, but also our bone health. Exercising helps maintain and even increase bone density or change the bones shape due to stress that is placed on it during physical activity, giving its everchanging and adapting feature.
Bones are made up of two different types of tissue: Compact and spongy bone tissue. The compact bone is the outer, dense potion of the bone. This can be quite thick, protecting the inside of the bone, contrasting the spongy bone tissue, which is made up of trabeculae, an interwoven network of connective tissue with gaps, explaining why it’s also known as trabecular bone. At first, the orientation of the trabeculae looks random however, the shape and orientation of the tissue is aligned in the direct lines of stress that the bone must go through every day. Sort of like the support beams of a building (the building
being the bone) for the bone to deal with stress placed on it, explaining how the bone is able to maintain its shape regardless of any pressure being placed on it.
Other properties that help bones resist large amounts of stress placed on them during physical exercise is the organic and inorganic substances that make up bones tissue. The organic substances help give the bone it’s tensile strength (pulling sensation) as it’s made up of collagen, which is a string like protein that can resist being pulled apart, kind of like a microscopic rope! Inorganic tissue helps give bone it’s compressive strength (pushing sensation) as it’s made up of hydroxyapatite. hydroxyapatite is made up of calcium and phosphate, giving bone its hard characteristics and ability to resist pushing/compressive
forces. During exercise, you’re constantly putting these pulling and pushing sensations on your bones which can increase bone density and reduce any injuries that a person may face. This is why astronauts in space have low bone density, not only is there little to no gravity, reducing the force being placed on their bones, but it’s also more difficult for them to exercise in space.
But what are these tissues made of? Why can they build up or break down?
These bone tissues are made up of osteoblast cells and osteoclast cells. The osteoblasts are in charge of building up the bone and increasing its density whilst the osteoclasts oversee breaking down the bone tissue, thus reducing the bone’s density. Exercise increases the number of osteoblasts to osteoclasts because the bone would have higher density so there would be a larger ratio of osteoblast cells to osteoclast cells and vice versa. Another interesting fact to do with osteoclasts is that oestrogen (female
hormone which maintains female characteristics in the body) can inhibit this. This increases the number of osteoblasts, explaining why females have higher bone density, making it more difficult for female bones to remodel and change shape. If a woman doesn’t have enough oestrogen, this could lead to bone loss and osteoporosis (bone disease that develops when bone mineral density and bone mass decreases or the shape of the bone changes) due to high amounts of osteoclasts.
There are lots of different exercises to increase bone health in fact, bones are constantly being remodelled despite what you’re doing. Running provides lots of stimuli on bones, mostly their lower limbs which means that they have great lower bones density. However, if you don’t like running, cycling, walking and jumping can also have this effect, although, walking would have less of a stimulus on the bones as it has less intensity, so walking may not do it. Going to the gym is also a great way to increase bone density, if
the exercises are done at a moderate level of intensity (6 to 12 reps). Going to the gym also means that you can train all muscle groups so running would not be required in this aspect although, running sounds way more appealing than going through another gruelling leg day. Overall, the best way to maintain bone strength would be to consistently go to the gym as well as do more endurance heavy workouts to balance everything out. Not only would you get your dream bod, but also super strong bones!
Bibliography:
FREEP!K. www.freepik.com/vectors/strong-bones. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.
"How Your Bones Change with Exercise." YouTube Video.
NIH. www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/kids/healthy-
bones#:~:text=Bones%20support%20your%20body%20and,that%20adds%20strength%20and%
20hardness. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.
Study.com. study.com/academy/lesson/trabeculae-of-bone-definition-function.html. Accessed 15 Oct. 2023.
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