Benefits of Running on soft sand
- Jul 27, 2015
- 1 min read
Running on soft beach sand, an athlete’s workload as measured by proximity to increased by nearly 50 percent when carrying over a pace from the road to the sand. Now, this concept is intuitive because studies acknowledge an increase in work when running on soft sand. However study suggests that since an athlete has to push into the sand with greater force to go a certain speed, athletes who run on soft sand build more power at a given speed than they would if they were running on the road at the same speed.
Soft sand beach running without shoes forces the smaller stabilizing muscles in the knees, ankles and feet to work harder than on a normal road run. If an athlete gradually incorporates beach running into her/his regimen, the added strength of the stabilizing muscles may help to prevent common injuries.
Comments