Is Long Distance Running Beneficial?
For years I have gone back and forth on the benefits of running long distances or endurance running. Galen, a Roman physician still considered to be the Father of Modern Sports Medicine, was vehemently opposed to running long distances. Galen's argument was that too much running would cause an abnormal loss in body fat, and when a person's body fat dropped below a certain threshold, dysfunction would result. We know from today's studies that when a woman's body fat is too low, they may lose their periods and develop adverse hormonal changes. When a man's body fat is too low, they may have problems insulating the organs and experience organ failure. Galen, as well as other biomechanists, discuss the anatomy of the knee as a weak link for running—the largest bone in the body, the femur, presses on the bones of the lower leg, with the only cushion being a piece of cartilage less than 1 cm thick.
I tended to agree with these thoughts due to the amount of clients that I help with knee issues. It seemed to me that the human was not intended to run more than 3 or 4 miles at a time, let alone consecutively without proper time for recovery.
Recently, I read an article that discussed the differences between bipeds (walking on 2 legs) and quadrupeds (walking on 4 legs). The author explained in detail how we, as humans, have the ability to track, hunt, and kill an animal because of our endurance capabilities. The animal is a sprinter—low to the ground for stealth. It attacks quickly, expelling huge bursts of energy for brief periods of time. The animal then has to rest and recover. Because of this reason, the animal has powerful muscle tissues, developed to catch his food in that way. Humans, on the other hand, are built to outwork the animal by tracking and fatiguing through great distances, and only when the animal is tired of running away, it will make a final stand.
This article triggered some thought as I spoke with a colleague of mine: many of my friends are distance runners, and I work with top level athletes—many who have been competing for years. After speaking in length with them, I have developed two simple theories:
First: Lifestyle plays a large part in being a long distance runner. If you never had access to motorized transportation yet had to commute long distances, your legs, over time, would be more conditioned for endurance type running.
Many individuals come to see me because they desire to participate in a race—a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, marathon, Ironman, and so on—many of these people are under-conditioned or have not run more than one mile in the last 3 to 5 years. I write them a 16, 12, 10, or even 8 week program to get them to their goal. My programs are some of the safest available—safer than many on-line prep program schedules&mdashbut to have them pain-free and injury-free during their training is almost impossible. There are always swollen ankles, achy knees, plantar fasciitis, lower back pain, and the list goes on. These types of injuries happen because the body is not yet accustomed for these types of stressors. They are asking too much of their body without having it been properly prepared. Kenyans, Incans, Mexicans—people who are progeny of generations of long distance runners—or people who have been running without taking lots of time off for a minimum of 3 to 5 years are the ones that will be pain and injury-free when running these long distances.
Second: If you ran because it was a part of your everyday life and not to race or to compete, you would be much less likely to experience knee injury.
Unfortunately, people don't just run to run. They don't do it for leisure - they do it to win, to beat their old score, or to beat a competitor. In all sports as we push ourselves to the limits, we break down. A muscle grows by overloading it, breaking it down, and rebuilding it. Joints and the knee in particular do not break down and rebuild like a muscle. Once a disc or a meniscus has been compromised, it's too late to rebuild it and pain and injury result.
