Effect of One Year Competitive Soccer in Adolescents Compared to Controls: Preliminary Results

MB OLIVERI; M.S. PARISI; C MAUTALEN; P ORTEGA; C HERNANDEZ; F SOLÍS

TORONTO

Congreso; XXII CONGRESO ANUAL DE LA ASBMR; 2000

Intensive exercise promotes bone gain during growth. There is certain controversy as to whether theobserved effect on bone mass is due to a natural condition associated with marked ability for competitionsports or to the practice itself. In previous studies we observed greater bone mass in prospective maleleague candidates before starting league soccer training than in age and BMI matched controls, findinggreater total skeleton (TS) BMD 11%, BMC 13% and Bone Area (BA) 2%. The greatest differences wereobserved in the pelvis and legs subregions. Study in progress: we repeated measurement of BMD(g/cm2), BMC (g) and BA (cm2) of TS and subregions and of body composition (LUNAR DPX-L) inboth groups (average age 15.0 years) after one year. The average increments between baseline and oneyear studies (expressed as a percentage) are as follows:TSBMD TSBMC TSBA Arms Legs Pelvis Spine LeanP 6.4% 14.0% 7.5% 7.6% 7.4% 7.1% 6.5% 9.9%C 5.0% 9.0% 6.3% 5.0% 3.9% 5.6% 6.3% 7.0%League Soccer Players(P) n=12 Controls(C) n=12.subregions BMD.After one year the difference between P and controls increased from 11% to 15% for TS BMD, from 13%to 24% for TS BMC and from 2% to 4% for TS area. In conclusion: After one year of league soccertraining we found greater increases of TS BMD, TS BMC, TS BA and lean mass in the soccer playersthan in controls; this difference reached statistical significance in TS BMC and lean mass