Study Reveals An Entirely New Mechanism Linking Exercise To Better Bone Health

Exercise stimulates bone formation; it’s the most important action you can take to build bone.

However, that’s not the only way that physical activity helps to prevent and reverse osteoporosis. Researchers have discovered that exercise increases the efficiency of cellular metabolism, helping the body to function more effectively at the cellular level– including the cells responsible for maintaining strong, healthy bone tissue.

Studies have also found that exercise helps reduce chronic inflammation, thereby helping to preserve normal bone remodeling. In this article, we’ll examine studies on the benefits of exercise to provide a deeper understanding of the many ways physical activity builds and protects your bones.

Cellular Metabolism and Exercise

A study published in the journal Physiology in 2018 proposed a novel mechanism linking exercise and health. By analyzing data on bodily function, exercise, and total energy expenditure, the author found that the body expends energy within a very narrow range regardless of activity levels.¹

What varies is how the body allocates that energy and the effects of those expenditures. Day-to-day cellular activities– the processes required to keep your body alive– account for much of that energy expenditure, but not all of it.

If you don’t expend the rest of the energy through physical activity, then your body will spend it on processes that negatively impact your health and bones, such as increased immune activity (causing inflammation) and activation of the stress response system.

The study’s author proposed that reducing energy expenditure on these non-essential functions may be an important mechanism through which exercise improves health.

Regular exercise prevents your body from unnecessarily directing energy toward these systems. While exercise has direct positive benefits such as increasing muscle strength, improving cardiovascular function, and stimulating bone formation, this indirect benefit may be equally important for maintaining good health throughout the body.

Synopsis

A 2018 study that the human body tends to expend a relatively consistent amount of energy regardless of daily activity levels. Absent regular physical activity, the body expends otherwise unused energy by activating immune and stress response systems, negatively impacting bone health.

Inflammation, Exercise, and Bone Health

This finding may help explain why studies consistently link regular exercise with reduced inflammation.

Recent reviews show that regular exercise lowers inflammatory markers in older adults. A 2025 study in the journal Sports Sciences for Health analyzed systematic reviews and meta-analyses published over the preceding five years and found that exercise effectively reduces the levels of biomarkers associated with chronic systemic inflammation.²

This finding has important implications for Savers. Studies have consistently found that inflammation negatively affects bone and increases fracture risk.³

A 2012 study published in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism found that among 10,475 participants, levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) — a marker of inflammation– had an inverse and dose-dependent relationship with total bone mineral density. Higher levels of CRP were associated with lower bone mineral density, independent of confounding factors.⁴

Chronic inflammation disrupts normal bone remodeling by increasing bone breakdown and suppressing bone formation. This dual action makes inflammation a particularly pernicious threat to bone health. Exercise provides a powerful tool for protecting bones by helping to reduce chronic inflammation.

Synopsis

Inflammation stimulates bone breakdown and suppresses bone formation. Studies show that exercise reduces inflammatory markers, making it a powerful tool for protecting bone health.

Exercise Improves Bone Health Through Mechanical Load And Cellular Metabolism

The above studies show how exercise does more than you may have realized to support bone health. It helps direct cellular energy toward beneficial processes such as bone remodeling while reducing excessive immune activity and stress responses.

Every walk, workout, and physical activity supports your bones not only through mechanical loading but also by improving metabolism, reducing inflammation, and enhancing the body’s ability to maintain and repair bone tissue.

Osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the cells that build and resorb bones, require energy to function. Healthy cellular metabolism helps support this ongoing renewal process.

Your regular exercise sessions and day-to-day physical activity levels e influence whether your body directs energy toward growth and repair or toward processes that can impair bone health and overall wellness.

Synopsis

Exercise supports your bones not only through mechanical loading but also by improving cellular metabolism, reducing inflammation, and enhancing the body’s ability to maintain and repair bone tissue.

What This Means To You

Make physical activity part of your daily routine. Without adequate exercise, your body may direct more energy toward processes that promote inflammation, impair bone formation, and negatively affect overall wellness.

The Save Institute created SaveTrainer to help you develop a workout routine you love to do and can actually keep up with. SaveTrainer is an online video exercise platform filled with workout classes taught by expert trainers. These workouts are tailored to every ability level, so whether you’re a longtime practitioner or a newcomer, SaveTrainer has exactly what you need.

Regular exercise helps keep your body’s energy expenditure focused on processes that support long-term health and strong bones.

References

¹ https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiol.00027.2018

² https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11332-025-01445-3
³ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10842967/

⁴ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22487938/