Thursday DBA session hits the sand again... 6pm Queenscliff Beach See below for the benefits of Soft Sand Running: 1) For those running to lose weight, beach running is much less efficient than road running. According to a study performed by The Journal of Experimental Biology, an athlete running on soft beach sand expends close to one and a half times more energy than an individual running on the road. Vacationers who want to sustain some level of fitness but who also want to decrease their training time while they are on vacation may like the idea of soft sand beach running as an efficient calorie burning workout. 2) A Griffith University (Queensland, Australia) study concluded that landing on soft sand increases the “collision” time, or the time during which the foot sinks into the sand, and therefore reduces the overall stress of pounding on the lower extremities. 3) The increase in collision time on soft sand also indicates that sand has less rebound than pavement, which forces the quadriceps, hip flexors and gluteus muscles to all engage more than they do on a normal run. 4) According to a University of Western Australia study comparing running on firm surfaces to running on soft beach sand, an athlete’s workload as measured by proximity to VO2 max increased by nearly 50 percent when carrying over a pace from the road to the sand. Now, this concept is intuitive because the previously noted studies acknowledge an increase in work when running on soft sand. However, the University of Western Australia’s 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. 5) 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 road injuries.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:13:05 +0000
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