Learn why running may actually be good for your knees; how to stretch the right way so you’re less likely to hurt yourself; and some things gym class got wrong when you were a kid. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Running May Actually Be Good for Your Knees 3 Things Gym Class Got Wrong Plus, learn more about fitness from Get-Fit Guy of Quick and Dirty Tips. Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn why running may actually be good for your knees; how to stretch the right way so you’re less likely to hurt yourself; and some things gym class got wrong when you were a kid.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/exercise-extravaganza-how-to-stretch-running-to-help-your-knees-and-gym-class-myths
CODY GOUGH: Happy New Year. To help you with your New Year's resolution to get in better shape, we've got three of our top exercise-related stories from curiosity to help you get fit. And we'll get through them in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn why running may actually be good for your knees, how to stretch the right way so you're less likely to hurt yourself, and some things gym class got wrong when you were a kid.
CODY GOUGH: These stories might sound familiar, but we'll be back tomorrow with brand new stories. For now, let's exercise some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: You've probably heard that running is bad for your knees. But a growing body of research suggests that running might not only be fine for your knees, it might actually improve your knee health.
CODY GOUGH: Do you think you have healthy knees then?
ASHLEY HAMER: I have super healthy knees. This is my biggest pet peeve, my response to this is always to change the subject so people never know how I actually feel. But whenever someone tells me, oh, I used to run but then it was just terrible for my knees so I stopped, I want to--
CODY GOUGH: You just can't handle it.
ASHLEY HAMER: I can't handle it.
CODY GOUGH: Why don't you educate them? I'm a very well actually kind of person and I try to stop from doing that in social situations, because people don't really appreciate it.
CODY GOUGH: That's tricky to be a science educator, but then also want to have friends.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's the trick.
CODY GOUGH: OK, that's fair. That's fair. Thank goodness we've got this podcast for an outlet.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, really. It helps a lot. Well, for a study published in 2016 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers had male and female runners either run on a treadmill for 30 minutes or spend the same amount of time sitting quietly. Each participant then did the opposite activity the next day. Before and after each session, the researchers drew blood from an arm and synovial fluid from a knee. That's the substance that lubricates your joints.
Then they analyzed it from a bunch of angles like looking at cells associated with knee inflammation and a substance called cartilage oligomeric matrix protein or COMP, which is often used as a marker of arthritis. And the results were pretty dramatic. After running, the participants knees had lower levels of cells linked to inflammation and the COMP levels in their knees had also dropped.
The study's author concluded that moderate runs are, quote, "not likely to harm healthy knees and probably offer protection," unquote. And this is just recent research. As far back as the 1980s, studies were showing that running wasn't associated with knee arthritis or other types of degenerative joint disease. But hang on, your knees hurt when you run, right? Especially if you're a new runner. Well, that pain rarely comes from a breakdown of your joints. A lot of the time it's because you're running too much mileage too soon or even just the fact that you're using old shoes.
Of course, if you've got a nagging pain that doesn't go away, then please see a doctor. This podcast is not intended to be medical advice. But at the same time, don't let the fear of knee damage scare you away from running. It might actually keep your knees healthy. There are links to supplementary exercises you can do to help stop knee pain in our write-up today on curiosity.com and on the curiosity app for Android and iOS.
CODY GOUGH: Our friends at Quick and Dirty Tips have a whole podcast called Get-Fit Guy that gives you the fitness tools to rise above your former self and Get-Fit Guy himself has some really cool tips for you to stay safe with a little science of stretching. Here's Get-Fit Guy Brock Armstrong with more.
BROCK ARMSTRONG: Hey, thanks guys. I'm happy to be here on your podcast to tell you and your listeners about a few problems with a thing called static stretching before a workout. Back when I was in grade school, wearing my split shorts and my knee-high sports socks and participating in the mandatory track events, well, stretching was a ritual that we all performed before the main event. Back then, we were all programmed to believe that we absolutely had to stretch our muscles before exerting them if we wanted to avoid things like the dreaded groin pole.
Well, times have changed, and luckily, so of gym uniforms. These days, there are many sports science studies that caution us away from static stretching before workouts. And according to the research, not only does our performance suffer with things like less speed and less strength and less power, but it also doesn't even protect us against injury, not even the dreaded groin pull.
Now, the problem is that static stretching is just not a good way to warm up your body. Now, what is a good warm? Well, a warmup is exactly what it sounds like. It's a routine that warms up your body, literally and figuratively. A warmup should activate a thing called the synovial fluid or the lubricant in your joints. It should raise your heart rate and raise your body temperature as well. And this prepares your body for the workout both physically and mentally.
Now, why doesn't static stretching work? Well, muscles are made up of bundles and bundles of tiny fibers. Now, the theory was that stretch before engaging in exercise would make these muscle fibers more pliable and therefore, less likely to get torn or strained. But in studies, they have compared the rates of injury and even muscle soreness among people who stretched before exercise and those who didn't. And researchers found little benefit, if any, in stretching. In fact, they found that stretch a cold and tight muscle that has not already been thoroughly warmed up could actually increase the likelihood of injury.
So if you hear someone at the gym saying that they're stretching so they don't get injured, you should let them know that the scientific evidence has shown that static stretching doesn't reduce your risk of injury. And sadly, stretching before or after exercise does not even protect you from muscle soreness. In fact, one of the most popular studies on this topic actually concluded, and I quote, "static stretching should be avoided before a short endurance bout."
Now, what this all comes down to is the fact that if you make your muscles loose and your tendons too stretchy before you ask them to perform, well, these soft tissues are less able to produce the quick and powerful responses that you desire. This means that if you're about to lift weights or run very fast or in fact, do anything that requires power and explosiveness, well, doing static style stretching is going to limit your performance to a certain extent
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks for the info, Get-Fit Guy. You can find a link to get fit guy in today's show notes or visit quickanddirtytips.com to find lots of great podcasts, including Get-Fit Guy, Everyday Einstein, Grammar Girl, and more.
Did anyone actually have fun in gym class when they were growing up? I know I didn't. And it's not just that you didn't have fun, you also may have been misled on some of the science. Today, we're going to talk about three things gym class got wrong, just a little remedial education.
CODY GOUGH: I just hated that day when they had everybody do pull-ups. Right? And like two kids in the class could do it. And for everybody else, it's like why are we even here.
ASHLEY HAMER: I was just talking about this with one of our coworkers. And he was saying that if the girls just tried to do a pull-up, they were good, they got an A. But the boys had to do like 10, which seems unfair.
CODY GOUGH: I would have gotten many F's because I couldn't do a pull-up ever. I could do my first chin-up when I was like 24 maybe.
ASHLEY HAMER: Nice.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Took a long time to get there.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, me, too. Well, the first thing gym class got wrong was sit-ups. Remember the presidential physical fitness test? That was the day where you had to go in and do curl-ups and pull-ups, and you just like hated every moment of it? That test was originally designed to ensure young Americans were ready for the physical demands of military service. The test was in place from 1966 all the way to 2012. It changed over the years, but a long-standing part of it was doing sit-ups. That was replaced by the curl-up or crunch after many years.
But all of those exercises have proven to be a back injury risk and an inefficient way to build your abs. According to a 2005 study, 56% of soldiers who sustained injuries during the army physical fitness test did so while doing sit-ups. To build stronger core muscles, most fitness experts agree that stabilizing exercises like planks are the way to go.
The second thing gym class got wrong was static stretching. That's when you stretch a muscle and you hold it for 10 or 20 seconds. In the early 2010s, research started to show that static stretching before athletic activity actually makes you weaker and did not make you much less likely to get injured. If you're getting ready for a workout, experts recommend dynamic stretching, which keeps your muscles in motion. Think jumping jacks, straight leg kicks, and lunges, which do a better job prepping your body for a workout.
And the final gym class foul is your Body Mass Index, or BMI. BMI is a simple height to weight ratio and was and is used to tell where a person falls on the spectrum from underweight to obese. But a growing body of research is showing that BMI is a lousy indicator of health. That's because weight is made up of fat and muscle, so particularly athletic or muscular people might have overweight BMIs, while normal weight individuals with a dangerous amount of belly fat might be marked as perfectly healthy.
Research is showing that your waist to hip ratio may be a better health measure than your BMI. Measuring your body fat percentage is also useful, especially if you're tracking weight loss. So there you go. We hope all you gym teachers out there found this helpful.
CODY GOUGH: We'll be back tomorrow with three brand new stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. We hope you had a fun and safe New Year celebration. And we're really looking forward to another year of learning together with stories you've never heard before on the award-winning Curiosity Daily. Until then, I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.