What kind of running is really healthy for the body? The public has joined the research

Scientists and the general public have known for a long time that running is beneficial for proper brain function, blood circulation and cancer prevention. But the impact of regular running on our joints has not been fully explored.

The answer to the question of how to run properly so that our body and joints do not suffer is providing by a new study by scientists at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ostrava.

During the study it turned out that the rule "too much of everything is bad for you" also applies to running. The research involved 706 regular runners and 458 inactive individuals aged 18 to 65, and the results showed that regular running between 6 and 20 kilometres per week is optimal for the health of our joints. Completely non-athletes, as well as avid runners who exceed 20 kilometres per week, generally showed lower knee joint health than was seen in regular recreational runners. Researchers also suggest that running technique also has an impact on the health of our joints.

Get involved in the research

Initial research results have been published by the research team in the prestigious, world-renowned journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, published by The American College of Sports Medicine, but research will continue to understand what happens to runners and the inactive population as they age. At this time, the research team is building on previous research and is reaching out to the original participants in particular to participate again in a new wave of measurements in the current LERCO 4HAIE study.

The research team at the Faculty of Education will also be recruiting brand new participants via an online questionnaire that will be made available to new participants on the project website. Participants who took part in the first wave of measurement will receive an invitation to register by email.

What and how will happen during the measurement?

Each participant will undergo a series of laboratory tests at the Centre for Human Movement Diagnostics at the University of Ostrava. For four weeks, they will have an activity monitor, an accelerometer and an air monitor attached to their body to record a range of monitored data during normal daily activities. Via mobile phone, the monitored participants will answer short questions for twenty-one days, such as How are you feeling now? What are you doing right now? To what extent did pain limit you during the day? And so on.

If you have any further questions about the research and its implementation, please check the project website: haie-lerco.cz, or contact the LERCO 4HAIE project coordinators via email: .

A link to the study: Regular Running Is Related to the Knee Joint Cartilage Structure in Healthy Adults

The data described in the study come from the project "Healthy Aging in Industrial Environment HAIE CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000798", which is co-funded by the European Union. This article has been produced with the financial support of the European Union under the LERCO project with reg. number CZ.10.03.01/00/22_003/0000003, through the Operational Programme Equitable Transformation.

Healthy Aging in Industrial Environment project (HIAE)

The project addresses the effects of selected environmental and lifestyle risk factors on the health and ageing of a population in an industrial region. The overall objectives of the project were to promote excellent research, improve the infrastructure of existing research centres, develop research teams and internationalisation. The aim of the research is to find relationships between environmental conditions, lifestyle, health, quality of life and ageing. Through four research programmes, a number of studies have been carried out on different population samples (mortality studies, morbidity studies, molecular epidemiological and genetic studies, cytogenetic studies, exposure studies, fertility studies, studies of increased physical activity, socio-economic and psychosocial studies).

The applicability of the 4HAIE research results lies in its potential for use in prevention, as a basis for formulating recommendations and interventions towards better public health protection and promotion policies. Ultimately, we want to reduce spending on health and social services.

Project Life Environment Research Center Ostrava (LERCO)

It is a newly built scientific research hub, which as one of the tools enables the transformation of the Moravian-Silesian Region (MSK) from a "coal" to a "healthier and smarter" region. The state-of-the-art facilities and 9 excellent research teams of the project will enable the implementation of activities in a broad and unique interdisciplinary focus in biomedical, natural and behavioural fields, from basic research through experimental development to applied research, across scientific research institutions (OU, FNO, VŠB-TUO) and other cooperating scientific research and commercial entities from practice in the Czech Republic and abroad.

The aim of the project is to comprehensively support the development of the innovative scientific research potential of the MSK region in non-technical fields with impact on: the health of the population, the development of cooperation between science and research and the commercial sphere (support for the creation of spin-off and start-up companies), the promotion of employment in the region, increasing the attractiveness of the region in science and research, education and municipality by providing innovative tools.

The project is not based on commercial activities or their support, it only prepares a suitable background for further possible (and desirable) cooperation of the scientific and research sphere with the application sphere in MSK, which has not been sufficient regionally so far.