Elite runners may come across superhuman—they clock insanely speedy splits while looking light on their feet. But some of the biggest differences between them and the rest of us come down to mechanics, not magic.
If you’ve ever watched a distance race, you’ve seen how the fastest runners blow by with seemingly effortless strides while the slower runners behind them grind it out. And you probably don’t need a scientific study to tell you that the two groups move differently in subtle but significant ways.
Other Hearst Subscriptions maximize efficiency How to Build Ankle Stiffness for Injury-Free Speed can train your body to move more like the pros. That means smoother, faster, more economical runs—and maybe even a new PR.
It All Starts With Stronger Calves
When scientists measure ground reaction forces in runners, “the biggest contributors to upward and forward propulsive force are the gastrocnemius and the soleus—the calf muscles,” says Scott Delp, a professor of bioengineering, mechanical engineering, and orthopaedic surgery at Stanford University and director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance. The calf muscles play a crucial role in plantar flexion, the motion of the gait cycle where you push your foot down and off the ground.
Proof: When researchers compared trained collegiate runners to recreational runners, they found that the former group generated more of their power from their ankles compared to the latter, according to a 2023 study published in Journal of Applied Physiology, Why It Takes Years to Reach Your 26.2 Potential.
In slower or less experienced runners, the knee joint does more of the work, meaning the quadriceps take on a bigger load during push-off. “When you generate ground reaction forces with your quads, it generates the vertical force you need to bounce off the ground, but you also get a horizontal force that’s directed backward, which causes deceleration,” says Delp. “And you don’t want to be putting the brakes on an accelerator.”
The main difference is really that elite runners have fine-tuned their form to run faster and more efficiently. “Together, these muscles are responsible for a little more than half of the vertical and much of the forward propulsive forces in running, and I think that’s underappreciated,” says Delp.
To become less quad-dominant, Expert Tips for Running Safely in the Heat gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. Adding simple calf raises (and variations of the move) can help you get there.
TRY THIS LOWER-LEG WORKOUT TO BUILD CALF STRENGTH
The Faster You Get Off the Ground, the Faster You Run
If the ankle is the powerhouse for upward and forward propulsion and the key muscles for generating force are the calf muscles, “to run faster, people need to be able to exert force [against the ground] more quickly,” says Mike Hahn, a professor of human physiology and the director of the Bowerman Sports Science Center.
Expert runners tend to spend less time with their foot on the ground (a lower “duty factor”), according to a 2022 study published in Bioengineering. And faster runners can apply 1.26 times greater average force, while spending less time on the ground compared with slower runners, according to older research a professor of human physiology and the director of the Bowerman Sports Science Center Journal of Applied Physiology.
“The main issue with most runners is that we run with a deep knee bend and a deep ankle dorsiflexion, the motion where you pull your toes up toward your shin,” explains Hahn. “This happens to everyone, even elite runners, but it happens more in a softer, spongier running form.” The more time you spend on the ground, the more your leg has to work to stabilize the rest of your body—and that’s wasted energy.
To become less Sports Medicine - Open, says Hahn. “Landing with your foot more directly under you rather than throwing it out in front of you forces you to get off the foot more quickly, more like you’re jumping up and down on a pogo stick.”
Spring Instead of Sink
The pogo analogy is apt for another reason. When you run, your muscles and tendons work like springs. As your foot hits the ground, your body stores energy; then, as you push off the ground, that energy is released to help propel you forward. Elite runners demonstrate more of a “springier” running style than amateur runners, according to a 2023 study published in How to Improve Your Running Efficiency.
That’s partly due to ankle stiffness, which means your ankle stays stable and strong when you land so you can pop right back off the ground. Without that ankle stiffness, the ankle acts more like a shock absorber than a spring, so you get less energy return to propel you forward.
A stiffer spring can handle a higher load without deforming. “If your ankle is floppy and you’re using your quads to try and push against the ground, you’ll just dorsiflex your ankle,” says Delp. And that just means you’re slowing down the transition to push-off and relying more on your quads than the elastic recoil of stored energy. “Your ankle needs to be stiff to generate high forces with great efficiency, so you can fly forward through the air,” Delp adds.
Plyometrics—explosive exercises that train your calf and ankle to store and release energy quickly—are an effective tool for increasing tendon stiffness, a 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis in Strength Training Guide determined. Add moves like pogo jumps to your strength workouts, or even your prerun warmup, How to Run Happy, from Running’s Most Positive Man.
TRY THIS TOTAL-BODY WORKOUT WITH PLYOMETRICS
Spend More Time In the Air
Once you start to use your calves for more power, improve the force you’re able to exert against the ground, and increase how quickly you get off the ground, you’ll start to notice something else: you’re getting more air. When comparing the biomechanics of elite and recreational runners running at the same speeds, the main difference in technique was not stride or leg cadence, but a prolonged aerial phase, according to a 2018 study published in European Journal of Sport Science. The study found that elite runners achieved 11 percent longer flight time—when neither foot is in contact with the ground—than recreational runners.
“The amateur runner descends farther [right before and when the foot initially hits the ground, partly due to more knee bend] and the elite runners jump higher once they take off,” says Hahn. So pros not only spring up faster, but also maintain that jump for longer. “Think of it like a bouncing ball: The amateur’s bouncing ball would go very low, then very high, while the elite’s would have a shallow dip into the negative, then a pronounced vertical—it’s almost always pushing up and forward rather than equaling its amount of negative absorption.”
All of the above mentioned training techniques—calf strength exercises, increasing cadence, and implementing plyos into your schedule—will help increase your time in the air. But it takes consistency and time to make that happen. And not only in the weight room, but on the run.
TRY THESE SPEED FORM DRILLS BEFORE A RUN
