The Lichfield bone study: the skeletal response to exercise in healthy young men

Eleftheriou KI, Rawal JS, Kehoe A, James LE, Payne JR, Skipworth JR, Puthucheary ZA, Drenos F, Pennell DJ, Loosemore M, World M, Humphries SE, Haddad FS, Montgomery HE. The Lichfield bone study: the skeletal response to exercise in healthy young men. J Appl Physiol 112: 615-626, 2012. First published November 23, 2011; doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00788.2011.-The skeletal response to short-term exercise training remains poorly described. We thus studied the lower limb skeletal response of 723 Caucasian male army recruits to a 12-wk training regime. Femoral bone volume was assessed using magnetic resonance imaging, bone ultrastructure by quantitative ultrasound (QUS), and bone mineral density (BMD) using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the hip. Left hip BMD increased with training (mean +/- SD: 0.85 +/- 3.24, 2.93 +/- 4.85, and 1.89 +/- 2.85% for femoral neck, Ward's area, and total hip, respectively; all P < 0.001). Left calcaneal broadband ultrasound attenuation rose 3.57 +/- 0.5% (P < 0.001), and left and right femoral cortical volume by 1.09 +/- 4.05 and 0.71 +/- 4.05%, respectively (P = 0.0001 and 0.003), largely through the rise in periosteal volume (0.78 +/- 3.14 and 0.59 +/- 2.58% for right and left, respectively, P < 0.001) with endosteal volumes unchanged. Before training, DXA and QUS measures were independent of limb dominance. However, the dominant femur had higher periosteal (25,991.49 vs. 2,5572 mm(3), P < 0.001), endosteal (6,063.33 vs. 5,983.12 mm(3), P = 0.001), and cortical volumes (19,928 vs. 19,589.56 mm(3), P = 0.001). Changes in DXA, QUS, and magnetic resonance imaging measures were independent of limb dominance. We show, for the first time, that short-term exercise training in young men is associated not only with a rise in human femoral BMD, but also in femoral bone volume, the latter largely through a periosteal response.