Strong Heart, Weak Bones: Why Cyclists & Runners MUST Lift Weights

Actually, everyone should be lifting weights. Here's why.

We all know the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures is increased among the elderly. But if you’re a young, physically active runner, swimmer or cyclist, you’re probably thinking low bone density and an increased risk of fractures are the least of your worries.

Osteoporosis Says: “Hold My Beer”

What if I told you that performing those activities, in the absence of resistance training, may in fact be increasing your risk of poor bone health?

Andrew Coggan is an internationally-recognized exercise physiologist, national-caliber masters cyclist, and former time trial record holder. His wife is a former national champion track cyclist. He’s written a book on training with power-meters and contributed material on power-based training for USA Cycling's expert coaches manual. So it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about cycling.

In 1989, he learned something new after falling from his bike. He’d been cycling 1-2 hours daily for about 15 years when he crashed. He suffered a hip fracture during the fall, an injury common in senior citizens.

But Coggan was only 30 years old at the time.

After the accident, he recalled all the times "when I'd be chatting with a group of cyclists, I'd be taking note of the fact that everybody had scars from things like broken arms and broken collarbones."

Years later, Coggan received a further unwanted surprise when he was diagnosed with low bone density.

"Sometimes athletes in their late 20s and early 30s will come in for a femur or a hip fracture, and they'll be surprised because the fall was really not that bad," says Dr. Max Testa, a sports medicine physician at the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Salt Lake City who routinely treats elite cyclists. "But we'll look at the X-rays and see that there is some osteopenia [lower-than-normal bone density] there."

Most people wouldn’t associate elite endurance athletes with low bone density and increased fracture risk. Very few would look at a lean, tanned elite runner or cyclist and think, “oh yeah, that’s what osteoporosis looks like, right there!”

But research spanning at least three decades shows low bone density is definitely a thing among cyclists, runners and swimmers.