Bone health in women can be improved up to 4% by involving in high intensity weight bearing exercise such as running for one minute everyday. The brief burst of high intensity activity could mean a medium paced run for premenopausal women or a slow jog for postmenopausal women. Even during brisk walking, women can just pick up the pace a little bit to add running steps for one to two minutes; a bit like you might if you were running to catch a bus.
This short time can help accrue substantial benefits for bone health. The study looked at direct correlations between activity (measured by wrist-worn monitors) and bone health (measured by an ultrasound scan of heel bone)
Increased physical activity can reduce risk of osteoporosis significantly. Maintaining good bone health is very important, especially for women, as falls and fractures greatly compromise quality of life
References:
Victoria H Stiles, Brad S Metcalf, Karen M Knapp, Alex V Rowlands 2017. A small amount of precisely measured high-intensity habitual physical activity predicts bone health in pre- and post-menopausal women in UK Biobank. Int J Epidemiol https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyx080
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/uoe-omo071717.php
