INDIANAPOLIS – Youth athletes who participate in multiple sports, rather than specializing in one sport such as running, can build strong bones that may reduce the risk for bone injuries as adults, according to a new study from Indiana University researchers.
Published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the study examined Phases I and II of female cross-country runners, who often experience bone injuries such as fractures. The researchers found that athletes who ran and participated in sports that required movement in many directions – such as basketball or soccer – had better bone strength and strength than they did. just run, swim or bike.
As a result, the study’s findings support the recommendations that athletes delay the specialization in the car and play repetitive sports when they are young to build a stronger skeleton – and this may prevent bone injuries.
“Our data show that playing multiple sports when it is small and specialized in one sport, such as running, reduces the risk of bone injuries in a person by developing a better, stronger framework,” said Stuart Warden, vice chancellor for research and Chancellor’s Professor at the IU School. of Health and Human Sciences at the IUPUI. “There’s a common misconception that kids need to specialize in one sport to succeed at high levels. high levels of competition.”
Historically, Warden said, researchers have looked at bone mass — how much bone a person has — to determine how healthy their skeleton was during life. But in previous studies, Warden and his colleagues found that as people age, weight and size are equally important.
In the current study, the researchers used high-resolution imaging to evaluate the bone density around the ankles and the bones in the feet where bone injuries often occur in runners. They found that athletes who participated in running and high-impact sports while younger had 10 to 20 percent less bone strength than athletes who only ran.
“Our research shows that runners who played a lot of sports as children have stronger bones than college athletes, which reduces the risk for bone injuries including stress fractures. ,” Warden said. “We want to make sure people have better, stronger bones as they grow, become young and live life. Specializing in one sport at a young age means more they get injured and don’t make it to college and professional levels. .”
According to Warden, anyone who oversees a young player or team – whether parents, teachers or coaches – should think twice about pushing them to specialize in one area too soon. To allow proper growth and development to occur, he advises young athletes not to specialize until their first year in high school. For athletes who have played many sports, he said it is important to spend their time resting and recovering during the year, which can improve both bone strength and performance.
Additional authors on the study are Austin Sventeckis, Ph.D. student, and Robyn Fuchs, assistant professor, of the IU School of Health and Human Sciences at IUPUI, and Rachel Surowiec of the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI.
