Comments on: Heavier Runners Less Likely to Get Injured?: Marathon Study Shows that Higher BMI Is Not Linked to Increased Risk of Lower Extremity Injury

By: Ben Kepka

Ben Kepka — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 18:01:43 +0000

As far as injuries go, I have only noticed that the tighter my muscles are, the more injuries I have. Whether your heavy or not, making sure your muscles aren’t too tight is key!

By: Elite Chiropractic – ‘Run’ Away From Your Knee Pain

Elite Chiropractic – ‘Run’ Away From Your Knee Pain — Tue, 05 May 2015 06:46:28 +0000

[…] studies begin to reveal the bigger picture. One early conclusion is that runners typically have lower BMI, which reduces stress to the joints. As for other reasons, I have listed below some possible […]

By: guest9

guest9 — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maybe it is easier for lighter runners to mentally push their muscles and tendons to the limits since their cardio system is less stressed? I'm thinking that heavier runners might have a better feel for the fatigue and slow down appropriately much sooner.

By: Samuel Hartpence

Samuel Hartpence — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I often wonder why you even post about studies that are so poorly controlled you can’t draw a conclusion about the results. BMI does not protect runners from injuries. Low training volumes/intensities (which is also correlated to BMI) is much more likely to contribute injuries. The other thing that has recently been brought to my attention is the ratio of intensity to volume that is used among age-groupers and elites. Elite runners pretty much stick to the 80/20 rule with only 20% of their mileage being intervals and threshold work, while age-groupers run closer to 50% of their mileage at those higher intensities.

http://running.competitor.com/…

An additional hypothesis is that age-groupers increase the likelihood of injury by not allowing themselves to recover from hard efforts and most have the perception that they have to make up for volume by substituting intensity (Fuman’s “Run Less, Run Faster” doesn’t help). Serious age-groupers (who are likely the low BMI people) are not elite, but attempt to train like them by matching their workouts and miss out on the fact that the vast majority of their training is composed of recovery runs.

By: BobC

BobC — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Pete Larson.

A new job with longer hours and a longer commute has cut into my training time. But even with that limitation I've found that if I focus on being comfortable, I go faster. If I focus on speed, I start stressing my legs and back.

The main realization this year is that my most enjoyable, least stressful, and fastest stride feels exactly like running in place, at least where the initial foot contact is involved.

I seem to be an inveterate overstrider, possibly due to a lifetime of hard heel-striking, and I'm always having to correct it. My run warmup includes some running-in-place, during which I close my eyes to "lock in" the sensations, to focus on how my balance feels.

When I come to wide, smooth parts of my run, I often do some brief checks with my eyes shut. When I stay in the zone where my foot strike feels identical to that felt while running in place not only do I feel like I'm smoothly floating over my feet, but my Garmin also records a faster pace.

Another part of limiting my overstriding is keeping my cadence high, and I'm still running with a metronome set to 185 bpm to provide a constant reminder of the stride rate I need to maintain. Without the metronome, even a small amount of fatigue causes my stride to slow and lengthen, making the fatigue increase faster and my discomfort quickly to get dramatically worse.

I have trouble believing that despite collapsed discs and a lifetime of bad running, I'm now running faster, further and with far more joy than I have for over 30 years. I'm still working my way toward my goal of doing my first-ever half-marathon before the end of this year, and to do so at no slower than an 8:30 pace.

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to BobC.

Great to hear it Bob - hoping you get that half done!

----
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By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Samuel Hartpence.

The profile of runners in this study was hardly one of “age groupers.” Even in the low BMI group the mean marathon time was over 5 hours – it was a race for breast cancer event. Given the mean times, I suspect all groups did a fair amount of walk-running. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that having a high BMI is something to strive for in terms of reducing injury risk, but rather that having a high BMI should not preclude you from doing something like training for and running (or run-walking) a half or full marathon, which could in turn provide health benefits and lower your BMI.
—-
Pete Larson’s Web Links:
My book: Tread Lightly – Form Footwear and the Quest For Injury Free Runninghttp://www.amazon.com=“”> Work: http://www.anselm.edu/internet…
Blog: https://runblogger.com
Dailymile Profile: http://www.dailymile.com/peopl…
Twitter: http://twitter.com/oblinkin

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Amby Burfoot.

Thanks Amby! If I had to guess, every runner in this study was probably in big bulky shoes of some sort - it was certainly the case when i filmed my race in 2009. The race in this study was in 2008 I think, and all groups had mean finish times of greater than 5 hours. I can send you the PDF.
Sent from my iPad

By: Amby Burfoot

Amby Burfoot — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pete: Great post. If you had to guess, wouldn't you imagine that the higher BMI runners are running in thick, motion-control shoes?

By: Ch

Ch — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pete, did they enter weekly mileage and bmi into a regression? This would allow them to test how much of the effect is driven by mileage. It would be hard to imagine they didnt collect those data.

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to David Steinberg.

Interesting article, thanks for sharing. So you’re suggesting that the heavy runners who make it to the race may be a biased sample in that they may be less injury prone, whereas many may not have even made it to the starting line? It’s a possibility, but I would say also that lower mileage and slower speed could in and of themselves explain why injuries were less common among the heavier runners. High mileage and “running to compete” are two factors that are strongly linked to increased injury risk, so there is a plausible explanation for the observation.

I’ll have to go back to some of the other studies that have shown similar patterns and see if they tracked runners in such a way that this could be teased apart. You’d have to start tracking them during pre-race training I suppose to account for those who do not make it to race day.

—-
Pete Larson’s Web Links:
My book: Tread Lightly – Form Footwear and the Quest For Injury Free Runninghttp://www.amazon.com=“”> Work: http://www.anselm.edu/internet…
Blog: https://runblogger.com
Dailymile Profile: http://www.dailymile.com/peopl…
Twitter: http://twitter.com/oblinkin

By: Pete Larson

Pete Larson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In reply to Ric Moxley.

As I pointed out in response to the other comment, all three groups had mean finish times of over 5 hours, so although the higher BMI group was on average slower, none were what you would typically classify as “age groupers” or highly competitive runners. And even if the results show that running to be competitive is a risk factor for injury, that’s something interesting to know :) Point is that there is some reason why the high BMI group got injured less often, and figuring out why would be an interesting topic for further study. All we can do is speculate.