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HEALTH&FITNESS
290
May15
JOINTS
Yes, dem bones are all connected
to one another, as the song goes.
What’s more, bone health is
essential to overall health and
fitness: It’s impossible to be fit and
strong without an equally fit and
strong skeleton. Juicy joints help
too, as
Verne Maree
discovers.
M
y own bones and joints have
given me a bit of grief over the
past few years. I’ve had tennis
elbow (tendinitis) on both
sides at different times, and also a frozen
shoulder – both conditions that are poorly
understood and can linger for a frustratingly
indeterminate length of time.
Notably, both problems affect my arms,
which get little use compared to these
runner’s legs. Despite 25 years of pounding
the pavement, my hips, knees and ankles
have so far been generally trouble-free.
(Touch wood.)
Happily, there’s no evidence that running
causes joint problems such as osteoarthritis
of the knee in later life. In fact, new studies
indicate that not only is there no connection
between running and arthritis, but running
may even help protect you from joint
problems. And, if only to show that you
can successfully Google support for just
about any hypothesis, one American study
showed absolutely no difference between
the knee health of those who averaged 200
miles a year and those who averaged 2,000
miles a year.
So I strongly suspect that a lack of upper-
body weight training – oh, how I hate gyms!
– may be at least a contributory factor to my
elbow woes. According to physiotherapist
Dr Simon Raftery of Orthomed, it’s now
clear that elbow tendinitis in women over
45 is more likely to be caused by age-
related degeneration of the tendon than it
is to inflammation caused by overuse; and
that indicates a need to strengthen the arm
muscles, ligaments and tendons. (Not, one
presumes, by taking up the sport of tennis.)
While appropriate rest can be helpful,
even essential, sitting and waiting for the
pain to go away is not a sensible option.
Use it or lose it, as they say.
BONES
Strong
Juicy
and