Evidence library · Bone density

Does stretching affect bone density in menopause? What 5 studies found

Studies of stretching in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured bone density. 1 reported an improvement and 2 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. Postmenopausal women with low bone mass did weight-bearing exercise, aerobic dancing and flexibility work three times weekly for 12 months, and spinal bone density stabilized versus decline in controls, with improved fitness and wellbeing.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 124 women · 52 weeks · 1996PostmenopausalCited 104 timesPubMed

  2. Postmenopausal women with vertebral fractures who did a 6-month home exercise program of stretching, strength training and walking reported better quality of life and balance than controls, with no change in bone density.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 26 weeks · 2003PostmenopausalCited 113 timesPubMed

  3. Postmenopausal women did 9 months of resistance training or stretching with ibuprofen or placebo; exercise did not change bone density but increased strength and reduced body fat versus stretching.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 90 women · 36 weeks · 2016PostmenopausalCited 22 timesPubMed

  4. Postmenopausal women did resistance training or stretching for 9 months; resistance training preserved lower leg muscle density better than stretching, while ibuprofen with exercise reduced bone content at the wrist.

    Mixed resultsRandomised trial · 90 women · 39 weeks · 2017PostmenopausalCited 15 timesPubMed

  5. This narrative review summarized medical literature finding that regular exercise in midlife and postmenopausal women is linked with reduced obesity, cancer, dementia, mood symptoms, and osteoporosis.

    Reported an improvementOther · 2015Midlife womenCited 56 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