Young male soccer players exhibit additional bone mineral acquisition during the peripubertal period: 1-year longitudinal study

The aim of this study was to determine whether soccer could have different bone benefits in prepubescent and pubescent boys. We investigated 76 boys aged 10 to 13 years during a 1-year study. All boys were prepubescent at the beginning of the study (T0); pubescent status was determined by a complete 24-h urine hormonal assay of FSH-LH, with LH ≤ 0.31 IU/24 h and FSH ≤ 2.19 IU/24 h corresponding to prepubescent Tanner stage I and with 0.31 < LH < 0.95 IU/24 h and 1.57 < FSH < 3.77 IU/24 h corresponding to pubescent Tanner stage II. At the end of the study (T1), 35 boys remained prepubescent (22 soccer players (F1) and 13 controls (C1)), and 41 boys had entered puberty (26 soccer players (F2) and 15 controls (C2)). Soccer players completed 2 to 5 h of training plus one competition game per week during the school year, and controls only had physical education at school. Bone mineral content (BMC) was measured at T0 and T1 by DPX in the lumbar spine, total hip, and whole body (WB) for a comparison between soccer players and controls. At T0, no BMC difference was found between F1 and C1, but BMC was higher in F2 than C2 in WB and weight-bearing sites. At T1, BMC was higher in WB and weight-bearing sites in both F1 and F2 compared to their respective controls. Between T0 and T1, soccer induced a BMC gain at weight-bearing sites in both F1 and F2 compared to C1 and C2, respectively. The soccer-related bone gain was greater in WB and weight-bearing (the lumbar spine, total hip, and supporting leg) and non-weight-bearing bones (dominant arm and nondominant arm) in boys who became pubescent than in boys who remained prepubescent. In conclusion, 1-year study in young male soccer players demonstrates that the process of bone accretion at the very early phase of puberty is more intensely stimulated by the combination of physical exercise and sexual impregnation than by one of these factors alone.