Table 2.

BMD variation across different sports

Population	Sport	BMD variation	References
300 Norwegian female elite athletes (national level at senior or junior) 300 non-athletic controls	66 sports	3–20% higher BMD than controls. 3–22% higher BMD in high-impact sports compared to medium- or low-impact sports	Torstveit and Sundgot-Borgen (2005)
15 elite male athletes 15 non-athletic controls	Volleyball	14% and 24% higher BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck, respectively, in volleyball players in comparison with non-athletic controls	Calbet et al. (1999)
14 state-level female athletes 18 non-athletic controls	Netball	7.8%, 17.3% and 14% higher total body, hip and lumbar spine BMD in the netballers in comparison with the controls	Chang et al. (2013)
50 male highly trained athletes 12 non-athletic controls	12 judokas 14 karate athletes 24 water polo players	Control group total body BMD (1.27 g/cm2) was significantly lower than the judo (1.40 g/cm2) and karate (1.36 g/cm2) group but no different to the water polo athletes (1.31 g/cm2)	Andreoli et al. (2001)
59 competitive Finnish female athletes 25 physical active individuals 25 sedentary individuals	27 dancers 18 squash players 14 speed skaters	Squash players had significantly higher BMD at the lumbar spine (13%), femoral neck (16.8%), proximal tibia (12.6%) and calcaneus (18.5%) in comparison with the sedentary group. Aerobic dancers also had significantly higher BMD at the loaded sites in comparison with the sedentary group, ranging from 5.3 to 13.5%	Heinonen et al. (1995)
60 athletes 15 non-athletic controls	15 runners 15 swimmers 15 triathletes 15 cyclists	Runners had significantly higher total body, femoral neck and leg BMD than controls and swimmers as well as higher leg BMD than cyclists	Duncan et al. (2002)