Fitness Addiction or Running... Health or Harm...

Running is traditionally considered a healthful exercise, but improper running can be very harmful to the HEALTH of the joints and spine.

 The healthful or destructive result of running depends on the resources available to the body at the moment, the health of the spine, the running technique, and the shoes. Running does not increase the resources of the body, but rather actively consumes them.

 So what is the purpose of running? The main goal is to train the muscles involved in the depreciation of the joints and spine. Of course, while running, internal organs are shaken up, lymphatic drainage improves, but all this can be achieved with less energy costs and without the risk of shock overload of the joints and spine. Therefore, exhausting running in inappropriate shoes, landing on your heels is meaningless and unhealthy.

Benefits can only be expected under the following conditions:

• if running is consciously performed by us as an exercise;
• if we have mastered the running technique, we will absorb the landing well with the muscles of the lower leg and foot;
• if loads are carefully dosed: duration and pace, they can increase by no more than 5–10% per week;
• if the phases of active running alternate with phases of sufficient rest.

Running is contraindicated: in diseases of the spine and joints, physical fatigue, chronic fatigue, the elderly.

Walking as exercise

Running is contraindicated for elderly people - they are advised to walk. But walking will only be beneficial if it is treated as an exercise.

 During his life, a person takes more than 100 million steps - big, small, dexterous and awkward. Each unsuccessful step can bring shock overload.

 The number of unsuccessful steps determines the rate of accumulation of damage in the joints and spine - a drop wears away a stone.

 Why is it so? The fact is that a soft gait, which protects the cells of the joints and spine from damage, requires a lot of muscle resources. When they are not enough, a person begins to stomp, drag his feet, stumble. In such a state, even walking will not do any good.

 In order to return the softness of the gait, it is necessary to increase the resources of the body accumulated in the cells and attach importance to each step.

The Lao sages used to say: "Go like a cat walks."