Running won't necessarily kill your knees

[iahawkhunter]

Put Those Shoes On: Running Won't Kill Your Knees : NPR

Yes, it's true: Jogging, long thought to hurt knees with all that pounding and rattling around, may actually be beneficial for the complex and critical joint. There are caveats, though, especially for people who have suffered significant knee injury or are overweight. But for the most part, researchers say, jogging for your health seems like a good idea.

The caveats listed in the article are fairly common-sense (overweight, previous knee surgery, etc.) regarding what you'd expect to contribute to knee damage from running.

I guess this takes away my excuse to not run. :realmad:

 

[BryceC]

May be true, however running kills my back. I can run pain-free anywhere up to 3 miles. It seems like 100 yards beyond that just destroys me.

 

[cstrunk]

It kills my lungs so I gave it up years ago.

 

[Trainer]

Now if I can just condition my knees to not get all pissy after I run

 

[MrPeske]

Bike riding it more fun & still healthy for your lungs/heart... however you usually wont lose as much weight... especially if you drink as much beer as I do on/off the bike

 

[StClone]

Put Those Shoes On: Running Won't Kill Your Knees : NPR



The caveats listed in the article are fairly common-sense (overweight, previous knee surgery, etc.) regarding what you'd expect to contribute to knee damage from running.

I guess this takes away my excuse to not run. :realmad:

Individual things may hamper overall ability to run consistently but there are things you can do to help your running pursuits:

1. Work that requires you to sit or drive frequently and for long periods may cause you to fold legs which stretchs knee tendon (especially, I think the lateral collateral ligaments) in ways contrary to running. Stretched tendons go slack and snap as leg movements occur during a run rather than a smooth "rope and pulley" action. Long periods seated also slows blood flow which may affect muscle tone. So don't cross legs ever and try to get up and move as frequently as possible.

2. Eat low fat foods that are high in anti-oxidants. Tart cherry juice, green tea, fruits veggies etc. Take supplemental high quality vitamins. Stay hydrated and avoid sugars. All the above is designed to make your joints more supple especially the menicus ("joint paddings") and to make tendon attachments more flexible, stronger and less prone to damge and heal quicker. Sugar seems to contibute to damage (even arthitic inducing) to joints nad seems to increase pain tendencies. Eat whole grain foods that break down slowly for carbos.

3. Buy new, good-quality shoes often.

4. As mentioned aboive lose weight and to do so instead of a running program straight out I encourage walking very briskly, or as fast you can, for a few miles and slowly (months) switch from running stretches of you walk to running three miles slowly.

5. Most people do not realize that once you get to running 3 to five 5 miles 4 to 6 times a week there is no need for much longer distance as additional miles start to stress your body rather than maintain health once you are past age 30 or so.

6. Lift weights to strengthen your upper body. Believe it or not the upper body is important to overall running ability.

I've run for nearly 40 years and have almost no problems.

 

[PabloDiablo]

May be true, however running kills my back. I can run pain-free anywhere up to 3 miles. It seems like 100 yards beyond that just destroys me.

Do you run on a treadmill or on ground? What type of shoes are you in? Have you tried shortening you stride?

These are some common things I ask my running patients with back pain. Shortening stride length seems to help people the most. "Overstriding" can cause your low back to over extend placing significant stress on your Sacro-Iliac joint and Lumbar vertebrae. Core strength and overall hip flexibility especially in the front of the hip can be factors as well.

 

[nrg4isu]

Having recently run quite a bit, I can say that running CAN hurt your knees... but I agree, it doesn't HAVE to. My biggest revelation lately in regards to running is cross-training. Lots of people stress core strength, but don't really go into why it is important. I'm not the one to answer the question of why, but I can tell you what it did for me.

I ran over 150 miles in the last 2 months and it sucked. It was difficult, painful, and frustrating. I had shin splints, sore feet, and my right knee has been bothering me quite a bit. I ran cross country in high school (10 years ago) and never had this tough of a time. I did the things you're supposed to do, ramp up slowly, put in slow miles and intervals etc. but nothing seemed to go as well as I was hoping. I was at the point where I was just accepting that it was age slowing me down.

Then I tried a single class of kickboxing. It worked the core like you wouldn't believe, and I was sore for 4 days. Since then I've had easily my 2 best runs in two months. Not only did it go well as far as speed, but distance and recovery as well. I can't think of anything I'm doing differently other than that core strength. I know 1 class isn't going to change my strength all that much... but it did something. Maybe it just 'unlocked' some of those muscles, maybe it just increased my flexibility a little... who knows.

 

[JimDogRock]

Basic rule that I've discovered - If you want to avoid pain, get stronger.

My knees would get sore easily before I started lifting (squat and dead lift). My back would get hurt often before I lost some weight and did planks for my core.

 

[CloneJob]

Put Those Shoes On: Running Won't Kill Your

I've been running for over 20 years and have never had any issues. My feet, ankles, knees and legs feel great. It's made it easy to stay the correct weight. I do invest a lot in shoes... I think that is key.

 

[Cyclonepride]

1. I don't run unless chased by a large dangerous animal.

2. If I do happen to run, it does kill my knees and I'm not overweight.

 

[alaskaguy]

Put Those Shoes On: Running Won't Kill Your

I've been running for over 20 years and have never had any issues. My feet, ankles, knees and legs feel great. It's made it easy to stay the correct weight. I do invest a lot in shoes... I think that is key.

I've been running for over 20 years and also have not had issues.

I purchase the least expensive running shoes with the least amount of padding/protection/gizmo's. I also do most of my running on gravel and rarely run on concrete.

 

[CtownCyclone]

Individual things may hamper overall ability to run consistently but there are things you can do to help your running pursuits:

1. Work that requires you to sit or drive frequently and for long periods may cause you to fold legs which stretchs knee tendon (especially, I think the lateral collateral ligaments) in ways contrary to running. Stretched tendons go slack and snap as leg movements occur during a run rather than a smooth "rope and pulley" action. Long periods seated also slows blood flow which may affect muscle tone. So don't cross legs ever and try to get up and move as frequently as possible.

2. Eat low fat foods that are high in anti-oxidants. Tart cherry juice, green tea, fruits veggies etc. Take supplemental high quality vitamins. Stay hydrated and avoid sugars. All the above is designed to make your joints more supple especially the menicus ("joint paddings") and to make tendon attachments more flexible, stronger and less prone to damge and heal quicker. Sugar seems to contibute to damage (even arthitic inducing) to joints nad seems to increase pain tendencies. Eat whole grain foods that break down slowly for carbos.

3. Buy new, good-quality shoes often.

4. As mentioned aboive lose weight and to do so instead of a running program straight out I encourage walking very briskly, or as fast you can, for a few miles and slowly (months) switch from running stretches of you walk to running three miles slowly.

5. Most people do not realize that once you get to running 3 to five 5 miles 4 to 6 times a week there is no need for much longer distance as additional miles start to stress your body rather than maintain health once you are past age 30 or so.

6. Lift weights to strengthen your upper body. Believe it or not the upper body is important to overall running ability.

I've run for nearly 40 years and have almost no problems.

Shoes are probably the most important thing on the list IMO. Something to remember is that your running shoe may look good from the outside after 500 miles, but take it to the bank, the shoe is shot and needs replacement. Bad shoes will screw everything up.

 

[jdoggivjc]

I've never had much of a problem with my knees when running. My ankle/foot (old football injury 3rd degree ankle sprain that was never properly repaired thus gives me problems to this day) sometimes hurt a little bit. But running never caused the knee and ankle problems that I deal with in P90X. Don't get me wrong, I love the program, and I work around my knee and ankle problems. But squats really cause my knees agony, and the constant, excessive pounding in Plyo X causes my foot to ache for days, even worse if I'm barefoot. And I'm not stopping - this is the first time I've seen real weight loss and muscle gain results in both the mirror and the scale. Once I've hit my ideal weight, if I'm still dealing with the pain in my foot I might have a specialist take a look at my foot, though - not being able to walk barefoot without agony is just plain ridiculous.

 

[flycy]

I injured my foot running a few months ago and my doctor said he had just read a book suggesting shoes were the problem. It studied either African or South American tribes that ran extensively and suffered almost no knee or foot injuries. They concluded the key factor was not genetics, body mass, etc, but running barefoot. The human body was designed to run barefoot and our "high tech" shoes with arch support, etc actually caused problems over the long term. Maybe those toe shoes would give the same benefit. Not sure what the title of the book was, but you could likely google it. Interesting idea, but I'm not likely to take up barefoot running.

 

[cyclonedave25]

One of the best ways to run long distance is running barefoot on grass.

 

[drmwevr08]

In addition, they probably do about everything else barefoot, which nobody I know does. At this point since we've long ago given up the natural method I think a good, well fitted set of sneaks is the way to go. If you just wear whatever though and have no problems, go for it!

 

[Doc]

I injured my foot running a few months ago and my doctor said he had just read a book suggesting shoes were the problem. It studied either African or South American tribes that ran extensively and suffered almost no knee or foot injuries. They concluded the key factor was not genetics, body mass, etc, but running barefoot. The human body was designed to run barefoot and our "high tech" shoes with arch support, etc actually caused problems over the long term. Maybe those toe shoes would give the same benefit. Not sure what the title of the book was, but you could likely google it. Interesting idea, but I'm not likely to take up barefoot running.

Skimmed the book, and tried it for awhile. Not the no shoes thing, but the style they had partly because of the lack of shoes. My balls started killing me. The balls of my feet that is.

 

[hiltonisheaven]

May be true, however running kills my back. I can run pain-free anywhere up to 3 miles. It seems like 100 yards beyond that just destroys me.

I had the same issues w/ lower back pain. I would run 3 miles and then that night and the next 3-4 days I would have bad pain in my lower back and shooting down my leg to my feet. I finally read an article from men's health that helped me fix it. It was about ppl who sit in a cube all day and their hamstrings and hip flexors get all tight. I started stretching by hamstrings and hip flexors daily and did planks to strengthen my core and now I can do any excercise I want w/ no back pain. Give it a try...

 

[CycloneNorth]

I injured my foot running a few months ago and my doctor said he had just read a book suggesting shoes were the problem. It studied either African or South American tribes that ran extensively and suffered almost no knee or foot injuries. They concluded the key factor was not genetics, body mass, etc, but running barefoot. The human body was designed to run barefoot and our "high tech" shoes with arch support, etc actually caused problems over the long term. Maybe those toe shoes would give the same benefit. Not sure what the title of the book was, but you could likely google it. Interesting idea, but I'm not likely to take up barefoot running.

The book is Born to Run and I loved it. It got me back into running and really does make a good case for running barefoot or with minimalist shoes.