Mechanostat

It has since been established that the static methods used for those calculations of lines of stress were inappropriate for work on what were, in effect, curved beams, a finding described by Lance Lanyon, a leading researcher in the area as "a triumph of a good idea over mathematics."

The reason for the elastic deformation of bone is the peak forces caused by muscles (e.g. measurable using mechanography).

The adaptation (feed-back control loop) of bone according to the maximum forces is considered to be a lifelong process.

High frequency vibration of bone at very low magnitudes is thought to stimulate changes, but the research in the area is not completely unequivocal.

Due to this control loop, there is a linear relationship in the healthy body between muscle cross sectional area (as a surrogate for typical maximum forces the muscle is able to produce under physiological conditions) and the bone cross sectional area (as a surrogate for bone strength).

Furthermore, bone structure is controlled by a complex series of different influences, such as calcium status, the effects of hormones, age, diet, sex, disease, and pharmaceuticals.

A lower modeling threshold means that the same typical daily forces result in a ‘thicker’ and hence stronger bone at the skull.

[10] While they still use their arms in an almost normal manner, due to the lack of gravity in space there are no maximum forces induced on the bones of the legs.

On earth, long term players of racquet sports experience similar effects, where the dominant arm can have 30% more bone than the other due to the asymmetric applications of force.

Harold Frost proposed that for dense, collagenous connective tissues, the related threshold value is around 4% strain elongation.