No Need to Hang Up Your Running Shoes as you Age

Aug 25, 2010 by runbyu1

Conventional wisdom holds that the pounding from years of running leads to excessive wear and tear on the body as we age, resulting in joint injuries, knee replacements or arthritis. So-called weekend warriors — people who aren’t in the type of shape needed to safely run sprints, dive for passes or make cuts on the basketball court — add to this misconception when they hobble into their doctors’ office after an injury.

But a study out of Stanford University that looked at healthy aging runners found that running did not damage joints or leave runners less able to exercise. Researchers discovered that if you’re healthy and generally free of injury, there are few reasons to put away your running shoes, even into your 70s and 80s. Video Watch more on running as you age »

“Moderate [running], three to five miles at a time, three times a week will actually help your joints to be more resilient and function a little bit better,” says Dr. Amadeus Mason at Emory Sports Medicine Center in Atlanta, Georgia. But he stresses that keeping the joints healthy in the first place may be the key to running longevity.

“The biggest risk that runners will face as they age, with regard to injury, is overtraining, by far,” says Mason, who recommends giving yourself a day of rest between runs, or cross-training on the non-running days.

In addition, Mason advises wearing the proper footwear and making sure to stretch before and after a run.

Beyond the good news about aging joints, the Stanford researchers also discovered some surprising overall health benefits for senior runners when they compared them with non-runners of the same age: Those in the running group were less likely to die from heart trouble, stroke, cancer, neurological diseases or infection.

“The survival rate of the runners was again twice that of the controls,” study author Dr. Eliza Chakravarty says. She says the findings were a surprise to the researchers.

Additionally, runners enjoyed a better day-to-day quality of life in old age than their more sedentary peers. “Members of the running group, it took them 16 years longer to reach certain levels of disability,” says Chakravarty.

Exerpts from: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/hm.running.aging/index.html