Can Running Help Your Knees?
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Loading ...Many of you know that I poo-poo the notion that running destroys knees. The science over the years has just not supported that contention. Running is one of the cheapest, least time consuming ways to get regular cardiovascular exercise. Lack of time and money are the 2 most frequently cited reasons for not exercising.
Having just returned from a few days in NYC, and 3 lovely runs through Central Park, I once again found that running is also a great way to see an area that you are visiting. A few days after returning from New York, the Health section of the New York Times ran a nice article about knees and running. Check it out, it’s worth the view. The gist of the article is that in those without history of knee injury, running actually seems to help maintain health of the cartilage in the knees. In my own case, 15 years post-ACL surgery, I am conducting a bit of scientific research on whether specific ways of running are not only tolerable, but helpful to post-surgical knees ;-) I’ll let you know how that turns out!
The video here today is from that article and shows a few exercises to help with knee tracking and stability. Some of these exercises look a bit familiar as we showed similar versions on previous videos. Others highlight some basic, good pointers on squat mechanics which are incredibly important and should not be sped through. Watch and listen and groove the proper form on the squat to help your hips and knees. Although I’m a bit more picky than the trainer in the vid about keeping the knee behind the toes on the squat, overall, these are good exercises. Happy trails, and I’ll see some of you at Hood to Coast in a few weeks!
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2 Responses
Darryl Lardizabal
January 10th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
1True, actually read an article on the Supertraining group questioning the validity of running as a destroyer of cartilage. Going back to SAID principle, Wolf’s Law, Davis’ Law, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be - tissue adaptation, bone adaptation, and specificity of movement and injury should in all likelihood prevent not create problems.
Although I agree with the article, I disagree with many of the points presented in the video. Inability to strengthen other tissues besides muscle tissue, shoulder retraction during squats and lunges, knee position for squats, foot position for squats, no anterior and posterior movement of the pelvis when hip and knees extend during squats and lunges, arm position in the step-ups during stepping upwards and downwards in relation to neutral torso position.
There’s also a slight external rotation as the “model” steps up during the step up leading me to think of possible issues with musculature that is position specific for this individual.
Shoulder retraction biomechanically is just the opposite of having normally protracted shoulders. True, it brings awareness and an increase in musculature activation, but at what cost. We are also not looking how it’s embedding in the neural patterning of the movement and the related long-term development of the individual to create adaptation. The rest is simply related to how it can and would to transfer to running performance, lack of mobility in back, pelvis, hips, knees, ankle or poor activation of surrounding musculature could lead to long-term dysfunction.
One point that you stated is highly individual - knee position in squats and lunges. If you had an individual with long femurs, and shorter torso, why would you restrict movement of the knee? or why is restriction of the knee at all warranted?
Dr. Snell
January 20th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
2Thanks for the comments, Darryl. Running has gotten an undeserved bad rap for trashing knees. This is despite what many anthropologists suggest is a genetic pattern in humans to walk or run 5-10 mi daily to get our food. Those ancestors didn’t do that in cushy shoes like modern runners, thus insulating the sole of the foot from environmental stimuli. That stimulus is necessary for the rest of the body to manage the ground reaction forces.
You mention Supertraining and I see from your site that you have RKC affiliation. Given your other comments re: Stuart McGill’s work, you might be interested to know that both Mel Siff and Pavel Tsatsouline have spent much time in McGill’s lab with him.
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