Abstract Objective: To investigate whether the proportion of running-related knee injuries differed in normal-weight, overweight, and obese runners.
Design: Comparative study.
Methods: Data from 4 independent prospective studies were merged (2612 participants). The proportion of running-related knee injuries out of the total number of running-related injuries was calculated for normal-weight, overweight, and obese runners, respectively. The measure of association was absolute difference in proportion of running-related knee injuries with normal-weight runners as the reference group.
Results: A total of 571 runners sustained a running-related injury (181 running-related knee injuries and 390 running-related injuries in other anatomical locations). The proportion of running-related knee injuries was 13% lower (95% confidence interval: -22%, -5%; P = .001) among overweight runners compared with normal-weight runners. Similarly, the proportion of running-related knee injuries was 12% lower (95% confidence interval: -23%, -1%; P = .042) among obese runners compared with normal-weight runners.
Conclusion: Overweight and obese runners had a lower proportion of running-related knee injuries than normal-weight runners. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2020;50(7):397-401. doi:10.2519/jospt.2020.9233.
From the Key Points:
CAUTION: The results from the present descriptive study are unable to justify a causal relationship between body mass index and injury location distributions. Therefore, it remains open to speculation why different runners are more likely to sustain an injury in certain parts of their bodies.
I think the results of this study are great, while the title might be misunderstood to mean it is safer.
My main takeaway is that being overweight and obese were not more likely to correlated with injuries. That is great because it means that there is not a reason to discourage running based only on being overweight or obese due to a fear of injury. Even if the results are skewed for a variety of reasons such as running frequency, duration, speed, running style, the overall outcome is that running does appear to be as safe for those with higher BMI as compared to normal-weight.
Yes, that is great news - it is something that I also heartily endorse. I like the idea of people with weight issues being ready to go out and jog their hearts out…
The confusion comes from being told a large variety of things that counter this.
One of my friends is a very large, muscled male model who maintains his body quite well. He’s not a body builder, of course, but he associates with body builder types regularly in his fitness routine, and he told me that if you are over 100 kg, you should probably do cardio by walking with a steep incline as opposed to running because running at such a size is bad for their knees, and he had gotten this advice from a body builder.
I am totally open to the idea that this is suspect advice, but I guess I am just not sure where to stand on this…
If you have any more information on this, it would be most welcome.
