One of the concerns about doing a lot of exercise –
generally offered up by people who don’t want to do even a bit or perhaps even
any exercise at all – is that too much running or weight-bearing exercise will
wear down the joints.
This is especially offered as a potential risk to runners
who might, this theory claims, have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis
(OA) of the knee from running too much (even though, of course, no one has any
idea of what “too much” means, especially as there are so many substantial
differences in risks among individuals).
And besides, most doctors insist that the best – likely
the only – way to slow OA from getting worse is in fact to do more exercise,
and that the pain that you get from activity – within limits, of course –
should generally not serve as an indication to not exercise.
That’s easier said than done, of course, but good evidence
that that advice actually makes sense comes from a recent study involving over
1500 middle-aged and slightly older individuals followed for over 6 years
(published recently in the journal, Arthritis
Care and Research) that concluded that those people who managed to follow
the guidelines of doing 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week did not
have any increased risk of developing OA.
Bottom line: for the vast majority of us, moving more than
we generally do – or would like to do - is rarely going to lead to problems.
Quite the opposite in fact.
