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Comment by le-mark | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been on this “get back in shape” journey for almost two years now. About a year ago I started walk jog intervals two days a week, then three, then four. I ramped up slowly (maybe too slow) specifically to save my knees. I recently got some asic nimbus shoes. These are running shoes with inch thick soft soles that squish noticeably when you walk or run. They also add a lot of instability and I really feel it in my knees. Impact is a lot better though. They seem springy. Interesting to read the present article. A tiny bit of springiness won’t help me but may help others.

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There are two schools of thought here, but I personally subscribe to the notion that thick squishy soles are an anti-pattern. Your foot/calves/leg are an amazing spring, you don't need a layer of foam to shield you from the impact of the ground (and one can argue that at 2-3x body weight during impact, a bit of foam/rubber won't really shield you from anything), on the contrary these thick soles prevent you from feeling the ground and mess up the proprioception, which in turn messes with the spring mechanism of your legs. The fact that your knees hurt are a strong sign that something isn't right. No impact forces should ever end up in the knees, they should be guided up the posterior chain into your glutes. Muscles are great shock absorbers, joints are terrible terrible shock absorbers.

My recommendation would be to try some zero drop shoes for a while.

Some people just don't walk properly. I work with a girl that walks on the balls of her feet, I've found out it was due to her parents not liking noise on wooden floors, but she gets tired shins when she runs, which can't be right

Congratulations on getting back in shape. Just here to say that there is no such thing as ramping up too slowly when getting into (or back into running). So many people push too hard too fast and flame out.

Your knees will thank you when you're older.

Wife currently has a knee issue and the physio has her doing more hip bridges and lunges to build up the supporting muscles. Had a hamstring injury that caused issues by compensating for it and running incorrectly which put additional pressure on the knees.

I used to run in Asics Nimbus and currently just wear them all day. Switched to these bright red Novablast 5s for running and they are noticeably better. I do a mix of Norwegian 4x4 Hiit or a steady fast jog a few times a week.

Good job on getting into running! I would highly suggest you find some "exercises for runners" videos on youtube and find some exercises that are comfortable for you to do. Focus on the exercises that are asymmetric(lunges etc). You can do most of them at home and it takes 30 minutes twice a week. You will feel the results in less than two weeks. Most of the people who run consistently do those kind of exercises because running is very demanding on your body and if stabilizer muscles are weak, the impact will go to your joints and tendons.

Feel free to keep trying shoe models until you find the right one. It took me 25 pairs of shoes from amazon to find one that fit right (mizuno wave rider in wide).

Running shoes are converging on two designs: maximalist shoes with a long foam and a narrow foot, or “barefoot” shoes. Which means it’s harder than ever to find something that fits if neither of those work well for you.

Running shouldn’t hurt or harm your knees, in fact it’s more likely to be beneficial.

You might find stability shoes to be beneficial until you’ve built up the right muscles, high stack shoes can be quite unstable.

Of course it is beneficial in the long run, but beginners are still prone to overtraining and getting injured when they go from sitting a desk for 14 hours a day to running 3 times a week

Your knees should never hurt, overtraining or not.

I wouldn’t say “never”. Stuff like ITBS presents as knee pain when the actual problem area is typically weakness in the hip, for example.

If you feel instability, you should try stability shoes. They really help reduce overpronation.

Have a read of "born to run"

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