For parents who want their teenagers to have strong, healthy bones, it seems that soccer may be the choice of sport for them. Impact sports (including soccer) seem to help teenagers prevent lower levels of bone density later in life.
The building of bone density from impact sports may be linked to the running and jumping associated with the sport. The weight bearing
Exercise aspect of impact sports helps the bones to stay stronger, longer and thus the benefit on the overall bone density in teenagers straight through their older years.
The building of great bone density early in life is important for the prevention of osteoporosis as aging occurs. Osteoporosis can leave bones brittle and easy to break. Bone mass levels generally peak by the age of 30 and tend to lessen each year after that.
The study compared three teenage sports and measured the overall effects of these sports on the bone density of the girls involved. The three sports were swimming, weight lifting and soccer.
Of the three sports, soccer offered the highest levels of bone density with weight lifting and swimming following behind. The group of woman involved ranged in age from 10 to 17 with bone density levels being compared to that of a 25 year old woman.
According to the results, the teenage girls in soccer showed bone density levels higher than that of a normal bone density level for a 25 year old woman, weight lifting offer bone density levels equal to that of the 25 year old and swimmers fell below the normal measurement.
Researchers were not concerned with the lower levels of bone density in the teen swimmers due to the fact that they still have several years until they reached that 25 year mark to gain sufficient bone density.
Of the three exercises, swimming was the only non-weight bearing exercise, leading researchers to believe weight bearing exercises help teens to build bone density far more quickly than any other form of activity.
In order to keep bone density levels high, parents should offer information to teens about the link between weight bearing exercises and bone building and bone loss. They also need to keep the calcium levels high in their teens. The Recommended Daily Allowance for calcium for a teenage girl is 1,300 milligrams.
