Marathon running will not wear out your joints
… Professor Hart’s message for Marathon Medicine 2024
40th Marathon Medicine event on April 20
Coinciding with each London Marathon is an annual conference that focuses on the medicine and science of marathon running. This year, Exercise for Science’s Professor Alister Hart will be addressing delegates with a talk entitled “Marathon running will not wear out your joints.”
Explaining the content of his session, Professor Hart said:
“As an orthopaedic surgeon, I have seen and replaced many worn hip and knee joints. In 95% of my patients this is due to osteoarthritis. Many people, including doctors and orthopaedic surgeons, label this arthritis as “wear and tear arthritis” and blame exercise as a major cause of the worn cartilage joint surfaces.
“I think this is the wrong label and the wrong cause for osteoarthritis.
“Having started marathon running in mid-life, I had my share of aches and pains which made me want to investigate the effect of exercise on our joints. This talk takes you through my journey so far, using over 1000 MRI scans of exercisers to study the effect of exercise, including the London Marathon, on our joints.
“This exercise science work has been published in >10 medical journal papers and featured in newspapers that reach >100 million people worldwide.
“It turns out that exercise does not damage your joints - and I will explain why.
“I will discuss the value of exercise for strengthening bone (which supports the cartilage joint surfaces) and muscles (which help to evenly load the joint surfaces and avoid shear forces). I will also explain the significance of the impact force on the cartilage surfaces, which have limited capacity for repair.
“Some of the answer probably lies with the pace of training progression and, for running, the importance of a marathon training program.”