Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 30, 2014

I’ve been running for 25 years with absolutely no knee pain or injuries. I run 15-20 miles a week with a few half marathons a year.

Ellipticals hurt my hips and I’ve heard many people say the same thing. To each their own!!! :-)

Running doesn’t cause knee pain. Injury causes knee pain. Great ways to cause injury: wear poorly constructed or loose fitting shoes, use a bad technique, eat an unbalanced diet, or attempt to ramp up distances as quickly as when you were young after a long break from running.

@Boots: Nother great way to cause injury is to continually exert impac forces on your joints that they’re not designed to be capable of handling.

Unfortunately, it IS true: running WILL tax your joints (and no, you cannot train your joints).

If you are a lightweight, this is usually not a problem. Good distance runners are unvariably featherweights. I used to be quite good when I was young, weighing in at a (for my 5’10) ridiculously nimble 125 pounds.

But at the other side of the spectrum is our son-in-law. He is in his early thirties, and athletically built, and has been stronly advised to stop running. He’s not overweight… but at 6’11" and full of muscles, he’s just huge, and well over 220 pounds.

He has now bought a road racing bike.

A tale of three brothers:Me – 5’ 10", 215 lbs. (NFL running-back size)Middle brother – 5’ 9" 140 lbs. (Ad model for Chef Boyardee products)Youngest brother – 5’ 10" 240 lbs. (Cleverly disguised as a refrigerator).All of us participated in 5K, 10K runs, and only the middle brother has run in bona fide marathons.All of us have gone under the knife to repair foot, ankle, and knee abuses, with the youngest (the cement truck) suffering the most severe. All of us are up in age now, and reaping the ‘benefits’ of such a regimen. Would we do it again? Nope. That’s what bicycles are for.

Miss Plainwell will probably be out cycling at the weekend, and might go swimming in the week.

She doesn’t have to worry about her knees – However, others don’t seem to know what being fit & happy, & healthy looks like.

I bet surgery for overuse injuries are the last thing on her radar.

Never ran. Bicycling is much less impact, while offering the same or better muscle training to the lower body. Doesn’t do much for the upper, though. This body wasn’t meant for running; it was meant for short bursts of power and hitting things, then dragging them back to the tribe. By nature I should have died by now, protecting the tribe from a sabertooth or something.

little kids say cute things but could we get a little more respect for grandparents ?

See http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/why-runners-dont-get-knee-arthritis

The only good thing to come out of my knee injury from playing tennis was that I never had to run again.

I do cycle, however, which has pretty much eliminated the give-way I’d experienced for 10 years after my injury.

My sentiments exactly.

Swimming is the perfect exercise to not stress your joints, whether they are already injured, or still healthy.

@tacopielvrThanks for the heads up…

In my case it was ankle pain that kept me from running or jogging. I use to powerwalk, but my plan was to jog, but when I tried it my ankls locked up on me the next day and it took about three days before I could wal normally again so I went back to powerwalking. Now my arthritus is down in my ankles and when they’re not in pain they’re locked up.

Not dying young will eventually wear your knees out too.

@Charles SmithI wasn’t posing it as an argument. Nabuquduriuzhur stated that all pavement runners have knee problems. I was just refuting his statement.