Bone Turnover Response to Acute Exercise with Varying Impact Levels: A preliminary investigation

International Journal of Exercise Science 8(2): 154-163, 2015. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there are changes in metabolic markers of bone turnover within the 24-hour period following an acute bout of jogging or water exercise. Ten healthy females (22-30 yr.) underwent three trials with different ground impact forces: jogging, water aerobics and control. For the jogging and water aerobics trials, subjects exercised for 30 min at 60-70% of predicted maximal heart rate in addition to a 5 min warm up and cool down. For the control trial, subjects rested for 40 min, i.e., the total exercise time of the other trials. For each trial, blood samples were collected pre, immediately post, 1 hr. post, and 24 hr. post exercise. All samples were analyzed for levels of osteocalcin, bone specific alkaline phosphatase and cross-linked N telopeptides. A repeated-measure ANOVA was used to determine if there were differences between impact levels or over time. There were no significant differences over time, or between impact levels of exercise. Therefore these results indicate that healthy young women demonstrate no changes in bone turnover within 24 hr. of a single bout of exercise. Due to biochemical markers of bone turnover responding in a similar manner regardless of activity type, these findings suggest that water aerobics can be seen as a beneficial form of exercise for maintenance of bone density