Never before have streets and parks been full of runners. But is it really a sport for everyone? In addition to the heart, which must always be monitored, muscles, tendons and bones must be kept an eye on. To avoid getting hurt…
There are those who run before dawn, those who put on their shoes during lunch break or at night, and those who even on holiday – perhaps on the other side of the world – do not give up their daily 10 kilometres. Running has never been so fashionable. The next London Marathon shattered every record with almost 1 million and 400 thousand registration requests: so many that the organizers are considering spreading it over two days. And while the Kenyan Sebastian Sawe makes history by breaking down the two-hour barrier over 42 kilometres, and apps and smartwatches proliferate that encourage us to run faster and faster, millions of amateurs chase their own personal goal: to lose weight, challenge themselves or just keep up with a global trend.
But are we really made to run? And above all: who controls the “engine” while the foot accelerates? Because by training incorrectly, or by exaggerating with kilometres, we risk our body not being able to keep up with the pace of enthusiasm: the danger is that of transforming an investment in well-being into a shortcut to the hospital. «The human organism is extraordinary, because it has a great ability to adapt, which we call resilience» he tells Panorama Federico Chiodinidirector of the Orthopedics and Traumatology department ofASST Pope John XXIII of Bergamo. «The heart and lungs improve rapidly as training progresses. But joints, tendons and bones follow much slower times. Therefore, it often happens that a sedentary person, perhaps forty-year-old, in the space of a few weeks is able to go from sitting on the sofa to running 7 or 8 kilometers a day, and suddenly feels strong and trained. In reality the cardiovascular system has started to adapt, but the rest of the body is not yet ready. And this is where tendinitis, plantar fasciitis and a thousand knee problems come in. In more severe cases, actual stress fractures can appear.”
When the enthusiasm of the marathon becomes a danger for the body
The central point is that running means repeating the same gesture countless times: 10 kilometers of running are equivalent to thousands of consecutive impacts. If the body is not prepared, that physiological gesture becomes harmful. Typically, those who start running also do so because they want to lose extra pounds without having to undergo drastic diets, and the choice of running makes sense because it is among the sports with the highest energy consumption: but there is another hidden pitfall. «Running with many excess kilos means subjecting joints and tendons to an enormous load» he continues Nailswho does both marathons and triathlons. «If a person is overweight and starts running to lose weight, he risks entering a counterproductive cycle: he gets hurt before even obtaining real benefits. In these cases, therefore, I always recommend starting with lower impact activities, such as swimming or cycling, and introducing running only gradually, after having lost several kilos.”
Then there is a very strong psychological aspect, often underestimated. Running is a highly endorphinic sport: after intense training you experience a real feeling of well-being, a form of euphoria. This can turn into addiction, because many people end up using it as an emotional regulator, an outlet for stress, anxiety or personal difficulties. «Those who run often get used not only to fatigue but also to physical suffering: they feel pain but continue, because they now consider suffering normal. There is also the dimension of personal challenge, especially in endurance sports: many men between 40 and 50 experience these tests as a continuous demonstration to themselves that they can always go further. It’s a very powerful push, but the risk is ignoring the body’s limits and paying a very high price” he concludes Nails.
The nutritional mistakes of amateur runners
End of a myth: overweight and obesity cannot be fought with running, because the risk-benefit ratio is unbalanced towards the former, and even for those of normal weight there are many physical obstacles. If it is true that running has very concrete advantages, including being able to do it whenever you want, without subscriptions and costs, not all that glitters is gold: even from a nutritional point of view. «One of the mistakes runners make is thinking that it is enough to train more by eating less» says the nutritionist Giorgia Attioli. «In reality, many people underestimate how much running increases energy needs and introduce too few calories compared to actual consumption. They run on an empty stomach without a real need or skip meals thinking they are helping to lose weight, but this approach can lead to tiredness, drops in performance and the risk of losing muscle mass. A menu for runners should be balanced and able to support energy and hydration.”
But the obstacles towards the finish line are not over, because the biggest risk is the one linked to the heart. It is true that the body is resilient, and in healthy individuals after a couple of months of training “it takes its breath away”, but it is also true that after a certain age the controls must be rigorous. Because in this case it’s not the knee that’s at stake, but life. «Whoever wants to start running, and is over 45 years of age, must undergo a preventive cardiological check-up» he says Giuseppe MusumeciDirector of the Cardiology department ofMauriziano Hospital of Turin. «Definitely an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram. The visit serves to understand if there are symptoms such as breathlessness, pain from exertion or palpitations; if the cardiologist has any suspicions, he can also request an exercise test.” Before tying your shoes, therefore, your heart must be listened to. «The tests also serve to exclude problems that perhaps remain silent until they are put under stress», explains the cardiologist. «We’re talking about cardiomyopathies, rhythm disorders, arrhythmic syndromes like that of Brugada. Under normal conditions they may not cause any problems, but extreme physical effort can become the fuse that triggers a serious event.”
The heart signals that a runner should never ignore
There is no shortage of examples: even the “father” of jogging, the journalist James Fixx he died of a heart attack. And the scene of his death has also remained imprinted in pop culture Mister Bigthe protagonist of Sex and the City, killed after a session on the super-technological exercise bike Peloton which thus saw the value of the brand collapse on the stock market. But are there signs not to ignore when running? “The first is chest pain,” he warns Musumeci. «A feeling of weight in the center of the chest, which appears during effort and improves at rest, can be angina: it should never be underestimated. Then there is dyspnoea, a disproportionate breathlessness compared to the effort, loss of consciousness and, finally, palpitations, which are more difficult to interpret but deserve attention.”
The real question today is therefore to understand whether mass running is becoming a health practice or just a chase, without a minimum of limit culture. Because between smartwatches that scold us, apps that motivate us and marathons that sell out like the concerts of Oasisthe doubt is legitimate: are we really listening to our body or are we just trying to beat yet another record, even that of resistance to reason? In the end, rather than running towards well-being, we risk getting there out of breath, with broken knees and a pounding heart, with a pending question: “But who made me do it?”. Maybe just our huge and careless ego.
