About four months ago I got into a conversation with a friend of mine about the fact that I had taken up jogging. I was about three quarters of the way through the Cool Running “Couch to 5K” training program and I had signed up to participate in my first official race on Thanksgiving. Knowing that I still had a decent amount of weight to lose and that I had dealt with weight-related injuries in the past my friend asked whether or not I was worried about injuries and suggested that if I wanted to improve my cardiovascular fitness I might consider a lower impact exercise like swimming.

At the time I was a little put off by his statements, to be honest. There is nothing quite as discouraging as having someone cast doubts about the safety of an activity that you’re working very hard to master. The fact of the matter is, though, that he had a point. Running is a fantastic way to burn calories and improve your endurance, but it can cause some significant injuries if you aren’t careful (and sometimes even if you are). I’m still, by most standards, about fifty pounds overweight and I am frequently sore for a day or so after I complete a run. All of that extra weight is pretty hard on my joints to being with and jogging is a fairly high impact activity. Not only that, but some researchers now think that the fact that runners wear shoes at all makes them more likely to injure themselves.

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