Had this on my mind as I was running today, kinda curious to hear from other people.
What arm (elbow) angle do you keep while your running? I’ve been playing with this over the past month or so, and now I’ve started running with a more closed elbow angle. Bit more work for the biceps, but after a few days it wasn’t noticeable. Prior to that I ran with a 90 degree bend, +/- 5 degrees or so, just what my arms hung at naturally w/o any thought.
Imagine the arm angle much like the leg, is a pendulum. The shorter the pendulum, the faster the swing.
Although you dont want to be too tight. you can have your arm hang low with a 90 dgree bend, or kind sit up higher with a 90-95 degree bend. Choose Higher, but dont raise the shoulders. For example, an arm swing that comes down by your hip is too low too much of a long pendulum, and your feet can only move as fast as your arm. Just like your legs, a higher heel (but kick)with good bent knee return is better than swinging that leg back through the same path- straight. Look at good runners, there arms are short and by their ribs back and forth in the shoulder joint. Upper body is along for the ride with just the slightest effort, more for momentum and balance.
Has anyone else noticed that triathletes, on average, seem to have more elbow bend than pure runners? I also see more lateral rotation of the arms on triathletes than pure runners.
Might have to do with having larger arms, on average, than pure runners. Note: this is pure conjecture, but it would make sense. Personally, I rock climb a fair amount, results in somewhat larger than normal forearms as well. Thats one of the reasons I experimented with arm bend/elbow angle.