Debunking some running myths
Stop listening to the gym bros
Who are you being influenced by?
I’m not sure why but I’m recently seeing a trend on social media of people claiming that doing cardio (especially running) is going to do irreparable damage to your body. These kinds of comments are usually coming from either these ALPHA MALE gym bro types or people attempting to appeal to the ALPHA MALE gym bro types. The messaging seems to be coming in the form of:
Claiming running will destroy your joints
Claiming even small amounts of cardio preferentially burns muscle as energy
Claiming that ‘cardio doesn’t burn fat.’
Claiming that running is an absolute waste of time
Making some other ridiculous attention seeking claim.
The exact reason why these people are absolutely against running is not clear to me but it seems to be a combination of:
Rage bait (especially in the case of Twitter/𝕏)
Attention seeking behavior (to gain followers?)
Repeating myths they have heard and think people will agree with
General inexperience
I’m generally not the kind of person who would say that you shouldn’t listen to a person, “because they are [insert description here],” but I do think people need to consider where the information is coming from and whether it is worth paying attention to it or not.
Clearing up some myths
Does running destroy your knees?
No. It doesn’t. Dhillon et al, published a systematic review paper in 2023 titled, Effects of Running on the Development of Knee Osteoarthritis: An Updated Systematic Review at Short-Term Follow-up [1]. The conclusion was that, “In the short term, running is not associated with worsening PROs [patient reported outcomes] or radiological signs of knee OA and may be protective against generalized knee pain.” Also, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published an infographic which referred to the claim that ‘recreational running causes knee osteoarthritis’ as a ‘running myth’ [2, 3]. And although it may be true that people who are elite or competitive runners may have an increased risk of osteoarthritis compared to non-runners, the people who engage in recreational running still have a lower incidence of hip and knee osteoarthritis [4].
Does cardio preferentially burn muscle for energy?
No. It doesn’t. During PROLONGED endurance exercise your body might get some of it’s energy by breaking down muscle but it is generally less than 10% and something that happens to untrained individuals [5]. If you are running ultramarathons on a regular basis this is probably something to be concerned about, but not the average person who is thinking about running 5Ks to support their training.
In fact, a study was published in the British Medical Journal stating that adults who engage with both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities greatly reduce greatly reduced risk of all cause and cause specific mortality [6]. Meaning, those who do hybrid training have better long term health outcomes than people who only do cardio or only lift weights.
Does cardio burn fat?
Of course cardio burns fat. What kind of claim is that? It’s thermodynamics. But if you want a study, a systematic review and meta analysis titled, “Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss in Adults: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis,” looked at 116 randomized controlled trials and concluded that even doing as little as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a week reduces body weight, waist circumference, and body fat measures in overweight/obese adults [7].
Is running a waste of time?
No. It really isn’t.
“I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.”
―Ronald Rook
My only regret about running is that I didn’t start earlier.
Final thoughts and take home messages
There are some people out there that are spreading misinformation about cardio. They have different reasons for doing this (none of them seem to be good reasons), and rather than dealing with them over and over again I thought I would write this article to give people a bit of information to combat some of these myths.
If you choose to run that’s great. If you choose not to run, that’s also fine. But if you choose not to run, I hope the reason you aren’t running is not solely because some gym bro convinced you not to do so using debunked myths.
Thank you for your attention.
References:
[1] Dhillon J, Kraeutler MJ, Belk JW, Scillia AJ, McCarty EC, Ansah-Twum JK, McCulloch PC. Effects of Running on the Development of Knee Osteoarthritis: An Updated Systematic Review at Short-Term Follow-up. Orthop J Sports Med. 2023 Mar 1;11(3):23259671231152900. doi: 10.1177/23259671231152900. PMID: 36875337; PMCID: PMC9983113.
[2] Alexander JLN, Willy RW, Culvenor AG, Barton CJ. Infographic. Running Myth: recreational running causes knee osteoarthritis. Br J Sports Med. 2022 Mar;56(6):357-358. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2021-104342. Epub 2021 Nov 24. PMID: 34819274.
[3] Full text link to #2.
[4] Alentorn-Geli E, Samuelsson K, Musahl V, Green CL, Bhandari M, Karlsson J. The Association of Recreational and Competitive Running With Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2017 Jun;47(6):373-390. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2017.7137. Epub 2017 May 13. PMID: 28504066.
[5] Alghannam, A.F.; Ghaith, M.M.; Alhussain, M.H. Regulation of Energy Substrate Metabolism in Endurance Exercise. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 4963. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094963
[6] Zhao M, Veeranki SP, Magnussen CG, Xi B. Recommended physical activity and all cause and cause specific mortality in US adults: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2020 Jul 1;370:m2031. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2031. PMID: 32611588; PMCID: PMC7328465.
[7] Jayedi A, Soltani S, Emadi A, Zargar MS, Najafi A. Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss in Adults: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 2;7(12):e2452185. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.52185. PMID: 39724371; PMCID: PMC11672165.
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