Lower-limb muscular strategies for increasing running speed

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: This clinical commentary discusses the mechanisms used by the lower-limb musculature to achieve faster running speeds. A variety of methodological approaches have been taken to evaluate lower-limb muscle function during running, including direct recordings of muscle electromyographic signal, inverse dynamics-based analyses, and computational musculoskeletal modeling. Progressing running speed from jogging to sprinting is mostly dependent on ankle and hip muscle performance. For speeds up to approximately 7.0 m/s, the dominant strategy is to push on the ground forcefully to increase stride length, and the major ankle plantar flexors (soleus and gastrocnemius) have a particularly imp..