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Will you become a better runner if your paces are bigger or smaller?
Runners' performance declines if they try to make their strides bigger or smaller. It makes their running style less efficient, American sports scientists at Brigham Young University wrote in the International Journal of Exercise Science.
Study
The researchers got 33 runners to run for 20 minutes on several occasions. On one occasion the participants had to put their feet down without paying attention to what they were doing; on the other occasions they had to consciously make their feet land 8-16 percent closer to each other or further apart. So they had to make their Stride Length shorter or longer.
19 of the participants were highly trained and ran over 30 kilometres a week. The others were less well trained, and ran fewer than 8 kilometres a week.
Results
The participants ran most efficiently when they placed their feet in the way that was most comfortable to them. If they adjusted their stride, making it longer or shorter, their oxygen use per kilogram bodyweight - and therefore their energy burning - increased for each minute.
This was the case for the well-trained and the less well-trained athletes, as the figure above shows.
Conclusion
"Don't worry about changing your stride length," Iain Hunter, the first author of the study, summarised his findings in a press release. [byu.edu July 26, 2017] "You should just leave it alone or you're going to use more energy in the end."
"Just let it happen; it doesn't need to be coached. Your body is your best coach for stride length."
Source:
Int J Exerc Sci. 2017 May 1;10(3):446-53.
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