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Running more comfortable than walking

Friday 6th January 2012

Many people find running far more comfortable than walking, according to new research by a team of doctors at the North Carolina State University.

A study designed to test the durability of a person's muscles found that most people when travelling at two metres per second feel more comfortable running than walking.

Running makes better use of a calf muscle than walking, and therefore is a much more efficient use of the muscle's, and the body's, energy.

The results stem from a first-of-its-kind study combining ultrasound imaging, high-speed motion-capture techniques and a force-measuring treadmill to examine a key calf muscle and how it behaves when people walk and run.

Dr. Gregory Sawicki, a biomedical engineer at the university, said: "When you shift the gait and transition from a walk to a run, that same muscle becomes almost static and doesn't seem to change its behaviour very much as you run faster and faster, although we didn't test the muscle at sprinting rates."

Researchers recently found that too much strenuous exercise can trigger affects of the common cold.

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Written by Megan Smith