Why do runners pump their arms when running? Is there an advantage?
In: Biology
Yes, there is an advantage, but only in high speed running such as sprints. When your legs are turning over quickly (i.e., you’re running fast), you need to counteract the angular momentum of them constantly switching places. Otherwise, you’re wasting a lot of energy in the rest of your body solely on keeping yourself running straight and not twisting side-to-side.
In distance running, on the other hand, you actually want to relax your arms a lot more and only pump them lightly. This is because pumping your arms up and down is just flat-out tiring, and over a long enough distance, that will be worse for you than twisting your body a little bit (which will also be lessened by you running a bit slower).
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