New shoes?

No doubt this question has been answered lots of times but I hope you can clear this one up for hubby.

He took up running about 4 weeks ago and trains for half an hour each time on a treadmill.

He finds that after running his knees and hips hurt for a couple of days. This is his second attempt at taking the sport up. The first being a couple of years ago when he got on really well until his back started to give him problems and required lots of help from a chiropractor.

Is this down to his age (almost 40) his trainers (cross trainers) or something else?

I suspect the answer will be the trainers but all thoughts are welcome.

Cross trainers are really appropriate to high impact (weight bearing) exercise.

He should go to a "good" specialist sport shop(avoid chains; JJB etc. like the plague) and get some help. They should let him run around in shoes before you buy them too.

The other problem may be he is trying to hard, go fast slowly especially if he is a beginner. I look after our club beginners and every year someone enters the Great North Run etc; trains too hard , gets injured and never runs again. A recent novice entered the London Marathon, turned up at the club last week to start training!!

I am 57 , been running for almost 30 years and whereas I would like to say age is not an issue, it obviously is. I still have the basic speed but notice the recovery is talking longer.

Why run on a treadmill? If you can't get cold, wet and miserable where's the fun?

Join a club and run in company at a appropriate pace, it makes training relatively easier and more fun.

Sorry a senior moment "..are not really appropriate"

First of all he should go to a specialist sports shop and get proper shoe advice. He needs running shoes not cross-trainers.

Second, he hasn't been running for very long. He needs to take it very steadily and build up very slowly so that muscle strength builds to keep pace with the increasing effort. As everything strengthens up and holds everything in place the ahces and pains may diminish. Never increase speed or distance by more than 10% in any one go and consolidate at each level until it's easy before you move ahead again. It's a long term project and there are no short cuts without a major risk of injury.
JJ