Jogging for just 60 seconds a day makes your bones stronger

JOGGING for just 60 seconds a day can strengthen bones, a study found.

Just a small amount of ‘high-intensity’ exercise stimulates the growth of bone cells, the research suggests.

In the study, women aged between 40-69 who exercised for just a minute a day appeared to have stronger bones than those who did not.

The research, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, examined data from more than 2,500 women wearing fitness trackers. It compared participants’ activity levels with bone health. As well as finding 4 per cent better bone health among women who did one to two minutes of exercise a day, they found it to be 6 per cent better among those who did even more.

Lead author Dr Victoria Stiles, from the University of Exeter, said: ‘There’s a clear link between this kind of highintensity, weight-bearing exercise and better bone health in women.’

Dr Stiles said the study was ‘careful not to ignore short bursts of activity throughout the day’ because ‘short snippets of high-intensity activity are more beneficial to bone health than longer, continuous periods’.

Researchers also found that older women required less activity to generate bone mass.

Post-menopausal women jogging at 5mph made the same gains as those who had not hit the menopause jogging at 6.2mph.