Multidirectional sports can lead to stronger bones in young athletes

Multidirectional sports can lead to stronger bones in young athletes

Young athletes who participate in multidirectional sports instead of specializing in a unidirectional sport like running can build stronger bones that may be at lower risk of bone injuries as adults, according to a new study by researchers at Indiana University.

The study, published in the American College of Sports Medicine's journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, examined Division I and Division II female cross-country runners, who commonly suffer bone injuries such as stress fractures. The researchers found that athletes who ran and participated in sports that required movement in many directions - such as basketball or soccer - when they were younger had better bone structure and strength than those who exclusively ran, swam or cycled.

As a result, the study's findings support recommendations that athletes delay specializing in running and engage in multi-directional sports at younger ages to build a more robust skeleton - and potentially prevent bone overuse injuries.

Our data show that playing multi-directional sports at a young age, compared to specializing in one sport such as running, reduced a person's risk of bone injury by developing a larger, stronger skeleton. There is a common misconception that children need to specialize in a single sport to succeed at higher levels. However, recent data suggests that athletes who specialize at a young age are at greater risk of overuse injury and have less chance of reaching higher levels of competition.”

Stuart Warden, associate dean for research and chancellor's professor in the IU School of Health and Human Sciences at IUPUI

In the past, Warden said, researchers have studied bone mass — how much bone a person has — to determine how healthy their skeleton will be over the course of their lives. But in previous studies, Warden and his colleagues found that as we age, both mass and size are equally important.

In the current study, researchers used high-resolution imaging to examine the tibia near the ankle and the bones in the feet, where bone stress injuries often occur in runners. They found that the athletes who participated in both running and multidirectional sports at a young age had 10 to 20 percent greater bone strength than athletes who ran exclusively.

“Our research shows that the runners who played multi-directional sports at a young age had stronger bones than collegiate athletes, putting them at lower risk for bone injuries, including stress fractures,” Warden said. "We want to make sure people have better, stronger bones as they grow, become adolescents and go through life. If they specialize in one sport at too young an age, they are more likely to get injured and not make it to the collegiate and professional levels." .”

Warden said anyone overseeing a youth athlete or team - be they parents, coaches or trainers - should think twice about pushing them to specialize in one area too early. To allow for proper growth and development, he recommends that young athletes avoid specializing, at least during their first year of high school. For athletes who already participate in multi-directional sports, it is important to take time off during the year for rest and recovery, which can improve both bone strength and performance.

Additional authors of the study were Austin Sventeckis, Ph.D. student, and Robyn Fuchs, associate professor, from the IU School of Health and Human Sciences at IUPUI, and Rachel Surowiec from the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI.

Source:

Indiana University

Reference:

Warden, S.J., et al. (2022) Improved bone size, microarchitecture, and strength in female runners with a history of multidirectional sports. Medicine and science in sport and exercise. doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000003016.

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