According to the New Scientist website, Clinton Rubin at the State University of New York has been shaking sheep to make them stronger and he reckons it could work for those without wool too.

His team stood members of the flock on a plate which vibrated their sheepy shins a tiny amount at 30 cycles a second. After 20 minutes, five days a week for a year the sheep had increased their bone density by 35% and Rubin claims, “The animals would line up to go on this thing, and if you used your imagination, they looked like they were smiling.”

Other bone boffins have agreed that the technique could be great for restoring bone strength and the technique had already been used to stop bone loss in astronauts.

So next time you hit a rough section of road or trail, don’t curse. Just ride the ripples and shake your way to a stronger skeleton in your senior years. The thought almost makes memories of that first field on the Red Bull bearable.