Muscles used for running

Triathlon Forum
1

What I’m looking for is an explanation of what muscles are used during each phase of a running stride.

When are hamstrings used? Calves? Glutes?

Other question, what function do the arms play in a running stride?

Also, I know this gets tricky to even ask, but when your foot comes forward after trailing behind, it’s my understanding that before it lands on ground, it already proceeds to move back… is that right? Is this where hamstrings come in? And once the foot lands on firm ground, is where calves come in to play… correct? What muscles are primarily used when the foot comes forward? None? Is it gravity that’s used instead of musculature? Is it hip flexors?

Yes, I’m trying to piece everything together, which means I’ll probably get a bunch of ‘just go out and run’, or ‘run more often’ type answers, but I’m asking more out of a desire to understand the biomechanics of running.

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i think if you completely figure all of this out, you might be the first person to do so =)
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What I’m looking for is an explanation of what muscles are used during each phase of a running stride.

When are hamstrings used? Calves? Glutes?

Other question, what function do the arms play in a running stride?

Also, I know this gets tricky to even ask, but when your foot comes forward after trailing behind, it’s my understanding that before it lands on ground, it already proceeds to move back… is that right? Is this where hamstrings come in? And once the foot lands on firm ground, is where calves come in to play… correct? What muscles are primarily used when the foot comes forward? None? Is it gravity that’s used instead of musculature? Is it hip flexors?

Yes, I’m trying to piece everything together, which means I’ll probably get a bunch of ‘just go out and run’, or ‘run more often’ type answers, but I’m asking more out of a desire to understand the biomechanics of running.

Quadriceps cross two joints, the hip and the knee. They straighten the leg at the knee and also bring the upper leg forward in relation to the torso. Hamstrings do the opposite, they flex at the knee and bring the leg rearwards. The calf muscles extend (point) the foot, and the tibialis anterior is the primary ankle flexor (opposite of toe point).

In a very general sense, the quad raises the knee up, then extends the lower leg out in front of you. The tibialis flexes the ankle so your toes raise. As you land the foot, gravity and the hamstrings are taking over. The hamstrings move the lower leg back (or the torso forward depending on your point of view) as you pass over the foot. They then raise the foot off the ground and start bending the knee more as the calf muscles point/push off. Glutes are activated in concordance with the hamstrings.

Lather rinse repeat.

The arms stabilize and balance, and the magnitude of the swing enables greater strides. You can run faster without increasing arm motion, but it becomes more and more awkward.

Caveat: This is extremely simplistic.

John

4

I think the best way to look at it is use a video analysis and look frame/frame at the joint angles to determine when muscles are activating. This would not be a complete model because there is a lot going on but may help you.

5

this is a good start http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/12/running-economy-part-ii.html

then there is this http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0736064028

**what function do the arms play in a running stride? **counterbalance

**Also, I know this gets tricky to even ask, but when your foot comes forward after trailing behind, it’s my understanding that before it lands on ground, it already proceeds to move back… is that right? **Yes, at least as speed increases. Maybe not so much for slow running. Think of it as a spectrum from 1-10. Walking=0 Sprinting =10. Then add a dimension for heel strikers (less) and mid foot strikers (more).

**Is this where hamstrings come in? **this is where they start to come in. More importantly they are used in the stance phase leading to toe off. Sooner for faster running - less ground contact time and less vertical oscillation.

**And once the foot lands on firm ground, is where calves come in to play… correct? **No, the majority of calf contraction (almost all) occurs prior to landing. It contracts in preparation for the impact to absorb shock and deliver rebound. Amazingly, the brain is able to calculate speed, height, surface hardness, shoe cushioning and contract the calf to optimize landing and recoil. Obviously, some do this better than others. Effect varies with heel striker v midfoot striker v forefoot striker.

What muscles are primarily used when the foot comes forward? None? Is it gravity that’s used instead of musculature? Is it hip flexors? ** **Gravity can only pull you down, not forward, unless you are in orbit many miles above the earth. You must use muscular activation of the hip flexors to initiate forward swing of the leg. Faster/stronger contraction for faster running.

6

You have a lot of questions that aren’t going to be answered in a simple post or two, but with the advent of the internet …

Running gait analysis sites are a good place to start. You can research EMG studies on when muscles exactly fire through pubmed if you want to get your geek on, but many people analyze this stuff for years and still argue on what is “pathological” or proper form which is what I’m assuming you are trying to get at ultimately.

7

Of course, there are exceptions to what the muscles do:

Dr. Patrick J. Boland, an orthopedic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, had operated on many patients with sarcomas — cancers of soft tissues — but he had never had a patient like Serena Burla, a 27-year-old elite distance runner from St. Louis. She had a potentially deadly cancer, a synovial sarcoma, that arose in and replaced one of the muscles in her right hamstring.
Treatment was to remove that muscle, the biceps muscle of her hamstring.

“You can’t stitch it back together,” Boland said. “There’s just nothing there.”

Before he operated on Feb. 26, 2010, Boland went to the medical literature to see if there was any other athlete who had that hamstring muscle removed, recovered and competed again.

He could not find one.

“We did such a radical operation,” Boland said. He was not sure Burla would be able to run, and even if she could, he doubted if she would compete again at an elite level.

She proved him wrong.

Last November, Burla competed in the New York City Marathon, her first. She came in 19th, in 2 hours 37 minutes 6 seconds

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/sports/19burla.html

My PT told me (when I told him about this article) that the hamstring also serves to brake the forward motion of the foot before full extension

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http://umaine.edu/news/blog/2011/03/25/researchers-use-sensor-technology-to-improve-athletic-performance/

My school is doing research about this!

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My PT told me (when I told him about this article) that the hamstring also serves to brake the forward motion of the foot before full extension

Yeah, as I said my explanation was extremely simple. You can’t really describe the interrelations easily, and some things (Such as myself, I grip immensely with my toes, to the point where I dig pits inside my shoes eventually) are so highly individual that they can’t really be quantified.

John

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I see - using EMG as well. Add it to the database of running studies then …

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There are actually hundreds if you break it down to the individual muscles in the foot, and factor in the spine and everything that crosses over the hip joint - never mind all of the upper body muscles that are affected by your arms. A proper answer would be - all of them. Even since your head isn’t stable you are using muscles to stabilize your neck and head carriage. It’s not as simple as “hip flexors do this, hamstrings do that.”

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Lots of good info. Thanks for the feedback! I know it’s difficult to give a straight forward answer to a complex question… but I didn’t know how ‘controversial’ it was, in that running is still not totally understood. But either way, a lot of this confirms that I’m on my way to learning how to run properly. I wish it were as simple as ‘just go out and run’, but I think my body has forgotten how to do that, unlike the folks that seem to be able to do just that.