Listening to our bodies

A few blog posts ago I wrote on avoiding injury when exercising and offered some of my own tips. I happened to read an interesting article on a NY Times blog ("That Little Voice Inside that Twinge", by Gina Kolata) that speaks to the difficulty of "listening to your body." I thought it was pretty good and so posted it here.

My only real concern with the article involves its exclusive focus on long-distance running and marathon running. At the risk of annoying my many marathon-running friends, I wonder if long-distance running is more prone than other exercise routines to causing short-term and long-term injury. Not that people shouldn't run long-distance or do marathons - I do think people have different motivations and goals. Personally I've avoided running altogether due to worry that it causes knee problems and because there are healthy alternatives.