RUNNING MAY BE the quickest, the most invigorating, and for many, the most enjoyable way to get and stay fit. So it is doubly frustrating when you’re sidelined by aches, pains, or, worse, injuries. Easing up—on surfaces, strides, and miles—can help you stay healthy. “Your body absorbs about three times your weight with each step that you run,” says Bert Fields, M.D., a five-decade runner who heads the sports medicine fellowship program at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina. “So the most effective way to cut back on injuries may be to cut back on the pounding.” Here’s how.
RUN SOFT
Whether softer running surfaces are less injurious—and by how much—is debated among sports scientists: The studies are few, inconclusive, or conflicting. Complicating matters is that the answer may depend…