Five one-year-old immature swine were subjected to twelve months of
exercise training. Four matched swine with no training served as controls.
After they were killed, four-millimeter-wide strips of bone taken from the
anterior, medial, posterior, and lateral quadrants of the central femoral
diaphysis were subjected to four-point bending tests to failure. It was
found that although exercise did not change the mechanical properties of
the cortical bone, it resulted in significant increases in the averaged
femoral cross-sectional properties: 17 per cent in cortical thickness, 23
per cent in cortical cross-sectional area, and 21 per cent and 27 per cent
in maximum and minimum area moments of inertia, respectively. These changes
were due primarily to reduction in the diameter of the medullary canal. The
analyses of bone composition showed that the bone density and biochemical
contents of the control and exercised animals were similar, but the total
volume and the dry, ash, and calcium weights of the exercised bone were
significantly higher. These combined results suggest that prolonged
exercise has a significant effect on the quantity of the bone, but not on
its quality. Clinical Relevance: It has long been recognized that stress
deprivation from immobilization in plaster casts results in profound bone
atrophy, and it is generally accepted that a minimum level of activity is
necessary for homeostasis of bone. These results show that exercise at a
level comparable to that prescribed in running fitness programs for humans
(65 to 80 per cent of maximum heart rate) can not only maintain
homeostasis, but produce actual hypertrophy of bone. This work further
suggests the importance of graduated, prolonged, supervised rehabilitation
programs in overcoming osteoporotic states.