Jul 20, 2020
Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ozRY5Fj2CMw
Endurance running with a resistance band connecting your shoes can increase your running efficiency by over 9%. Mechanical engineers at UC-Santa Barbara clocked runners with and without latex surgical tubing connecting their feet.
The tubing stores kinetic energy as the legs move past one another, and that energy helps power the next cycle. The result: shorter, quicker steps jacking up the average stride from 90 steps/min to 100.
The tubing also reduces the effort to bounce on the feet, and these band-powered runners feel light and fast. Their average running efficiency increased about 6%.
Buy the surgical tubing online and cut it to 25% of leg length. Then give it a try.
Cole S. Simpson, Cara G. Welker, Scott D. Uhlrich, Sean M. Sketch, Rachel W. Jackson, Scott L. Delp, Steve H. Collins, Jessica C. Selinger, Elliot W. Hawkes. Connecting the legs with a spring improves human running economy. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2019; 222 (17): jeb202895 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.202895
#Running #resistanceband