.png){kind=logo}
Do You Need To Land Hard With Jumping To Increase Bone Density?
- Carri Dominick
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Recently I posted a video on social media explaining that landing softly from a jump is better for your pelvic floor if you have pelvic floor problems such as bladder leakage or prolapse. I was shocked to get so many comments from people saying they have seen videos saying they need to land hard in order to build bone mass.
My immediate response was, “this sounds crazy” and “no one in the athletic world or physical therapy world would ever tell you to land hard. That is unathletic.” But people kept commenting the same thing.
I asked for people to send me the videos that they saw stating this, but no one sent me any videos. Eventually someone commented the name of a menopause doctor with a large account who promotes “bone bashing” to increase bone density in menopause. I looked up her account and sure enough, many of her videos stated you need to land hard and stiff to increase bone density. I am still shocked she is saying this because when I looked up her credentials she is an orthopedic surgeon. Landing with a stiff, hard landing will surely place wear and tear on your joints and pelvic floor, but maybe that will give her more surgeries to do in the future. Most big accounts on social media just need to stand out in some way with an extreme message that gets attention, and that is certainly what she is doing. (I am not going to promote her account by naming it, but I’m sure you can figure out how to find it with this information).
So, I decided to look at the research myself because I thought surely this cannot be true.
What Does The Research Say About Jumping and Bone Density and Landing?
What I found out is that it is partially true, but there is much more to the story than needing to land stiff legged to increase bone density.
It is well established in the research that a person needs 3x their body weight of stimulus to increase bone density. I also found in many research articles that landing stiff legged is equal to 3x the body weight. So, if we stopped there, then that would be the conclusion, however there is much more beyond just this fact.
I read a few meta-analysis, which is a type of research that looks at all the research on a topic and gives the overall conclusions. I’m going to quote one directly here:
Thus, exercises such as jumping and hopping, which are considered to provide ‘unusual’ or ‘unfamiliar’ patterns of loading have been shown to have a greater osteogenic effect than landing force magnitude alone, with bone adaptation being observed at much lower GRF when these non-habitual strains are applied (2)
In this meta-analysis this was their conclusion after analyzing 8 different studies on jumping and bone density. Jumping and hopping in different patterns has a greater effect than landing force alone. So, immediately, you do not have to land hard or bash your bones, in fact there are much better ways to increase bone density than that.
They also found that different types of jumps could have a bigger impact on bone density than just jumping and landing with stiff legs. Jumping higher increases the impact on bone density, regardless of how the person landed. Repeated jumps increase bone density, but usually no more than 50 jumps at a time.
They also hypothesize that hopping could be up to 5x body weight impact because it is all on a single leg. Most of the studies were on jumping and landing on two legs, but some included hopping on one leg.
What if I already have osteoporosis or osteopenia?
There is a study out of Australia called the LIFTMOR study which focused on weight lifting (squats, deadlifts and overhead press) with one impact landing component. The participants were instructed to jump up to a chin up bar and then jump down and land as hard as comfortable. All the participants were post-menopausal with low bone density. The bone density improved in this population and there were no fractures, showing us that weight lifting and impact training are safe, when done correctly, even with low bone density.
What if I can’t jump?
Weight lifting has been shown to increase bone density in older adults. (4) Lifting heavier weights and more frequent training was shown to increase bone density. Most of the studies showed that lower body strength training mainly improved bone density at the hip and not as much of a change was shown in the spine.
How do I start safely training for bone density?
Some recommendations for how to start safely training for increased bone density is that:
I would recommend that you have good balance before starting any jump training.
You should be able to balance on one foot for 10-30 seconds
Start with lifting weights
Start with body weight training if you are a beginner
Things like squats, lunges, etc
Slowly increase the weight you lift
Give yourself rest days between weight lifting sessions
Then add jumping and hopping
Hold on to something if you need to when you first start
Try jumping and hopping in different directions
Add jumping onto and off of a small step once you feel ready
Do some single jumps for maximum height
Do some repeated jumps, like 5-10 in a row
Work with a physical therapist or personal trainer to have them guide you safely through a program to work up to jumping at least 3 days a week
Conclusion
The research does show that landing hard with stiff legs does increase bone density, however the same research also concludes that you can increase your bone density by doing a variety of other jumping exercises where you don’t have to land hard. The research even supports weight lifting as a way to improve bone density of your hip, without even jumping at all. So, no you don’t need to bash your bones. I would recommend not doing that in order to protect your joints and especially not do that if you have pelvic floor problems.
Resources:
Comments