running and your knees
Contrary to popular wisdom, running doesn't appear to hurt your knees if you're conditioned to it. In fact, running appears to have some protective value for your knees because it seems to condition your knee cartilage. I wasn't aware of these recent studies showing that your knees are probably not going to be hurt by running a decent amount, in particular,
"An important 2008 study, this one from Stanford University, followed middle-aged, longtime distance runners (not necessarily marathoners) for nearly 20 years, beginning in 1984, when most were in their 50s or 60s. At that time, 6.7 percent of the runners had creaky, mildly arthritic knees, while none of an age-matched control group did. After 20 years, however, the runners’ knees were healthier; only 20 percent showed arthritic changes, versus 32 percent of the control group’s knees."It might be time to cut back on the elliptical workouts that I started substituting for running in an effort to preserve my knees.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/phys-ed-can-running-actually-help-your-knees/
