Squats or jogging, which one hurts your knees more?

Squats are also known as the king of exercise. They are an important part of many types of physical training. But when it comes to squats, you may worry about knee injuries, especially since there are many tragic cases online caused by self-taught squats. Is this a safe sport? Will it put undue stress on the knees?

Powerlifting Athletes

In 1985, two scholars, Nisell and Ekholm, found three bodybuilders with an average weight of 110 kg and asked them to squat 250 kg (!) in the laboratory. With the amazing weight and barbell, their knees must have been crying! Indeed, during the squat, the maximum pressure recorded between the femur and tibia (the thigh and shin bones) was 7,000 newtons, which converts to the metric system to 713 kilograms, more than six times the athletes' body weight.

Should we give up squats and just buy a pair of shoes to run? Don’t be in a hurry!

Jogging and knee stress

In 2009, New Zealand scholar Boocock found 10 relatively thin (average weight 78 kg) amateur male runners and used instruments to record the pressure they exerted on the ground while jogging. What’s amazing is that at an average speed of 13.9 kilometers per hour, the maximum pressure on their knees was as high as 6,382 Newtons, which is more than 8 times their body weight!

Conclusion

Based on these two studies, squatting appears to produce slightly more knee stress than jogging. But I believe the average weight of One Minute Fitness readers is closer to 78 kg than 110 kg. The average squat weight should be less than 250 kg. What's more, running doesn't consist of just one step, but you can't just do a few heavy squats and call it a day. Therefore, for all readers, the knee joint pressure generated by weighted squats must be much less than that of jogging. Purely comparing the stress value, squats are actually no more harmful to the knees than jogging! (Note 1) (Note 2)

(Note 1: Knee joint injury cannot be judged by only the pressure of the knee joint. The shear force and torsion force of the knee joint are also related. For the sake of easy understanding, this article has made the mistake of oversimplification.)

(Note 2: This is just a hypothetical comparison, not a recommendation that you choose weight training and give up jogging. With the correct posture and the right amount of exercise, weight training and jogging are both safe sports.)

This article comes from: Dr. Scott's One-Minute Fitness Class

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