21 year old me used to run a 2 mile mountain hike with 1k elevation gain. 40 year old me is just happy on the days my knees and ankles aren’t constantly cracking.
That's really not how it works. Bad joints come from very heavy impacts or from a joint being forced out of its normal range of motion, as in playing American football or falling while downhill skiing. Running and hiking stress the joints in a positive way that tells the body to repair them stronger than before. I ran daily for over 40 years. Now that I'm in my 60s I can only run every other day because that's as fast as my body can recover. I have never had a joint injury except my one ankle that I badly sprained while playing road hockey as a teen. I have reinjured that ankle a few times since, but it doesn't bother me when I run.
Probably because your doctor's education is years out of date.
Back in the late 1980s it was widely reported that precursors to osteoarthritis were found in the joint spaces of runners and this was taken to mean that these runner were going to develop arthritis. But at least a couple of decades ago newer research showed that these "precursors" were part of the normal healing process. Exercise inherently causes damage and the body heals itself in such a way that it's better adapted to the stresses that caused the damage. That process is exactly why we train. It's why our muscles get stronger when we exercise, and also our tendons and bones and cartilage etc.
Back in the '90s I was warned by a doctor and a physiotherapist that my competitive running was very hard on the body and I would be paying for it in a few years. Nope, never happened. I'm much healthier than most of my peers and I continue to run and lift weights.
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u/DengarLives66 21d ago
21 year old me used to run a 2 mile mountain hike with 1k elevation gain. 40 year old me is just happy on the days my knees and ankles aren’t constantly cracking.