Is running good for you?
There seems to be a lot of adamant people around that running is bad for you and especially bad for the hips and knees. However, when we started to look at the research – what we found was that there was no evidence to support that theory.
In fact; some recent research papers have actually endorsed running as a good form of exercise.
Lets look at the papers.
A recent research article published this year in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise looked at whether running increased the wear and tear that occurred on the knee and hip joints – and concluded that running was a beneficial form of exercise that did not accelerate hip and knee joint damage.
However, runners have also been struggling with injuries over the years. It is rare to find a runner that hasn’t had an injury of some sort. Running shoes were introduced in the late 1960’s and by the 1970’s were worn by most people. Unfortunately the uptake in running shoes paralleled the incidence if running injuries.
A recent paper published in 2010 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine addressed just this issue of running shoes and running injuries. The authors concluded that traditional running shoes could actually cause harm and that they could also affect running performance. This research has started the current trend for a new type of running shoe that mimics bare foot running called the Vibram shoe. Now most of the major running shoe makers are producing their own type of bare foot running shoe.
References:
1. Urquhart DM et al “What Is the Effect of Physical Activity on the Knee Joint? A Systematic Review”. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2011. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181ef5bf8
2. Richards CE et al “Is your prescription of distance running shoes evidence-based?” Br J Sports Med 2009;43:159–162. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2008.046680
