We swing our arms while sprinting and it feels odd not to do it. Does it help with anything?
In: 6
Your legs are heavy, they are also off-centre on your body. When walking or running, at any given moment you are swinging one leg forward and one leg back. This asymmetrical movement of your legs causes your body to rotate as a result of conservation of angular momentum.
Having your body constantly rotate from side to side as you walk or run would be supremely irritating, and would put a lot of stress on your knees, hips and spine. So you need to swing another mass in the other direction to counter your legs. The other off-centre mass that is conveniently mobile is your arms.
So you swing your legs on way and your arms the other, and your body doesn’t need to swing at all which is handy for looking forwards.
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