“Running is bad for your knees …!”
❓How many times have you heard this?
❗Contrary to this, there is very little to no evidence for running being bad for your knees! So, given scientific evidence and what I have experienced with my clients as a healthcare practitioner, what can we say about the effect of running on your joints?
😲 The impact force of walking and running ‘massages’ your hip, knee and ankle joints. Through this, water is drawn back into the ‘squishy’ stuff between the bone ends that cushions your movements.
💪 Running, and many other forms of exercise that use your legs, challenges the muscles around the knee (and other) joints. This causes muscle growth. In turn, stronger muscles act as additional ‘buffers’ for your joints.
🦴Hitting the ground running (or walking faster) stimulates cells in your bone to regenerate. Stronger muscles pulling on your bones do the same, so running actually makes the bones stronger, yay!
🌄Running (and walking) on uneven surfaces is great for improving your sense of where your joints are in space and how the muscles around the joints need to adjust to cope with the uneven terrain. This can reduce your risk of falls when your balance is challenged in a day to day situation.
🧡Apart from being protective for your joints, bones and muscles, running is a great form of exercise to benefit your heart health. If you are new to it, you might like to start with short slow runs, say 30 second or between lamp posts, when out walking. See below for a link to a plan if you are keen.
🧠 Finally, running is great for your mental health. A reduction in anxiety and low mood are just two of the benefits This is from research and many of my clients and fellow runners have told me the same.
🏃If you are a runner and have been told that your knee or hip joints are affected by osteoarthritis, make sure you have sufficient rest days between runs to allow for the ‘massaging’ effect on the cartilage to take full effect.
If you are keen to learn more about this or other topics related to brain and body health, follow me or subscribe to the blogpost. To work with me one-on-one to apply some of these principles to your own life and movement, message me for a free call. I look forward to hearing from you.
More resources (no paid partnerships or sponsorship)
- Parkrun & parkwalk – a free community event in many cities around the world; fantastic opportunity to get started
- NRC couch to 5km plan – their guided runs are fun, too. Check it out.
References (for the extra keen)
Alexander et al. (2021)
Khan et al. (2022)
Pereira et al. (2021)