On (Not) Running
As a former athlete, and a lifelong runner, I want to explain why I no longer run for exercise. Too often people throw around the platitude that exercise is good for you. This implies that any sort of exercise under any condition will help your body. I am all in favor of movement and of stretching my body in ways that feel healthy and improve its condition. What I have learned from many years of running is that even when you know how to do it correctly, you are still likely to damage your body and to sustain injuries.
Every time your foot hits the ground, you are throwing the entire weight of your body on that one foot, which is a fragment of the size and weight of your body. You are putting an immense amount of pressure on the foot, on your knees, and on your other ligaments and muscles. If you do this every two seconds for half an hour, an hour, or more, you can imagine the kind of damage this does to your body. The problem isn't that you are doing it wrong, it's that even when you do it right you run a real risk of injury. There's a reason why professional runners retire early, and these are people who know how to run.
During the time that I was on track and field and cross country, I had to have several foot surgeries as a result of running. My toenails were pushed backwards into my toes, and I had to have the toenails on my big toes removed several times, before finally having the edges of them cauterized so they wouldn't grow again. I also have knee problems, hip problems, and other problems with my feet as a result of running. I don't think these are anomalies at all – I have heard of people developing arthritis early as a result of high impact exercise, as well as people developing all sorts of injuries. Again, if you look at professional, and even semi-professional runners, you can see how much damage the body can sustain when a person repeatedly slams their feet into the ground on a regular basis, which is the essence of running. There are so many types of exercise which can be beneficial, such as walking, dancing, swimming, stretching, and even weight lifting, that I would really recommend trying one of these and saving your body from the sort of strains and damage that are common to running.
