Martial arts fall training may prevent hip fractures in osteoporosis

Martial arts fall training may reduce the risk of hip fractures in persons with osteoporosis. Training is safe if they wear hip protectors that could attenuate the maximum hip impact force by at least 65%, perform the fall exercises on a thick mattress, and avoid forward fall exercises from a standing position.

Young adults performed sideways and forward falls from a kneeling position on a judo mat and a mattress and from a standing position on a mattress. Groen and colleagues compared the highest hip impact force with 2 safety criteria on the basis of the femoral fracture load and the use of a hip protector.

All the sideways falls met the first criterion. Those performed from a kneeling position on the judo mat did not meet the second, but all those performed on the mattress did. Forward falls performed from the kneeling position did not meet either criterion if performed on the judo mat but met both when performed on the mattress. Forward falls performed from the standing position did not meet either criterion.