Is Running Bad for Your Knees? What Science Says

The funny thing about the routine of running for the sake of your health is that it is almost always accompanied by a warning. Inevitably, someone will come along to spoil your day by telling you that you should enjoy the health benefits from running while they last, because running will eventually grind your knees into powder and destroy their capacity to keep you mobile without significant pain

If this statement is true, then it’s a tragic tradeoff of advanced short-term health followed by constant pain in your final decades of life. If it’s false, and you allowed this fib to prevent you from running, then you may have been hoodwinked out of many years of magnificent, health-boosting workouts by a misinterpretation of the facts.

So what is the truth here? Is running honestly bad for your knees, or is it a cardiovascular activity you should indulge in fearlessly, and without any concerns about paying a toll for it later in life?

What your knees experience during a run

During runs of any length, but particularly during long training runs, your knees absorb the cumulative effects of potentially thousands of foot strikes against the ground, treadmill, or whatever training surface you happen to be running on.

When your knee is narrowly defined as your literal kneecap-region apart from any of the supporting muscles and tissues nearby, then it can be said that your knee absorbs the impact of running within its tibiofemoral and patellofemoral joints. 

While it’s true that much of the impact of running is absorbed within your patellofemoral joint in particular, a considerable amount of the impact is distributed throughout your quadriceps muscles, and also through your calves, glutes, and hamstrings. This being the case, your knees are better shielded from the full force of the impact during runs than most people realize.

Why people think running is bad for your knees

Most people misunderstand the structure of the knee. Specifically, many runners — including experienced runners who have been active for many years — operate under the belief that cartilage is an unresponsive tissue that deteriorates with each use. 

In essence, it is a common belief that tiny fragments of cartilage are worn away by each training run, and that all runners’ knees will ultimately reach a day when they have been weakened beyond repair. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Several studies have concluded that running actually reduces knee pain in a number of ways. This includes minimizing the inflammation around the knee, increasing the knee cartilage volume of habitual runners, and ultimately reducing the likelihood of osteoarthritis in your knees. In actual fact, running is one of the best activities you can participate in if you want to extend the viability of your knees in general, and your body overall.

What actually causes knee pain

Just because running is beneficial to the health of your knees under ordinary circumstances doesn’t mean the act of running can’t cause your knees to experience pain. It remains factually true that running can cause significant knee pain, although that pain usually only occurs when one or more mistakes occur that cause your running to stretch outside the bounds of ordinary moderated training.

Specifically, when people quickly move from little to lots of running and launch into high-mileage runs, they often experience a host of problems caused by a dramatic escalation of running mileage before their bodies have had an opportunity to make any adaptations or adjustments to accommodate it. This most often takes the form of Runner’s Knee, which is usually caused by repeated impacts on the knee in combination with weaknesses in the supportive muscles. 

How to avoid knee pain from running

As much as you may want to join the ranks of marathon runners within a single week of dedicated training, please keep in mind that novice runners are often advised to take up to an entire year to condition their bodies to absorb the rigors of running. In other words, you truly can’t expect to fast-track your pursuit of a marathoner’s body without expecting your body to pay a hefty price. 

More often than not, your knees will be the first part of your body to tell you that you’re overdoing it. To prevent this, you are advised to increase your running mileage very gradually to allow your muscles and cartilage to adapt to the thousands of impacts they’re being subjected to.

Second, you don’t want to neglect nutrition during this endurance-building process. Although most emphasis will be rightfully placed on hydration drinks and other solutions containing electrolytes, which can improve the signaling of your muscles and extend your runs, don’t neglect the needs of your joints. To keep your knees healthy, collagen peptides are a proven way to preserve the structural integrity of your knees and repair them after hard bouts of training. 

Pain-free running is a priority

As is often the case, the details of how you go about running play a major role in whether or not you will eventually feel pain in your knee, either temporarily, or chronically. Above all else, please remember that there is a slow and steady path to building your conditioning for running, and this includes a strategic approach to both training and nutrition that takes the health of your knees into account.

Summary

1. Knee pain is often cited as an inevitable consequence of frequent running.

2. The common source of lower-body discomfort during running is the impact of your feet upon the ground being absorbed throughout your body, including your knees.

3. Cartilage is a living tissue that responds to running by gradually growing larger and stronger; it does not erode the way many people think it does.

4. The muscles of your legs also become stronger in specific ways that make them more effective at absorbing the impact of running.

5. Most of the knee pain caused by running is a consequence of dramatic increases in running volume before your cartilage and muscles can adapt to it.

6. To avoid knee pain, gradually increase your training volume, and consider supplementing with collagen peptides — a protein source that specifically strengthens joints.