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Comment by ropable | Hacker News Reader

While I don't disagree that "team no days off" is probably not the ideal way to promote long-term health, I'd assert that most of the adult population in first-world countries are far more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining. Not dismissing your own experience (it sounds pretty bad) and I assume from context that you worked yourself into that hole, but we need to be encouraging people to be doing more physical activity rather than less.

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> I'd assert that most of the adult population in first-world countries are far more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining.

You're using the wrong reference group here. Would you still assert that most people when narrowed down to those who are running every day are more at risk from a lack of sufficient physical activity than from overtraining? Because that's the group we are discussing – those either doing it or considering doing it.

Most of the adult population in first-world countries are not considering running every day.

As a former runner (competitive trackin/xcountry) and a current recreational runner - I cannot imagine never taking a day off is actually safe for your knees and joints. At least for me, I simply cannot run every single day without developing some sort of tendinitis or other mild pain/ache.

Yeah. I'm training for my first official marathon right now and my rest days are sacred. I imagine if it's low volume running it's probably easier, but still, the pain adds up.

Yep, I don't disagree with your point here at all. I'm a former distance runner who gave himself knee tendonitis by overdoing it, so I definitely accept the risk of overtraining. I guess that I was trying to make the point that almost nobody is at risk of that.

I'd assert that overtraining is relative to what we've been doing. So people who've not been doing much can still be at risk of overtraining.

The problem is that the population which is not doing physical activity is the population uniquely at risk for overtraining. You can't put a couch potato out and have them run, run, run without them ending up with shin splints, stress fractures, and all the other issues that come from pushing too hard, too fast.

Saying we need to do more physical activity is not carte blanche to run yourself into the ground. No decent running coach would recommend running every day anyway. 3-4 times a week, and then let your body rest and recover. Training does not make you healthy or stronger. Recovering from the training makes you healthy and stronger.

I think the nuance gets lost in a lot of the "no days off" messaging

I mean you're right, but if you're fat running is pretty rough on the knees.

Source: was fat, ran a lot, lost weight, got runner's knee, am fat again.

Maybe you already looked into barefoot running. I found it took the impact off my knees.

Oh yeah, haha

I've never done the like barefoot-barefoot thing but switched to minimalist zero-drop shoes.

It was in fact a game-changer for me, all of a sudden in my 30s I could run 10k without IT band pain (even when fairly athletic playing American football in my youth). But when I pushed more into the 10-mile range I got runner's knee - diagnosed w/o MRI or anything as patellar tendinitis although I'm sort of worried it was actually my meniscus.

I kept wanting to get back to it and kept re-aggravating. So I have now mostly given it up for like a year. Bad for my health of course. But as I move forward forced days off (ideally cross-training w/ swimming, kayaking, hitting a heavy bag, etc) just have to be part of the plan.

Yeah, zero-drop shoes is what I mean by "barefoot" running. Landing on the balls of your feet, not your heel.

Maybe 10 miles is too much regardless though.

Have you tried non-running (indoor) cardio as a regular replacement? Jumping jacks, squats, jump squats, mountain climbers, even jogging in place. I do cardio everyday but running is only every 4th day. Of course, if you have access to equipment there’s always stationary bike and other machines like an elliptical.

Was fat, walked a lot, lost weight, started running, still -25 kg.

But I'm not that skinny since "long time". Running 2-3x a week.

100% relate (I was never overweight but gave myself knee tendonitis through overdoing distance running). It's my own (unscientific) opinion that cycling or rowing are superior options for untrained people to get more conditioning work in, albeit they do have a higher barrier to entry due to the equipment.

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