Swimming Training Repercussion on Metabolic and Structural Bone Development; Benefits of the Incorporation of Whole Body Vibration or Plyometric Training: The RENACIMIENTO Project

Swimming Training Repercussion on Metabolic and Structural Bone Development; Benefits of the Incorporation of Whole Body Vibration or Plyometric Training. The RENACIMIENTO Project

Swimming training is associated with decreased bone mass and lower bone mass acquisition during growth periods, mainly when compared to other weight-bearing sports. Little information is available in adolescents pointing in the same direction but still controversial.

On the other hand, bone strength do not only depends on bone mass but on bone structure and microarchitecture. The cross sectional area, cortex thickness or trabecular density are important aspects of bone health. There are few studies on the effect of swimming on bone architecture of adolescents. This information is relevant for present and future health of adolescents practicing swimming and for all the organizations promoting this sport. Jumping and whole body vibration training programs seem to elicit important osteogenic effects; however, there is little information on this regard in adolescent population, even less in these adolescents with potentially decreased bone acquisition such as swimmers.

The main aims of this research project are therefore, to analyze the effect of swimming training on bone mass, metabolism, structure and architecture in adolescents analyzing possible relationships among them. Secondly, to test whether including short boots of jumping or whole body vibration may be able to palliate the possible deleterious effects of swimming and facilitate a normal or even healthier bone development. And finally to study the durability of training-related bone gains over time.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Body Composition
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Whole-body vibration (Powerplate®); Behavioral: Jumping intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 180
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 8 years to 14 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Specific for the swimmers: With a history of training at least 3 years for more than 6 hours per week and currently still training
• Specific for the control group: Subjects that do not perform more than 3 hours of physical activity per week

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-caucasian
• Smoking
• Taking medication affecting bone

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Swimmers; Swimmers that continue their normal swimming activity
Experimental: WBV swimmers; Swimmers that perform a whole-body vibration training	Device: Whole-body vibration (Powerplate®); Swimmers will perform a 15 minute whole-body vibration training 3 times per week. This intervention will be performed with a Powerplate®. The vibration protocol will be progressive starting with 30 Hz and an amplitude op 4 mm reaching at the end of the protocol 38 Hz and 4 mm amplitude.
Experimental: Plyometric swimmers; Swimmers that perform a plyometric training	Behavioral: Jumping intervention; Swimmers will perform a jumping intervention, 15 minutes 3 times per week. Jumps will include drop jumps, one leg jumps, squat jumps and countermovement jumps.
No Intervention: Sedentary controls; Controls that do not perform swimming or other physical activities

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Change in body composition during 3 years evaluated by dual energy X-ray	Change from baseline in body composition at 3 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Change in bone strength and structure evaluated by peripheral quantitative computed tomography	Change from baseline in bone strength and structure at 3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universidad de Zaragoza
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: German Vicente-Rodríguez, PhD, GENUD Research Group, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 23, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 27, 2015
• First Posted (Estimated): March 5, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 26, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 25, 2025
• Last Verified: March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: body composition; whole-body vibration; swimmers; adolescent swimmers; bone and bones
• Other Study ID Numbers: DEP2011-29093