In the authors' words
“Exercise in adulthood, in the peri- and postmenopausal period, and in old age prevents bone loss or increases BMD with a magnitude of minor biological significance.”
What was measured
- Bone density Reported an improvement
- Muscle strength Reported an improvement
- Balance and falls Reported an improvement
About the study
- Type
- Systematic review
- Who took part
- Midlife women, low bone density
- Exercise
- Resistance training, Impact and jumping, General physical activity
- Cited
- 25 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 14723782
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.
Similar studies
- A review of 43 trials in postmenopausal women found exercise, especially resistance training and combined programmes, produced a small but statistically significant increase in bone density versus no exercise.
- A meta-analysis of RCTs found that ground and joint reaction exercise of at least 24 weeks produced small but significant improvements in femoral neck and lumbar spine bone density in postmenopausal women.
- A meta-analysis of randomised trials found at least 6 months of supervised weight-bearing exercise did not significantly improve lower-extremity bone strength in postmenopausal women.
- A meta-analysis of 16 trials in older postmenopausal women found whole-body vibration raised lumbar spine bone density while aerobic exercise lowered it, with no overall effect on femoral neck density.