To add on what some other people are saying, many professional athletes have adopted techniques which minimize the impact. Running is the best example. If you do it wrong (landing on your heels), then you’re going to destroy your knees and hips in no time. If you land on the balls of your feet with your knees slightly bent then your ankles act like a spring and absorb much of the impact. Of course damage will still be done over time, but not nearly as quickly.
Basically the way you exercise has a massive effect on how much and how quickly you’re damaging your body
They don’t. And they often suffer later in life. That’s the toll of professional sports.
Gymnasts and ballet dancers often end up with severe problems, sometimes crippled, because of it. They can literally give themselves joint hypermobility syndrome (which is usually genetic but can also occur through deterioration of the joints from, mostly, professional sports). That can put you in a wheelchair. You might still be able to put your leg behind your head, but your knee won’t support your weight without extreme chronic pain. My ex- suffered with it (3rd Dan karate black-belt, registered disabled).
Athletes rarely are athletes later in life for a reason, not just that they can’t compete on the same level but they often have severe repercussions of their professional careers. Footballers with knees that never work properly again, ballet dancers unable to walk, rugby players with severe head trauma, weightlifters with terrible back problems, etc. Youth soccer (football) players have just had laws introduced to stop them heading balls as a lifetime of doing that can give you severe brain damage, same as American footballers have suffered similar problems with body impacts.
Even just runners are destroying their knees. At the top levels they are choosing to sacrifice their long term health for short term extreme gain, and they know that. The successes will make enough money to pay for expensive treatments, and many will do it for the love of their sport, but it’s often at a cost in their later years. Health insurance is almost compulsory in those careers and is seen as a huge necessity.
They can’t stop it, they can only manage it, and they won’t become professional without knowing the risk of their future lives, even if they never suffer a direct debilitating injury in an incident (which is also far more likely for an athlete, e.g. a runner to break an ankle, etc.).
There will come a time where they will probably wish they hadn’t done it, and their consolation will be the money and lifestyle that it’s given them, but for every professional athlete living a celebrity life, there are thousands of “ex-professional” sports people who can never play the sport again and suffer in their daily lives for their earlier career.
Earl Campbell needed a cane/walker by his early 40’s- wiki “at age 46, he could barely close his fist due to [arthritis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthritis) in his hands.[[87]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-SI-88) He developed [foot drop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_drop) due to nerve damage in his legs, and has difficulty bending his back and knees.[[87]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-SI-88)[[88]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-89) He was diagnosed with [spinal stenosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_stenosis) in 2009.[[89]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-Campbell-90) Because of his difficulty walking he uses a cane or a walker, and for longer distances a wheelchair.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-Garber-6)[[90]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-price-91) Campbell at first maintained the ailments were genetic,[[90]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-price-91)[[91]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-92) but said in 2012, “I think some of it came from playing football, playing the way I did.”[[85]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-Fox-86)[[92]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Campbell#cite_note-Strauss-93)
Ronnie Coleman is in a similar boat. Drugs/roids and all that aside… top level athlete not able to walk on his own by before 50.
Also remember “old” and “veteran” athletes in many sports are in their 30s….not 50’s or 60s. Most are burnt out and used up by then.
They don’t. In fact they often suffer joint degradation at an earlier age than people who are moderately active and have a healthy body mass. They spend an inordinate amount of time with sports therapists, physiotherapists, hydrotherapy etc, in order to prevent joint strain or minimise permanent damage from a current injury, but wear and tear is just degradation from use, and they are very rough on their bodies.
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