High impact activities such as jumping and skipping that can
easily be incorporated into warm-ups before sports and physical
education classes, have been shown to benefit bone health in
adolescents. The 10 minute school-based intervention, provided
twice a week for about eight months, significantly improved bone
and muscle strength in healthy teenagers compared to regular
warm-ups. Physiotherapist Ben Weeks said the warm-up which
included tuck jumps, star jumps, side lunges and skipping with
gradually increasing complexity and repetitions, was
specifically designed to apply a bone-stimulating mechanical
load on the skeleton. Students worked up to about 300 jumps per
session by the end of the study. “Eighty per cent of bone mass
is accrued in the first 20 years and especially around puberty
due to the circulating hormones. This study targets a window of
opportunity in adolescence to maximise peak bone mass with high-
intensity, weight-bearing activity.” The study of 99 adolescents
with a mean age of almost 14 y