On 4 May 2008, at 14:21, Adrienne Smith wrote:

> An orthopedist once told me that even  5 pounds of
> extra weight is many times more than that to one's knees.

I had no idea that such a small amount of weight could cause such a  
problem.  Although with running you are repeating the same movement  
thousands of times, so I guess it builds up.  Ironic then, that fat  
people are told to run to lose weight, when it will (a) not help that  
much and (b) give them a problem they didn't have in the first place.


> I'm also beginning to believe that much of the
> knee and back pain blamed on running is actually caused by the weird
> over-cushioned running shoes.

They encourage you to land on your heel which shocks your knee, when  
you should land on the bridge of your foot which can absorb the  
impact.  You can get trainers with no heels, eg http://www.heelless.co.uk/index.html 
  but since they look stupid for day-to-day use, I doubt they will  
take off.  Some people recommend running barefoot, obviously a better  
idea on grass than concrete.

Dietary connection: paleo man had to run to catch food :D


> Anyway, proper running form performed by a
> non-overweight body does not "pound the bones into the ground" in my  
> view.

Well since it's an essential human activity, I don't see how we could  
have survived this long if it did.  Although that's not to say that a  
lifetime of it won't wear something out in the end.

I think the problem is that the intersection of "people who run",  
"people who use good running technique", and "people who are not  
overweight" is so small that running is doomed to get a bad  
reputation...

Ashley