Running is good for us. It is an athletic movement that involves a lot of our joints working together to push us forward. Running is recommended for weight loss and also to maintain a healthy heart and blood pressure. But it also puts heavy physical stress on our body. Before you decide to go out and run, do a little bit of research and learn how to run.
If you don’t have the time to do it, you’re better off just walking. Most of us think that if they are running or walking fast, it is one and the same thing anyway but this is not true at all. If running were so simple, we wouldn’t have so many cases of injured runners and athletes around us. Running puts a lot of pressure on our joints and this means that we become prone to breaking or hurting our joints/ligaments/tendons and inflaming our muscle fibers. How you run or how much you run would also depend on your lifestyle and eating habits. What used to be ingrained in our DNA from generations and ages has now become an hour of exercise for which we have to plan a day before. Now what we need is motivation to include running in our daily lives and to stay fit.
The most common reason we are so skeptical of running on a regular basis is that we think it is going to damage our joints and mostly our knees. Experts say that running does cause molecular changes in not just our knees but our ankles and calves as well but that doesn’t mean that effect has to be negative.
Can You Actually Beat Knee Pain?
Yes, you can actually beat knee pain and for that you will have to rest your knees, apply a little bit of ice or cold compress while you drink a RedBull! No! This is not the right way to go about beating joint pain whether it is in your knees or ankles or even in your shins. What you need to do is:
- Fix your running technique
- Do moderate to hard running drills regularly
- Make it a point to warm up before you start running
- Buy a comfortable pair of shoes that cushion your feet like a glove
- Start doing strength training
- Go for deep tissue massage
- Wear proper attire for running
- Take breaks in between
- Do not over-hydrate as that will cause stomach cramps