a nice long carrot to chase…
multiple calf strains until the knee and hip replacement…certainly better than the issues of non activity…but 2.3 million people have finished a park run in the uk…and 4.3 million people have type 2 diabetes…think how many more people might do park run if it was more accessible?
don’t turn into Sloggers, please…
Listen to the podcast I linked in the watchin’ thread 
Music teacher: on sunday i would like you to play your violin really well for an hour
Run coach: on sunday i would like you to run really badly for an hour
No one ever got injured playing the violin…
U15 don’t even do 400, it’s 300 still at that age, I’m guessing to keep the physiological demands similar to a 400.
1500m is the longest track running event (3km walk is longest distance though)
Less than the injury risk in novices.
But there’s a lot of potential questions why. Maybe injury prone people don’t train consistently enough to get better. Or get frustrated and quit. Or self-select into other sports.
Maybe tissues become more adapted to cope.
Maybe technique changes to become less injury prone (+/- more economical or faster. Not necessarily the same things)
I’m like to see any decent study show a proper injury prevention intervention in runners, compared to good evidence in team sports (eg the FIFA 11+), unless anyone here knows one?
Calf strains perhaps, but I’d expect lower knee and hip replacements in the parkrun group. We know OA isn’t “wear-and-tear”. It’s an inflammatory condition linked to inactivity and body fat %, with runners less likely to develop it, and people with OA who continue (or start) to run less likely to need replacement.
*And before I’m misinterpreted no I’m not saying everyone with OA should go run 5k. I agree with lots you’ve said about needing to build strength first, then walk, then short distances etc.
Repeated research studies at injury prevention have shown they fail in the real world because people don’t actually do the intervention. Typically <30% compliance to relatively low-stress interventions among competitive athletes - so yes it’s going to be far lower amongst the get out the door to enjoy parkrun groups.
Really? That’s interesting. Intuitively I’d have expected the risk of injury to be related to total training load. And those 2h10 boys presumably all train massively.
found this suggesting 75% of elite marathoners reported msk pain in the last 12 months:
have no idea what the injury rate in novices mind
I’m totally with @gingerbongo about parkrun being a force for good btw. Know so many people it has helped move from sedentary to active. Although he did slip a carrot metaphor under the radar…
Free 400m training plan.
So little training…. 
I’m sure it would work with a little extra, say 8hrs bike and swim and 2x 30min heavy weight training, right? 
C’mon, we’ve got to slow him down somehow 
But it’s wear and tear that can lead to OA. i agree that ‘runners’ are less likely to have knee and hip replacement…but we now see many non runners doing park run who come from the inactive group…
i’ve not seen a good one…part of the problem with running research is the lack of understanding that interventions (usually) need to be coached to be effective…this is why so many of the ‘barefoot’ fads failed…not because the interventions were ill considered, but that the participants were not adapted to the changes…
These two points of view (quite obviously) appear at complete odds with one another. Which position is correct would seem pretty crucial to the way the thread has gone
read them both together…
Knee osteoarthritis in professional football is related to severe knee injury and knee surgery - PMC.
Retired professional footballers unlikely to win “best kept knee” competition. It’s the episodes of significant knee injuries and knee operations that seem linked with developing OA, each one approx doubling the risk. Rather than a sort of gradual wearing out through running around. That’s my understanding anyway, expect @Chriswim is more up to date.
Isn’t it also the lateral movement not dissimilar to breatstroke and most other team and racket sports that also contributes to this?
I’m genuinely at a loss on this one. There’s obviously some medical element which explains what you mean, but reading both statements literally, they seem at total odds with one another.
Can you just explain the bit I’m missing in this instance?
Edit - OK, rereading on a really granular level, are you saying that wear and tear can lead to the inactivity that Chris then says directly causes the OA? If so, what is it about the wear and tear that then leads to the inactivity? If not conditions like OA?
Think I can see what ejc is getting at. The condition osteoarthritis is possibly/probably not caused by normal movements causing wear and tear by themselves. As a parallel, you don’t wear your lungs out by breathing more.
But when there is a damaged joint, perhaps one where the cartilage has been torn or damaged by surgery, or where a fracture has resulted in some weird step, then OA can follow. And actually, the right sort of exercise can help prevent it or at least help manage it.
Is that it?
Which aligns with what I understood previously.
In which case, I don’t get Chris’s comment. It’s worded in such a way as (to me at least) seek to dispel that “misconception”. He clearly says it’s linked to inactivity. Inherently inactive people would generally not be undertaking the sorts of activity that could lead to that sort of wear and tear as a precursor.
If that is what is meant (and I’m not sure it is, as Chris normally speaks very clearly), then it’s a very misleading statement. I would take Chris’s comment to mean that a hypothetical person who never used their joints at all for some reason would still be at risk of OA solely due to that inactivity and likely therefore having a high body fat %.
Yes I’d value a bit of clarification of that too. Think I’m right to say @chrisswim has been studying this recently. In my unscientific experience, one of the main risk factors for OA seems to be getting old.
I am no expert and in this sense not a clinician…
however OA is an inflammatory condition…wear and tear can contribute to this inflammatory condition, but it is neither the prime cause (currently) nor does it necessarily lead to OA
Looks like a bunch of factors affect likelihood, but no clear causal route yet.
So no clarity available.