Running vs Walking - Helping your bones

A recent study on fitness and health for children, raised the interesting point that kids "should run and not walk" in order to get proper amounts of exercise.

I mean I suppose that it's hardly news that kids should go outside and run around (they have the energy for it, after all), but what is interesting about this study is that kids who just go for a nice slow walk with their parents in the evening, no matter how much walking they do, do not really see any serious health and fitness benefits.

Compare this with children who add in a few bursts of running in their walk or who regularly run. These children are reported to have considerably greater bone density than the children who practically never run.

Having a thick bone density, for those of who haven't been reading too many medical articles these days, is a key factor for the prevention of osteoperosis. Eating calcium rich diets, as well as partaking in exercises that strengthen your bone density helps prevent gradual degradation of your bone structure. As well, healthy and tougher bones help prevent bone fractures from simple injuries.

Wait! What about all those things we hear about the dangers of jogging and the strain that it can put on our knees?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but we're not exactly children anymore are we? Jogging and running in an of themselves are not essentially bad, however they can lead to injuries and other complications just like any other form of exercise if we are not careful. For instance running through a field of grass and running down the sidewalk are two different things. On the sidewalk, and other hard surfaces we risk putting too much pressure on our knees because the floor beneath us doesn't give away to our weight. On grass, however, there is more fo a soft cushion which helps remove some of the strain from our joints.

In fact, jogging and running for adults can be can lead to a weakening of our bones, especially if we suffer from thinner and weaker bones than normal to begin with. Perhaps one of the best ways to prevent this would probably to have gotten in a little more exercise when we were young. So with that in mind, let your kids run a little more.