Outside: No, Running Doesn’t Wear Down Your Cartilage. It Strengthens Your Joints.

Been told you got the arthritis? that doesn’t mean STOP what you love. This is a great article I was asked to comment on from the team at Outside. Few quotes from me below, but do be sure to check out the full article here for a really interesting research design where they measured cartilage thickness during prolonged running. You just might be surprised, as it goes against everything that grandma and grandpa used to say about “you crazy runners trashing your joints” while they point their finger sternly in your face. Grandma and grandpa are awesome people - but they aren’t experts in running. Remember - improving your body takes time -you can’t rush your body! But follow a solid plan and you’ll see changes and get back to what you love.

It’s also important to work on strengthening the muscles supporting your knee (or any other arthritic joint). Dicharry is adamant on this point as a prerequisite for creating the conditions for cartilage rebuilding.“You need to find out what type of pain-free range exists, and then work to use your pain-free range as a way to compress/decompress/glide your surfaces,” he says. “That may be through targeted exercises. It may be through more advanced exercises. And once a joint can tolerate the positions it will see with running, you need to increase the speed of loading to ensure the fast loading times seen in running are ok. And then, yes…..you can compress/decompress/glide joints through running.”

What do “if it hurts” and “adjust your recovery time accordingly” mean? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. Physical therapist Jay Dicharry says that you can run if pain stays between a 1 to 3 on a 10-point scale, and you have zero increase in swelling, and no limp. “You can try that for a few weeks and then bump up slightly,” he says “And then maybe add in some speed or hills run and see how it does.” But you still need to be aware of situations that will put undue stress on your joints. Dicharry says, for example, “I’d for sure limit downhill running in someone with advanced or even moderate osteoarthritis until they earn the joint control needed to ensure the loads on the knee are inside the healthy range.”