Running

[clv101]

Has anyone read Christopher McDougall's Born to Run? I'm reading it now. There's an article about it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html

And a good extract here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive ... money.html

It's an amazing story. Two key threads; modern cushioned, sportive running shoes as sold by companies like Nike since the early 70s are a huge mistake, and change the mechanics of running which have evolved over millions of years. Secondly humans are awesome runners. Really amazing, the best long distance runners ever to have existed. We can run down any animal, our whole body structure is designed to run.

Running is the transport of the future.

A couple of extracts.

In a paper for the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Dr Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one.
It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: 'Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?'

Dr Marti's research team analysed 4,358 runners in the Bern Grand Prix, a 9.6-mile road race. All the runners filled out an extensive questionnaire that detailed their training habits and footwear for the previous year; as it turned out, 45 per cent had been hurt during that time. But what surprised Dr Marti was the fact that the most common variable among the casualties wasn't training surface, running speed, weekly mileage or 'competitive training motivation'.
It wasn't even body weight or a history of previous injury. It was the price of the shoe. Runners in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40.

[Quintus]

Secondly humans are awesome runners. Really amazing, the best long distance runners ever to have existed. We can run down any animal, our whole body structure is designed to run

All interesting stuff. Looking at the DODGY TAX AVOIDERS blurb there are Mexican Indians that supposedly ran hundreds of miles without rest, chasing down prey. I've also heard a rumour that at extreme distances women are better runners than men, but never looked into whether that is true and, if so, why.

It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: 'Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?'

Runners in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40.

As an ex-runner I'm quite shocked by this. Not that surprised that a $20 billion industry has grown up on hot air and advertising though.

I had to stop serious running as I did in my knee, pavements are bad news. I'd like to see cycling tracks AND soft running tracks everywhere about our towns.

[Ludwig]

I'm sceptical about this book, given that it was written by a runner. The evidence is plentiful that running a lot is very bad for the joints. (Just take Quintus's reply, for example.)

Still, being a fast runner will certainly helpful when the chav hordes go on the rampage

[Quintus]

According to this old BBC article running man be why us humans look the way we do.

Running 'key to human evolution'

Long-distance running may have been a driving force behind evolution of the modern human body, scientists say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4021811.stm

[clv101]

The evidence is plentiful that running a lot is very bad for the joints.

I'm fairly dubious of this. I don't think it's as simple that running is bad for joints, there are many old ultrarunners with fine joints. I think it's more likely that running with bad style/posture, in cushioned/supportive shoes that make us run in unnatural ways is bad for joints.

[biffvernon]

I don't suppose you remember Zola Budd

former Olympic track and field competitor who, in less than three years, twice broke the world record in the women's 5000 meters, and twice was the women's winner at the World Cross Country Championships. Budd's career as a pioneer in women's distance running was as unusual as it was meteoric, in that she always trained and raced barefoot.

(And I've just spent £140 on a pair of boots. Catch me hill-walking barefoot!)

[Quintus]

Who would want to run on the hard pavements of our cities in bare feet; alongside hypodermic needles, condoms, vomit and half eaten kebabs?

[clv101]

No one is really talking about actual barefoot, the American Indian's wear leather saddles. The idea is not the add cushioning and support.

[Ludwig]

The evidence is plentiful that running a lot is very bad for the joints.

I'm fairly dubious of this. I don't think it's as simple that running is bad for joints, there are many old ultrarunners with fine joints.

That doesn't prove anything, though. There are plenty of lifelong heavy smokers who never develop lung cancer, but that doesn't alter the fact that smoking massively increases your chance of getting it.

It's common sense that exercise wears your joints down over time, and anything high-impact is going to wear them down particularly fast. My father started long-distance running in his 50s; now he's in his 60s and has a chronic ankle problem. The doctor said it was the running that did it.

In the end, our bodies wear out, whether through neglect or through over-exertion. We're not "designed" to live forever, but to live long enough to reproduce. Everything that sustains us, ends up by killing us. It is just nature's cycle.

[Quintus]

It's tricky. On the one hand long-distance running may have been a driving force behind evolution of the modern human body, i.e. natural selection has made tramps like us 'Born To Run". On the other hand I doubt early man ran on hard pavements and probably didn't enjoy a long enough life to really punish those poor old joints.

[Ludwig]

It's tricky. On the one hand long-distance running may have been a driving force behind evolution of the modern human body, i.e. natural selection has made tramps like us 'Born To Run".

On the other hand I doubt early man ran on hard pavements and probably didn't enjoy a long enough life to really punish those poor old joints.

Nail on head.

[biffvernon]

It's common sense that exercise wears your joints down over time,

I'm not sure that's common sense. Muscles don't seem to wear down with exercise and neither do brains. I guess all the tissues within a joint, even the bone material, is constantly being renewed and replaced. This process may, or may not, go on faster when exercised. I have no idea.

No one is really talking about actual barefoot,

I was. Zola Budd certainly went actually barefoot.

[clv101]

No one is really talking about actual barefoot,

I was. Zola Budd certainly went actually barefoot.

Yeah, for sure. I mean in response to Quintus' comment on hypodermic needles, condoms, vomit and half eaten kebabs... I'm just saying 'barefoot running' don't necessarily mean running in bare feet.

[Vortex]

This exercise lark is over-rated.

I had to visit a physio once, after ricking my back by driving a bus for 24 hours solid across Europe.

The physios were stunned - because I was in my 40s and my spine was NOT fused.

It then clicked with them: I was NOT a sporty type so despite reaching 40 I had NOT yet wrecked my spine .. because I didn't do any of those silly running/jogging/sqaushy type sports.

The case rests m'lud.

[Ludwig]

It's common sense that exercise wears your joints down over time,

I'm not sure that's common sense. Muscles don't seem to wear down with exercise and neither do brains. I guess all the tissues within a joint, even the bone material, is constantly being renewed and replaced. This process may, or may not, go on faster when exercised. I have no idea.

I have to confess my ignorance about the differences between body tissues, though it is undoubtedly an interesting subject. As a general rule, I think the more regeneration a tissue undergoes, the more rapidly it ages. That is the general principle of ageing: mutations accumulate until the cells become useless. I seem to recall that the process is fundamentally linked with the degradation of mitochondria, the parts of the cell that "breathe" oxygen. I think there's a theory that there is an absolute limit on the human lifespan of about 120 years, because degradation of the mitochondria is inevitable given the presence in the human body of oxygen free radicals. Marketing people would have us believe that oxygen free radicals can be harmlessly neutralised using antioxidants, but this is bollocks: free radicals are so reactive that you'd have to overdose on antioxidants to mop them up before they damaged your cells. Anyway, I digress...

To return to the point: my understand is that, in general, anything that places stress on the body accelerates the ageing process. Moderate exercise does not count as stress, but regular vigorous, high-impact exercise does.

In fact, AIUI exercise that builds and sustains muscle bulk tends to be good for you, because muscle cushions and supports bone, which is a more brittle and fragile tissue.

As for whether brains wear down with exercise: again, I think you have to draw the distinction between exercise and stress. A nurse once told me that, in her observation, the people most likely to get Alzheimer's Disease were those who worried a lot (as opposed, I guess, to those who simply thought a lot.)