INDIANAPOLIS -- Young athletes who participate in multidirectional sports, instead of specializing in a unidirectional sport like running, can build stronger bones that may be at less risk for bone injuries as adults, according to a new study from Indiana University researchers.
View print quality image Stuart Warden. Photo by Liz Kaye, Indiana University
Published in the American College of Sports Medicine's Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the study examined Division I and II female cross country runners, who often experience bone stress injuries like stress fractures. The researchers found that athletes who ran and participated in sports that require movement in many directions -- such as basketball or soccer -- when younger had better bone structure and strength than those who solely ran, swam or cycled. As a result, the study's findings support recommendations that athletes delay specialization in running and play multi-directional sports when younger to build a more robust skeleton -- and potentially prevent bone stress injuries.
"Our data shows that playing multidirectional sports when younger versus specializing in one sport, such as running, decreased a person's bone injury risk by developing a bigger, stronger skeleton," said Stuart Warden, associate dean for research and Chancellor's Professor in the IU School of Health and Human Sciences at IUPUI. "There is a common misperception that kids need to specialize in a single sport to succeed at higher levels. However, recent data indicate that athletes who specialize at a young age are at a greater risk of an overuse injury and are less likely to progress to higher levels of competition." Historically, Warden said, researchers have examined the bone's mass -- how much bone a person has -- to determine how healthy their skeleton will be through life. But in previous studies, Warden and his colleagues found that as a person ages, both mass and size are equally important.
View print quality image Researchers used high-resolution imaging to assess bone strength in areas of the shin bone and foot where bone stress injuries frequently occur in runners. Image courtesy Stuart Warden