Injury Running is bad for your knees? Nonsense, says science
Marathon running is good for your knees: thanks, science
IF YOU’VE SIGNED UP FOR YOUR first marathon this year, you have almost certainly already been told by some know-it-all that it will ruin your knees. Feel free to bring up the following: a myth-busting new study has found that distance running can rebuild the health of middle-aged knees. The study looked at 80 newbie runners, most in their mid-40s, who had signed up for their first marathon. The researchers scanned the participants’ knees before they began training; then, two weeks after the marathon, their knees were scanned again. Far from seeing additional damage, the researchers found that many of the existing bone-marrow lesions had shrunk, as had some of the damage in the runners’ cartilage. In short, running had made their knees healthier.