Fitness problem

[cheese_sausage]

Hello!!

i started jogging for almost 4 weeks. before that i did some traveling for 3 weeks, walked every single day! now, i only jog for about 30 mins a day and 4 to 5 times a week. my problem is my knees hurt. slightly. i do warm up before jogging. what am i missing here? is it my shoes or my position?? thanks a lot!!!

cheese

[abercromqt20]

where are you running? on pavement, treadmill?? i know alot of people who get pains in their knees when running on pavement. Try running on a track or something. go to the local high school and maybe give it a try. i know some people that it works for! it's worth a shot

[misombra]

it could be your shoes. if your toes touch the front then you need new ones. or try some insoles. aber's right, you're probably not getting enough absorption (sp).

[Illusional]

i think it might be your shoes, but i think that it's really depending on the type of ground that you're running on. flat ground is the best for running, so maybe you should run at your school track, or on flat roads.

raverboy

[KaWaiiSkYe]

Or you might have just pulled a muscle.

[Illusional]

if he pulled a muscle, only his knee wouldn't hurt. there would be a lot more pain.

raverboy

[sfalexi]

Running is pretty much the worst thing you can do for your knees. That's why we needed to invent such things as really comfortable running shoes, a spongy track, a treadmill with springs underneath so it gives some flex.

When you think about it, with each jog you take when running, you have your entire body weight getting crunched down on ONE knee. Take into account the fact that you're running (not just walking) and with the downward force of a jog it probably comes out to at least 1.5 times your body weight.

THat's why in order to save knees, the best cardio exercise would be biking.

Maybe you should give that shot. You'll have to bike a lot further than you run, but just do it for about the same amount of time and bike hard (not leisurely . . . really test yourself and push hard).

Rod Steele

[cheese_sausage]

thanks a lot, folks.
i started going to the gym on monday. now i run on treadmill. anyway, i am buying a pair of running shoes this weekend. is new balance good??

sfalexi: wow, thanks for the scary truth!

[misombra]

i would recommend adidas.

bikining can hurt your knees too. you put a lot of pressure of them. our bodies are made for running and walking and jogging. with some knee strength, good shoes and a soft terrain (usually meaning not pavement) your knees should be fine. do some squats for knee strength.

[sfalexi]

About the "hurting the knees" comment . . .

[url]http://bicycling.about.com/library/weekly/aa072198.htm[/url]

I'm no doctor, but it seems to me that if you're talking about saving the knees, you should really go for biking. Ideally, swimming would probably be the best "cartilage-saving" workout due to the VERY smooth resistance of water and no jarring whatsoever. Next would probably be that elliptical machine (but that's kinda boring). And next would be biking (fairly smooth resistance, very little jarring, and the rubber tires act as cushions as WELL as your shoes . . . and if you have front/rear shocks, even better, although they were designed for mountain biking, it wouldn't hurt to have it on the road in case of some pothole or something).

Also, another reason I chose biking instead of running was for scenery (you can cover a lot more ground in a half-hour of biking than running), and therefore you have access to more places.

What I do during the warmer months for a workout is I bike about four miles away to a park, do some pullups and chinups, then bike about three miles to a grocery store and grab myself a nice drink and snack. Then it depends. I might bike back home (about five miles), or I might bike to a nearby mall and walk around there for a little while. All depends what I'm in the mood for.

It worked pretty well. If squirrely comes to the board, I believe I showed her a picture of my "post-workout" period (I took before and after pictures) and it definitely helped.

You can go for running if you want, but all the shoes and soft terrain in the world will probably still be rougher on your knees than a bike ride. And if your knees are ALREADY messed up (which mine are too by the way), I wouldn't be slamming my femur and fibula/tibia together at the kneecap, repetitively squishing and squishing the piece of cartilage inbetween for thirty minutes a day 4 - 5 times a week.

Rod Steele

[misombra]

that sounds fun. i like to ride my bike in the warmer months too. there's this great trail here that runs next to the river and it's so nice. i got a great deal on a schwinn with shocks on the seat, it's so comfortable. but when it's fall time i love to take nice long jogs with the dog. keeping warm is good incentive to keep going.

[abercromqt20]

my softball team had to go get specially fitted for shoes once. they recommended New Balance actually. Something about having the best arch support. I don't know if that will help you out though. All i know is that for working out all my gym shoes have always been NB or Adidas.