If done correctly, it will not have a negative impact on the joints. Dampened running shoes and starting really slow are important. Movement will keep your knees healthy. The strengthened muscles will help when you lift heavy weights. Running is also one of the best ways to loose weight, which will reduce pressure on the knees in return.
Of course there are exceptions when running isn’t a great idea, like high obesity, chronic pain or injuries.
If running isn’t your thing, biking or swimming could be nice alternatives.
Doesn’t seem to be strictly true, but I do think it’s complicated. Running is awful for your knees if they’re injured or you have some sort of congenital skeletal issue. If you’re just sedentary, it’s awful for your knees if you do too much too soon.
Otherwise it seems to strengthen them. I will grant that it’s pretty hard to truly run easy enough and build up slowly enough. Takes patience and some trial and error in my experience. I skateboarded through my teens and 20s and had all sorts of nagging pains that have gone away completely after a couple years of consistent running, as an anecdote.
There’s a sweet spot. Go too easy and they get screwed up and go too hard and they screw up.
But it’s true that being reasonably active helps a ton. Someone I know who complained of joint pain as they retired claims it went away as his leisure time caused him to walk all over the place, and now he’s 70 with no joint pain. Closest he got was when we spent two hours in a crawlspace working on some frozen pipes and complained that his back hurt a bit and wondered if it was because he was old. No, even the 20 year old hurt after waddling around hunched over in freezing temperatures for a couple of hours.
Great to hear that being active still strengthens your body when being older. That’s one of my biggest motivations: To be physically healthy and strong when I’m old.
Start running, it will strengthen the muscles around your knees and protect them. It also brings a million other health benefits.
Running is about the worst thing you can do to your knees.
If done correctly, it will not have a negative impact on the joints. Dampened running shoes and starting really slow are important. Movement will keep your knees healthy. The strengthened muscles will help when you lift heavy weights. Running is also one of the best ways to loose weight, which will reduce pressure on the knees in return.
Of course there are exceptions when running isn’t a great idea, like high obesity, chronic pain or injuries.
If running isn’t your thing, biking or swimming could be nice alternatives.
Doesn’t seem to be strictly true, but I do think it’s complicated. Running is awful for your knees if they’re injured or you have some sort of congenital skeletal issue. If you’re just sedentary, it’s awful for your knees if you do too much too soon.
Otherwise it seems to strengthen them. I will grant that it’s pretty hard to truly run easy enough and build up slowly enough. Takes patience and some trial and error in my experience. I skateboarded through my teens and 20s and had all sorts of nagging pains that have gone away completely after a couple years of consistent running, as an anecdote.
https://longevity.stanford.edu/lifestyle/2023/08/29/is-running-bad-for-your-knees-research-says-no/
There’s a sweet spot. Go too easy and they get screwed up and go too hard and they screw up.
But it’s true that being reasonably active helps a ton. Someone I know who complained of joint pain as they retired claims it went away as his leisure time caused him to walk all over the place, and now he’s 70 with no joint pain. Closest he got was when we spent two hours in a crawlspace working on some frozen pipes and complained that his back hurt a bit and wondered if it was because he was old. No, even the 20 year old hurt after waddling around hunched over in freezing temperatures for a couple of hours.
Great to hear that being active still strengthens your body when being older. That’s one of my biggest motivations: To be physically healthy and strong when I’m old.
Just don’t do it wrong though, because then you will ruin everything.
Yes, it’s recommended to start slow and get fitting running shoes