My benchmark for what counts as a big deal in sports science is four percent. That’s the margin by which Nike’s Vaporfly, the original supershoe released back in 2017, improved running economy. All hell broke loose following the Vaporfly’s release, and the sport was changed forever.
So when someone credibly promises me four percent, I listen. nd recover. Each week, Alex covers a new topic, including strength training, supplements, and more! That’s the background for a new study of plyometric exercises to improve running economy in masters runners, from a research team at Ritsumeikan University in Japan led by Yuuri Eihara and Sumiaki Maeo.
Cutting straight to the chase, they found an average improvement of 3.9 percent after ten weeks of relatively quick and simple plyometrics. This is not a big surprise: previous studies have found comparable improvements. The actual goal of this study was to understand why plyometrics make runners more efficient rather than simply adding to the evidence that they work.
But the scale of the effect, juxtaposed against the ongoing hype about shoes, was a reminder that this is a topic worth paying attention to. Some background: plyometrics are a category of quick, explosive exercises like hops, jumps, and skipping. In broad strokes, the goal is to improve neuromuscular function—how efficiently and effectively your brain transmits signals to recruit muscle fibers—rather than simply strengthening the muscles themselves.
There’s overlap between strength training and plyometrics, and both have been shown to improve running economy (which is a measure of efficiency: how much energy it takes to run at a given pace). But it’s not clear whether the two forms of training improve economy in the same way, or through different mechanisms. It’s also not clear whether the benefits come from promoting visible changes in how you run, or whether they’re “invisible” thanks to subtle alterations in muscle recruitment.
The new study, which appears in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, explored this question by putting 35 male masters runners between the ages of 30 and 50 through a ten-week plyometric program on top of their usual running routine. Before and after the plyometric regimen, they underwent a series of tests to assess their strength and explosiveness (e.g. jump heights), as well as detailed analysis of their running stride and joint movements. I’ve already given away the punchline, which is that the runners improved their economy by 3.9 percent on average.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
