Resistance Exercise Training to Improve Bone and Articular Cartilage Health in Women

Summary

Osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease) and osteoporosis (weak and fragile bones) are common conditions, particularly in women after menopause, and become even more common as we get older. Aging is also associated with sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle strength and mass with age. In this three-arm study, the effect of resistance exercise programs with different parameters (such as velocity and load) on various outcomes, including structural changes (bone mineral density, cartilage composition, muscle size), physical function, and biomarkers will be compared.

Conditions

• Osteoporosis
• Osteoarthritis

Interventions

OTHER

Ballistic Resistance Lower Body Strength Training

The exercise programme involves two supervised sessions per week at University. Each session will involve 30-40 minutes of exercise, comprising warm-up , two main exercises: a hack squat and calf raise using a hack squat machine, and core exercises. After a warm-up period involving 5 minutes cycling and one set of 5 conventional repetitions at 40%1RM, the ballistic training group will complete eccentric phase hack squat exercise in approximately 3 seconds and the concentric phase as fast as possible with throwing type contractions. If participants can, participants will be allowed to take off in the concentric phase. To maintain high velocity in this group, lower loads will be used compared to the conventional group. The load will be decided according to regular maximal muscular strength test (1RM) to use of the correct weight for training (in proportion to the strength). Participants will start off using light weights and these will increase as participants become stronger.

OTHER

Conventional Resistance Lower Body Strength Training

The exercise programme involves two supervised sessions per week at Loughborough University. Each session will involve 30-40 minutes of exercise, comprising warm-up , two main exercises: a hack squat and calf raise using a hack squat machine, and core exercises. After a warm-up period involving 5 minutes cycling and one set of 5 conventional repetitions at 40% of 1RM, the conventional training group will complete eccentric and concentric phases of hack squatting exercises for approximately 3 seconds each, with appropriate breathing techniques. The load will be decided according to regular maximal muscular strength test (1RM) to use of the correct weight for training (in proportion to the strength). Participants will start off using light weights and these will increase as participants become stronger.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Versus Arthritis

  collaborator OTHER

• Loughborough University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Katherine Brooke-Wavell, PhD · Loughborough University

• Jonathan Folland, PhD · Loughborough University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-03-01

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations