Running around campus and at the Rec Center is a popular method of exercise for students at the University, but women who run on a regular basis need to be more cautious about possible negative effects.
Kathryn Saichuk, Wellness Center coordinator, said women’s hips, knees and ankles are at risk of injury after they reach “child bearing” age because of a shift in the pelvic muscle.
“The skeleton does a rotation and when that happens, the [female] body is not in perfect alignment,” Saichuk said. “When we’re younger, our hips and knees are in line with each other, and men typically stay that way.”
She said running causes a constant pounding on the joints in a runner’s body, and as women develop, the shift in the bones’ positions causes irregular friction on cartilage.
“The cartilage that we develop originally is really tough and it takes a lot to wear that down,” Saichuk said. “But if there is previous injury or certain hereditary traits, the cartilage can get damaged and the re-grown cartilage is not as tough. That repetition when you’re running or jogging will wear that down.”
Saichuk knows from personal experience that running on bad joints can lead to the deterioration of bone joints.
After playing sports in high school and college, and running every day after college, Saichuk said she had to have knee replacement surgery in both knees because of brittle knee cartilage that runs in her family.
She said if women run often and do not have pain, they should not worry, but they should be cautious as soon as there is a noticeable problem.
“It depends on how abusive you are to those joints,” Saichuk said. “If you’ve had injuries, it may be five or six years until the cartilage [in the knee] wears completely down and all that’s left is bone on bone.”
She said there are factors that contribute to injuries such as running surface and terrain. She said softer surfaces, such as floating wood floors or asphalt, are easier on the body, and concrete is the worst surface to run on.
She said walking rather than running or jogging also is better on joints because there is less pressure.
“When you’re running there is a point when both feet are off the ground, so when you come down from that, the pressure is too hard,” Saichuk said.
According to “Exercise Physiology,” running exerts three times someone’s body mass on bone joints, while walking exerts about 30 percent.
She said having the right running shoe also is important in determining how joints handle the pressure of running and jogging.
“Just because everyone wears Nike doesn’t mean Nike is the right shoe for you,” she said.
Jane Swift, owner of Varsity Sports, said her store specializes in fitting customers with the right kind of shoe because it could mean the difference between getting injured or not.
“People are so different biomechanically and everyone moves in different ways,” Swift said. “There have been major advances in shoe technology and the way shoes are made. We’ll watch someone walk around and do some tests on them to see how they move and then fit them by that.”
Emily Schlumbrecht, a fitness graduate assistant and certified personal trainer at the Rec, said injuries could happen, but college-aged women should not worry about hurting themselves if they run often.
“It depends on what age you start running,” Schlumbrecht said. “The earlier you start, the more likely you are to develop problems because bones and joints are not fully developed and can’t handle the stress.”
She said people should only run three or four times a week because muscles need 24 to 48 hours of rest.
“When you work muscles, you create micro-tears which build muscle,” she said. “There is also a difference in whether you run a mile or run five miles. Muscles will need less time to heal if you only run one mile.”
Schlumbrecht said people may see joint problems in the future if they run six or seven times a week. She said women in particular could develop patella femoral syndrome, a dislocated knee cap.
“Women’s hips are wider than men’s and their knee cap can get out of its groove and favor one side or the other,” she said.
She said with every negative effect of running there are even more positive effects. She said running is beneficial for females in preventing osteoporosis, building bone mass and bone density, and building endurance.