Turns out I’m not the only quack out there who says that you can/should keep running even if it hurts! (Thanks to Elizabeth for noticing the article.)
As I said before: if something hurts and running on it is either too painful to do OR seems to be making it worse, then don’t do it; otherwise, get your butt out there.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
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14 comments:
This is timely. The doc says I've got inflamed cartilage between my ribs which is making my left breast a bit painful and uncomfortable. No idea how I did it. Was going to rest but went to my exercise class as usual because I'd go bananas otherwise (it's an active yoga-type thing). Tomorrow I have pilates and I do a lot of walking around pushing my daughter in her buggy. I wondered whether I was doing the right thing but forgot to ask the GP about recommended activity. I'm not taking the anti-inflammatories she prescribed yet since I'm not in ghastly pain - should I be swallowing them anyway?
Thanks!
Fiona
PS Hope you're going to write about that no-longer needle phobia soon please!
Funny - I just put on my running clothes and am having a final cup of tea before I go. I keep checking in here and on Cool Running to keep my motivation up.
Thanks for the kick in the butt!
Dear Dr. Mama,
I do so miss the gratuitous insults. Please?
Thank you,
Felix.
Oddly my knee, which was hurting only when I ran, now doesn't hurt when I run, but does hurt at other odd times.
So I'm carrying on running! I'm now up to 1min walk/7mins run. Thank you DoctorMama. But there is a faint possibility I might be pregnant so perhaps you could give some advice on that...
I've found that walking hurts my back more than running, so guess what I do???
Maybe I am extreme... but I went running the day after I tore my rotator cuff and cracked my collarbone - it hurt with each step, but I refused to NOT run. Plus the leopard print sling was a great accessory.
I love running - with running and sensible eating I have lost 45 pounds in the past 9 months - and have an awesome health profile. Ran on small islands in Fiji, run around nasty corporate hotels when at conferences, and run when in pain and through minor injuries. Only when bed rest is ordered to I desist and then bitterly
Even with new baby (adoption so there weren't any physical constraints) and zero sleep I get my runs in... sure my mileage is down to about 15 miles a week, but... I get my sleep deprive ass out there at least three times a week. I cannot wait until the mite has the stamina for long runs in the stroller.
I can't swim instead? Really? I want to swiiiimmmmmmm.....
Running definitely makes my already-reconstructed knee worse and my DDDs markedly unhappy. Walking I can do, but I really love swimming. Sadly, exercise expert-type folks don't love the swimming so much. Ah, well.
Doctor Mama, I have been meaning to ask you about my running! I started your regimen early this fall and stuck with it for about two months. I enjoyed it, but I had increasing strangeness in my knees the more I kept at it. It wasn't a sharp pain, just a weird stiffness and acheyness. It got to the point where it was persisting all the time, not just during my runs. My knees felt so strained, I couldn't get comfortable at my desk during the day anymore, and it seemed like it was getting worse and worse.
Once I quit running, it took over a month for my knees to feel normal again. I have never had any trouble with my knees before this (I'm 25). What do you think could be causing this? Am I running with bad form? Are there stretches I should be doing? I would love to be able to run without knee pain. I hope you can help.
Right on. I can't stand the whole 'rest and take it easy advice.'
I like this advice. Although--I have a knee injury and the comments above give me pause. Still, the idea of getting to work out when I am injured makes me happy since I partly fear injury because it might make me unable to work out!
amy (and maybe ozma)-chances are very good that you've got patellofemoral syndrome, a disorder almost exclusively of young, wimpy women. The good news is that this almost never progresses; the bad news is that it's pretty annoying. The best treatment is quadriceps strengthening, however you achieve that; a decent handout on the syndrome is here.
marsha, of course you can swim! Most runners just can't get the same feeling from swimming that they do from running, but it's still great exercise. I hate it because it's cold and wet and I can't see well without glasses or contacts, but I salute those who do it.
Stair climber, you are hardcore.
Felix, you are a maggot.
Yeah! I think that is the right diagnosis!!! It is a bizarre thing that gets better and worse for no reason and your knee feels like it is off track and then on track and then off track again. I did hurt my knee badly while hiking a few years back (while trying to jump over a puddle like a dope). I thought it was a recurrence but that webpage sounded completely correct.
Hooray. That just makes me happy to know it won't get worse and I can make it better with exercise. It is kind of interesting because it makes me think of the psychology of illness and injury--for one thing, there is this kind of unconscious belief that everything must be progressive. Or maybe that's just me because I am the world's most dedicated pessimist.
Dang. Now I wish I could see you about the mysterious pains in my lower abdomen.
Amen, sister.
A few years ago, when I was 38, my orthopedist (a famous sports medicine doctor in Seattle and often named as the best ortho in town) absolutely forbade me to continue running. He told me I had arthritis in my hips and sternly lectured me that the only hope for me was to preserve what mobility I had left. He went on and on about how running was the very worst thing in the world for me. He spent a good five minutes putting the fear into me.
(Other doctors have told me I have other things wrong with my hips, too, but the X rays confirm the degenerative arthritis and I tend to think that's what's causing all my pain.)
But of course I really missed running, I missed it badly, my whole life is worse without it.
So when I read your blog entry about how you can run even with joint pain, I decided to start running again.
Amazingly, I don't have any pain during my runs, though of course the hip pain can be excruciating at other times and even sometimes nearly unbearable.
It's bizarre. It's like running is my one refuge from this pain that was supposed to get so much worse with running. Plus running improves everything else in life, so it's a win-win. -victoria
Don't know if you'll see this on such an old post, but I came here to reread these tonight. I took up running in 2007, inspired by your maggoty advice. It lasted a while and then the heat hit me like a steaming load of bricks. So I started up again last April and it went great. Ran my first 5k in June. But was felled again in late summer by heat and a brief illness. A month or two later I started having knee and lower back pain. I lived with it for months and then finally started Phys Therapy for it about 2 months ago. My (awesome) Phys Therapists say no running for now and I am very sad about it. I sent them the NYTimes article from 2007, the one you linked to. Don't know why I am writing this. I am just very frustrated. Thanks for the great inspiration Doctor Mama!
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