A few weeks ago, during a rant about Chicago Marathoners several people showed up to talk about how hard running is on the knees and how bad it hurts knees and joints. When I told of my own experience (I have a bad knee that was scoped but has improved since I began running,) and when I pointed out that most finishers of ultra-marathons tend to be in their 40s and 50s (it’s not a young man’s sport, young’ uns just ain’t tough enough yet,) this did nothing to change the hard-headed ignorance of those who must criticize things they know nothing about.
You can read the thread here to find ignorance a plenty:
Well, as it turns out in this month’s Runner’s World, there is a study that running actually helps the knees. According to Patience White, Chief public Health Officer of the Arthritis Foundation the #1 risk factor for bad knees is being overweight and/or leading a sedentary lifestyle.
“Aerobic ecercise improves most body functions - including joint health” sas James Fries, MD Professor of Medecine at Stanford University School of Medecine. “When you exercise, the cartilage in your hips, knees, and ankles compresses and expands. This draws in oxygen and flushes out waste products, nourishing and keeping the cartilage healthy. WIthout exercise, cartilage gets weak and sick.”
According to a study from Dr. Fries between 539 runners and 423 non-runners over a 21 year period, the increase in disabilities amongst nonrunners was twice that of runners.
A study at Germany’s Heidelberg University of marathoners and ultramarathoners found that their joint health was superior to that of nonrunners over long periods of time.
If you choose to be sedentary or you choose to allow yourself to be overweight that is your choice.
To attempt to rationalize it as a healthy alternative to wearing down your joints is false and stupid misinformation.
As a nearly sessile lifeform, I get annoyed when I see or hear people try to defend sedentary habits because they don’t want to stress their joints.
Fine - if that’s your concern take up swimming. Or bicycling. There are also plenty of other low-impact exercises that can give a vigorous aerobic workout without the shock that people think about when they consider jogging.
But I never hear people complaining about the impact damage that jogging is supposed to do who then mention, “So I go to three times a week sessions at the Y,” or any other alternative exercise program.
If you want to be a sessile slug, fine. Don’t try to pretend it’s a healthy alternative, though.
I’ll admit that I have been known to point out that Jim Fixx had his fatal heart attack while jogging, but I also point out that he credited the last several years of his life to the excellent health he had from it - he picked up jogging after being diagnosed with advanced heart disease.
Well, I have had osteoarthritis since I was 25 and I’ve always been an active person. My legs are simply congenitally defective. At times, my knees have swelled up and then locked after some particularly vigorous walking (as in, several hours of mountainous hiking). Sometimes going up stairs gives me sharp shooting pains. I can also predict thunderstorms. Running, I’m afraid, is quite out of the question.
I take karate, 3 times a week. I just skip the deep knee bends.
Its totally possible to have “bad knees” without being a fat useless wanker.
Just like its possible to have bad eyesight without actually being too lazy to see. These things happen.
I don’t see where anyone is saying that obesity and sendentary habits are the sole cause of joint problems. The way I read the OP it was an indictment of people who claim to choose to do nothing because of the potential joint damage they imagine jogging would cause, certainly that’s what I was trying to criticize.
None of that invalidates that there are individuals for whom existing conditions make jogging a poor choice of exercise. Frankly, and I suspect the OP would agree with me, if someone is involved in a regular aerobic workout several times a week, that person is already not one of those that this rant is directed against.
BTW, I’ll have you know that not all fat wankers are useless. Let me do an internet search for one… there’s got to be one somewhere… Aha!
My joints could use some help. Unfortunately, I absolutely loathe running (or any other repititive exercise, like swimming, biking, etc.). So I play soccer, which I know for a fact is bad for my joints, since my soccer playing has (so far) necessitated two ligament reconstruction surgeries. Bleh.
Ah, the wonder and joy of the elliptical machine. For those of us who like our cardio, but hate running.
On an elliptical, I can “run” for as long as I like - until my heart and lungs are on fire. On a treadmill or on the street, my knees and ankles start aching long before then.
Twenty odd years ago my doctor was one of the doctors for a professional rugby league team. When I saw him about a knee injury I asked him about “low impact non-weight bearing exercise.” He thought it was a good idea if I wanted to develop “non weight bearing” lower limbs.
I would be interested in seeing the joint impact involved in running compared to other activities, such as biking, swimming, rowing, walking, elliptical machine…
I spent most of my high school and college years running. Played adult league hockey for 18 years or so, softball until I was in my late 30’s. I am in the gym 4-5 days a week, leg pressing, squats, leg curls, the occasional step aerobic class, elliptical machine and the step machine. I get some moderate knee pain/swelling that goes away with ice and/or aspirin.
If I so much as run a mile, it feels like I have icy daggers shooting through my knees.
Some things hurt my knee, some don’t. I hardly think because I don’t run I’m a sedentary slob.
Well, I did injure my knee when I was 16 by running long distances on cement. I had to switch to shorter events that didn’t require so much OD work. Looking back, I often think how funny it was that I wound up having to do situps in a hurdler’s stretch in order to protect my knee from injury.
Running track and x-country in HS, I often felt the wrestlers were the only guys who worked out harder than us.
Of course, running at a Chicago Public high school, we ran indoors in the tile hallways. And I was a hurdler! Shin splints anyone? And god help you if you sprinted around a corner only to find someone was opening a locker… :smack:
(Not relevant to anything else, but my nephew is currently ranked #19 nationally in HS cross country. Eager to see him run in sectionals Sat. Expected to finish in the top 3 in state.)
I think that’s what the class of dry-haired ladies at the Y are doing while I’m swimming laps, then. They basically bob up and down in shallow water. I think. One of their instructors is actually on oxygen – he straps the tank to the lane flags’ pole, and occasionally snags little kids in his tubing.
But I’ve been told it’s “exercise” for “joint problems and other issues.” Mmm-hmm. :dubious: I’m sure it would be good rehab therapy, but as “exercise” it’s… bobbing up and down in shallow water.
Incidentally, my own knees are bad because I’ve been a swimmer. Swimming may be low-impact, but human knees aren’t designed for the breaststroke. So any knee-problem people looking to swimming, stick to the crawl strokes (or butterfly).
I’ve done this once and it’s not that easy. Of course I took it with another swimmer and he might have been making it hard for me.
Oddly enough I have bad knees as well. Except I don’t usually have problems with breast stroke. I have more problems with a free style kick. It’s not fun to barely move your knee to have it hurt.
Just this morning I was on a x-country forum where the guys were bitching about how tough (and boring) it was to run in water, as well as how good it was for them.
Let me do an internet search for one… there’s got to be one somewhere… 
