Less common are stress fractures to the femur, pelvis, sacrum, lumbar spine (lower back), hips, hands, and writs.

Symptoms usually have a gradual onset, with complaints that include isolated pain along the shaft of the bone and during activity, decreased muscular strength and cramping.

In cases of fibular stress fractures, pain occurs proximal to the lateral malleolus, that increases with activity and subsides with rest.

It occurs from repeated traumas, none of which is sufficient to cause a sudden break, but which, when added together, overwhelm the osteoblasts that remodel the bone.

Potential causes include overload caused by muscle contraction, amenorrhea, an altered stress distribution in the bone accompanying muscle fatigue, a change in ground reaction force (concrete to grass) or the performance of a rhythmically repetitive stress that leads up to a vibratory summation point.

[6] Stress fractures commonly occur in sedentary people who suddenly undertake a burst of exercise (whose bones are not used to the task).

However, the muscles, usually those in the lower leg, become fatigued after running a long distance and lose their ability to absorb shock.

[10] Orthotic insoles have been found to decrease the rate of stress fractures in military recruits, but it is unclear whether this can be extrapolated to the general population or athletes.

[11] On the other hand, some athletes have argued that cushioning in shoes actually causes more stress by reducing the body's natural shock-absorbing action, thus increasing the frequency of running injuries.

[12] During exercise that applies more stress to the bones, it may help to increase daily calcium (2,000 mg) and vitamin D (800 IU) intake, depending on the individual.

The amount of recovery time varies greatly depending upon the location and severity of the fracture, and the body's healing response.

[13] In the United States, the annual incidence of stress fractures in athletes and military recruits ranges from 5% to 30%, depending on the sport and other risk factors.

The female athlete triad also can put women at risk as disordered eating and osteoporosis can cause the bones to be severely weakened.

The bones commonly affected by stress fractures are the tibia, tarsals, metatarsals (MT), fibula, femur, pelvis and spine.

[17] The population that has the highest risk for stress fractures is athletes and military recruits who are participating in repetitive, high intensity training.

[20] In 2001, Bruce Rothschild and other paleontologists published a study examining evidence for stress fractures in theropod dinosaurs and analyzed the implications such injuries would have for reconstructing their behavior.

Rothschild and the other researchers examined and dismissed other kinds of injury and sickness as causes of the lesions they found on the dinosaurs' bones.

No disturbance of the internal bony architecture of the sort caused by malignant bone tumors was encountered among the stress fracture candidates.

Most of the stress fractures observed along the lengths of Allosaurus toe bones were confined to the ends closest to the hind foot, but were spread across all three major digits in "statistically indistinguishable" numbers.