The association of cycling with low bone density

I’m not sure how much this relates to us uni riders exactly. I’m guessing the serious muni and trials riders are bending their bones enough to have above average bone strength.

Anyway, I knew for a long time that heavy weight lifters had heavier bones. This is the first I have read about how bike racers apparently have weaker than average bones.

On the gist of it, it makes sense to me. A pro bike racer won’t lift weights because he would gain non-aerobic bulk muscle he doesn’t want. That, combined with lot’s and lot’s of aerobic work seems to deplete bone strength.

I confused one NYT link for another

I hope you enjoyed learning as much about bile reflux as I did LOL.:o

Anyway, here’s the link about cycling and bones.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/is-bicycling-bad-for-your-bones/?em

UPDs: They’re good for your bones!

I’m sure my bones are doing OK on the uni. I jump off it and slam plenty of weight onto my joints all the time lol.

i could see this being a bit more of a problem for guys only riding cokers, but for muni and streeet, no big deal, we eat crap all the time.

Pretty much what I was going to say. Unicycle riders tend to be a lot more diverse with the styles they chose to ride. Whilist our cycling counterparts (from what I’ve seen) tend to lean more toward just one genre of cycling.

With road, true. But I wonder how the results would change for mountain bikers beyond XC and bmxer/dirt jumpers. I’m sure the later would not have issues with bones lol.

exactly what i was going to say… only road cyclists would have this issue…

That was already mentioned in his first post. At least im pretty dang sure I read something along the lines of “muni and trials riders something something average bone strength.”

I think street riders would have the hardest shins. Repeated impacts from the pedal is like when your training your fists with buckets of rice/sand/pebbles or whatever.

Distance riders here seem to not have enough constant riding and training that it really effects their bone density. Other activities, riding styles and other breakups seem to keep it pretty average im sure.

I think those super fast bikers are impressive

It’s amazing how they can rip at the aerobic edge for so long.

I agree with the general trend of this thread that , that ain’t us.

I posted it because I had previously assumed that all exercise made your bones tougher, yet this study shows how extreme attempts to be a pro bike racer might thin your bones. Maybe BS, but part of it makes sense to me.

I think that doing some heavy weight lifting, combined with stressing your bones doing muni or trials stuff, will make your bones thicker and more fracture resistant. The weight gain this entails is unappealing to the pro bike racers, who focus totally on winning a bike contest at all costs. They are as serious about their lean program as anyone. I think they are doing no heavy lifting so as to avoid bulk (heavy) muscle, and their bones miss the exersize.

I was a serious road biker for a lot of years and @ 40 got diagnosed with low bone density. Been mainlining calcium ever since. I am sure the low density contributed to breaking my back on a Muni UPD. My endrocrinologist can’t find any other reason for it, so attributed it to the cycling. The belief is that the sweating leeches minerals from the bones, and since there is no weight bearing or impact in cycling the minerals aren’t replaced.