Joint-friendly exercise
Blog #02 Joint-friendly Training
If you google "joint-friendly," you get over 230,000 entries! This might give the impression that joints need to be protected. Recently, I even saw an article by a medical professional in a brochure from a local hospital. He dared to compare joints to car tires: both would wear out with a lot of use.
I would like to propose the following: From now on, we will teach our children in a "brain-friendly" way at school. For example, by repeating the same task over and over, the child already knows the solution, doesn't have to think, and the brain is spared. This might keep the brain fresh in old age and efficiently eliminate Alzheimer's.
What do you think? Probably: He's crazy!
But we seem to behave this way with our joints. Whenever possible, we try to protect our joints. We choose "joint-friendly" sports, we cushion our shoes, we use poles for walking and call it "Nordic Walking," we walk in water and call it "Aqua Jogging." We swim and think it's healthy. We walk less and less, our children are driven to school or take the bus, the postman uses a Segway, at the airport there are moving walkways so we have to walk as little as possible. In the gym, there are treadmills that absorb impact. Conclusion: We are collectively crazy!
In my opinion, this "sparing" started in the 70s of the last century. At that time, for jogging, only the Adidas Rom, a simple shoe without special features, was common here.
In American orthopedic clinics, doctors and therapists had introduced aqua jogging. This made it possible for injured and newly operated athletes, mainly runners, to continue training their athletic movements and to relieve the injured, not yet weight-bearing structures. A very sensible innovation that largely eliminated the need for a training break.
At the same time, more cushioned jogging shoes, such as the "Nike Air," appeared on the market. Suddenly, cushioning and impact load were discussed, and it seemed sensible to dampen the impact when jogging.
Thus, the idea slowly developed that joints need to be protected.
Aqua jogging developed from therapeutic jogging in water: it is very useful for injured athletes and people with problems such as severe obesity or already damaged joints. It is also a wonderful alternative for people with impaired continence.
However, walking in water is not recommended for healthy and young people. Sport and training serve a purpose. We also move to feel good and activate our cardiovascular system. For these requirements, aqua jogging or swimming is very suitable. And if it's hot outside, it might even provide pleasant cooling.
However, sport and exercise have a much more important function. These activities are meant to keep us fit and healthy over time and protect us from physical complaints as much as possible. Children have physical education classes. They walk to school, not just as a break from mental demands. They are also meant to develop physically and enjoy movement and sport. Life is unthinkable without movement and sport. It is also important that all physical functions and structures are stressed, trained, and thus strengthened as much as possible.
The training should be designed accordingly. And this is remarkably simple: we just have to use gravity, meaning standing on our feet and legs, with the spine straight. You've probably already guessed it, we should walk and run more, possibly in combination with other physical movements and demands, such as tennis, hiking, soccer, handball, or jogging.
The load must be taken into account! The relevant science shows us that during training, tissue is stressed, leaving slight traces/damage, so that it can then be repaired and be better than before in a short time! When it is maximally better, the next training should take place. The traces/damage must be moderate and not traumatic. Recovery/repair, including supercompensation, should be completed in a short time.
The intensity of the load for joints, cartilage, and spine must be well chosen. If a so-called untrained "desk jockey" suddenly runs down a mountain one day, his cartilage and joints will certainly be overloaded. Such an "exercise" leads to more than just slight signs of stress: swollen joints and other injuries are likely. The training load must be carefully built up. A slow increase in load is necessary so that it leaves slight traces/damage, which can be restored and supercompensated quickly and without complications.
Ideally, there would be no untrained "desk jockeys" at all, if we, as children, were exposed to healthy stimuli and stresses and then, as adults, moved and trained for as long as possible. The number of artificial joints in old age would drastically decrease. Unfortunately, we have more and more children, adolescents, and adults who move less and less. This also leads to our body weight increasing by an average of 1.5 kilos every 10 years.
Less movement means more joint sparing and thus poorer bones and joints, poorer posture and health, and more "wear and tear." High time for many to correct this.
© Jan Swager van Dok 2023