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Some information and the impact of running on knees - Ultramarathoners consist of many older runners. You might assume this would obliterate their knees especially at an older age. They have no higher incidence of injury than younger people that run at shorter distances. An ultra marathon is a distance of 50 - 100 miles. There is a story in one of these articles about an 80 year old runner competing in these.
I discovered one bad exercise (for me, and maybe many others) when I was in martial arts. Most of the classes I attended had pretty vigorous exercise routines as a warmup. I had back problems by the time I encountered this one exercise and nearly yelped out loud the first time I tried it.
Picture lying flat on your back with someone standing directly at your head. You swing both feet up, legs straight, to above your head and the person at your head quickly pushes both your legs away from himself. If you were relaxed, both your legs would slam onto the floor hard. Instead, you must quickly really tense your stomach muscles to prevent that from happening. What I immediately discovered is that this puts tremendous pressure on the discs in your lower back. I did one and never again.
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Originally Posted by Navyshow
Some information and the impact of running on knees - Ultramarathoners consist of many older runners. You might assume this would obliterate their knees especially at an older age. They have no higher incidence of injury than younger people that run at shorter distances. An ultra marathon is a distance of 50 - 100 miles. There is a story in one of these articles about an 80 year old runner competing in these.
Everyone I've known in my personal life that has had knee surgery has not been a runner. I've known 2 kids(11-12) who weren't athletic at all, and 4 adults, all non-runners, who had knee surgery. I have yet to meet one person in real life who is a runner and has had to have surgery on their knees.
Every runner I know well, except one, has had knee surgery. That's probably 2 dozen people. Every female runner I know has had it.
I've only known one non-runner to have knee surgery, and she is obese.
I have learned that disputing issues is not going to change peoples minds. I won't post anything else on running. Folks can choose whether they want to run, bike, do martial arts whatever or not.
I remember doing lunges down the maintenance hallway at the old building we used to work in. A man stopped me and royally chewed me out for ruining my knees (like why would he care). And I told him that at some point folks are going to suffer pain from hardened arteries, lung disease, diabetes, whatever as we all age from lifestyle choices or inactivity or disease and I also said that in this case if that happens at least I get to choose my pain.
Yes, those who are older long distance runners have limited problems with their knees.
It's because those who ruined their knees are no longer running in old age.
The test pool of runners, here, have self-selected. No older runner is going to be running on blown out or replaced knees.
Yes, good call. I can think of no runner whom I personally know who has not had either foot, ankle or knee injuries. I can't say the same about bicyclists, they seem to be able to do that forever.
I would say the supposed importance of stretching before exercise is the biggest one.
In high school I was a sprinter and high hurdler, and we used to do this hurdler's exercise that I have come to understand is really, really not good for the knees.
From the 1950s in many gyms and even some fitness mags:
Human genetics do not allow for the hypertrophy of both back and chest muscles. You may develop one, but not both.
Latissimus dorsi will never atrophy, regardless of your level of inactivity.
Overhead barbell presses from behind the neck are preferable as they work more fibers.
(I can tell you that they are more likely to result in injury as the shoulder apparatus is already crowded with tissue that becomes even more compressed when those presses are performed. I was proud of my "behind-the-necks" and went into hot dog mode and made sure to do them whenever eyes were upon me. Result: shoulder issues throughout the decades, now with torn rotator cuffs and labrums. My ortho doc wants to smack me upside the head.)
For those of us older people, what were some of the common exercise dogma from your youth that were eventually found to be not necessarily true?
I guess the biggest one for me growing up in the 70's/80's was that lifting weights were a waste of time and only served to make you muscle bound and slow. It was the rare exception in Hollywood to see muscular actors like Stallone and Arnold in the movies.
Nowadays of course, the benefits of lifting weights and building muscle are well known and do not serve just as a cosmetic function. It even gives you cardiovascular effects comparable to steady state cardio.
Along those lines, at around that same time period common wisdom held that supplements like protein shakes were a waste of money and didn't do anything. Obviously these days we know that those who work out and certain age groups benefit from extra protein intake whether it be food or shakes.
OP, I started working out with weights in the 80's, and there was no mythology about it making you musclebound and slow, not even for women. Also, low-carb diets were being developed in the 80's, so protein powder was considered helpful. In fact, I remember a couple of teen friends of my brother's, back in the 70's, going on and on about how their protein powder and riboflavin concoctions were going to turn them into he-men, lol! They were full of how important protein powder was to building muscles, along with lifting weights.
That was on the West Coast, though; I don't know if that science had penetrated all parts of the US, at that time.
Exercise rules that have changed: I remember being required to do sit-ups in gym class, with the legs flat on the floor, being told to put my hands behind my head with elbows bent forward, and to bend until the elbows touched the knees. I was never able to do it, though the other kids were. Years later, that was declared dangerous, and bent-knee sit-ups became the norm.
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