Professor Lee on “Is Running Bad For Your Knees?”
Nick Harris-Fry from Coachmag.co.uk has recently written an article on whether running is bad for your knees. For the article, he also sat down with our very own knee specialist Professor Paul Lee. In the article, Nick writes:
“The short answer is no, but it certainly pays to be careful when running regularly.
The short answer is no. In moderation, exercise is good. It all depends on how you run – your running style, the terrain and your footwear.
Running style has a big influence on your knees and body. When you become fatigued, your muscles tend to become a little bit lax. If you carry on running the form of your body will change and you won’t run as smoothly. The loading on your kneecap as well as on your joint changes significantly. One of the ways to counteract that is by training your core.
Also, running on a flat surface doesn’t affect the kneecap as much, but running up and down hills creates a lot of pressure on the kneecap, especially downhill running.
Running shoes also make a very big difference. You don’t want to use one pair of running shoes. Get different styles of shoes, have a mix of brands, so when you run, you challenge your whole-body biomechanics slightly differently. It will reduce the chance of you getting repetitive strain injuries – and a lot of the injuries around the knee are repetitive strain. One of the main reasons for that is that people have not rested enough between runs, and the body didn’t get a chance to recover.”
You can read the full article by clicking here
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