How are Your Knees?
In the latest edition of ACE Fitness Matters, the Journal of the American Council on Exercise, their was an article about how running can save your knees. They pointed to 2 recent studies involving distance runners in which researchers found fewer knee injuries than their non-running counterparts. The article points out a few flaws in the study, like its small cohort size and the studies were done mostly on professional/elite athletes. However, a growing amount of research is showing us that "it is better to wear out, than rust out."
Dr Paul William of UCLA is author one of the largest long term studies of runners, The National Runners Health Study(its main flaw is that the information is "self reported" rather than physician reported in some cases). The increase in HDL cholesterol, the Good Kind, was shown to be comparable across age ranges and was shown to increase with every increase of 15 miles per week. These effects stretch into the 70s as well as younger runners. The decrease in LDL cholesterol was not as great over the age of 60 but that may have to due with a decrease in bile acid production and its ability to remove LDL from the body. As a note, faster runners also had higher HDL.
So why do I choose running as my means of exercise to write about most? Quite simply it is one of the easiest ways to incorporate exercise into your day. Running has a "Low cost of entry," it just costs you the price of your shoes and workout wear. Running also has a pretty darn good bang for the time spent doing it, about 400% of the Net Calorie Burn of walking (you burn more calories per mile running and you go twice as far). So the new studies show that you also build the muscles AND cartilage around the knee joint when you run.
So you say you have "Bad Knees," I'm not buying it. What, are they talking in the library? Shooting spitballs? Unless a doctor has told you not run AND you got second opinion on that, then you should be out there running. It is a very natural form of activity. It was the runners who got us where we are, the others got eaten by the sabre-tooth tigers.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
1. Go get fitted for a pair of shoes. You can throw on a pair of Keds and do alright, but a good store will video you running in several pairs of shoes and put you in the best one for you.
2. Start slowly and build slowly. If you haven't run before, ever, go to a track and jog around slowly 3 or 4 times, or jog around your block 1 or 2 times.
3 Hire a coach. They will help you design a program you can stick with that is safe.
4. Attend a clinic at a local running club. The social aspect may be enough to keep you going on the cold winter months and the heat of summer. See links below for local clubs.
5. You don't have to run a marathon your first year. As a marathon veteran, I can tell you you have to really like running to train for a marathon.
6. Start your own running group. Remember that bird house you built with your dad? Your new running friends will remember what you have built.
7. Listen to what your body tells you. If you are new to exercise you will have to tell yourself not to stop at first, but pain in a joint is a sign to stop. Usually there are warning signs before that pain.
8. Just get outside and move. It may take your body a few days to recover if you are new, but it will thank you.
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