Evidence library · Bone density

Does high-intensity intervals affect bone density in menopause? What 6 studies found

Studies of high-intensity intervals in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured bone density. 3 reported an improvement and 0 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A review found that 12 to 16 weeks of recreational football training in women aged 18 to 65 improved aerobic fitness, blood pressure, fat loss, lipid profile and bone mineralisation.

    Reported an improvementSystematic review · 2018Midlife womenCited 45 timesPubMed

  2. A meta-analysis of 8 RCTs found high-intensity, impact and strength training produced small but significant bone density increases at the hip and spine in postmenopausal, but not premenopausal, women.

    Reported an improvementMeta-analysis · 379 participants pooled · 2026PostmenopausalPubMed

  3. Sedentary postmenopausal women did one 30 minute session of high intensity interval exercise with or without whole body vibration, and both raised bone markers and improved working memory task performance, vibration more so.

    Reported an improvementRandomised trial · 63 women · 2025PostmenopausalCited 5 timesPubMed

  4. Postmenopausal Masters-level athletes doing regular high intensity exercise took hormone therapy or placebo for 20 weeks; hormone therapy reduced bone resorption markers but not bone formation markers.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 15 women · 20 weeks · 2016PostmenopausalCited 2 timesPubMed

  5. In premenopausal women with obesity, Greek yogurt after high-intensity interval cycling altered bone turnover marker responses compared with a carbohydrate pudding over 24 hours.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 20 women · 2026OtherPubMed

  6. This protocol describes a planned network meta-analysis comparing multicomponent training and high-intensity interval training effects on bone density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

    Direction not statedOther · 2025PostmenopausalCited 2 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

Other exercise types and bone density