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Increased body weight reduces efficiency, requires more energy and stresses joints such as knees and ankles, increasing the risk of injury.
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Every 1% more body weight slows running speed by 1%.
An extra pound adds about 2 seconds per mile. -
To improve performance, finding the ideal weight with a combination of balanced diet and training is essential.
Next timeyou run, do an experiment: run for half an hour normally.
After 30 minutes load a backpack onto your shoulders, having first taken care to stuff a couple of 2-liter bottles of water into it.
Run for another 30 minutes.
Do you notice a difference?
Definitely yes, not least because in the space of a few seconds you have gained a good 4 pounds and you are feeling it all.
The example is extreme but serves to give you an idea of how much body weight affects your running efficiency.
When you gain weight, you don’t suddenly find yourself loaded with a few pounds on your shoulders: in fact, fat accumulates in specific areas, predominantly in the abdomen.
Yet there is no denying that your musculoskeletal system realizes this, and how much.
How your weight holds you back
We often use the metaphor of the automobile to talk about our bodies.
Food is the fuel while your muscles are the engine.
A heavier car, with the same engine (i.e., muscles, in the case of your body) needs more fuel to move.
In other words, the more you weigh, the more energy you will spend running.
And mind you: at the same speed, since you will not be able to use it efficiently, for example by running faster.
In short, the excess weight affects you a lot: you have to carry it to run with you, and it doesn’t help you at all in your running, on the contrary: to run at the same speed as if you weighed less, you consume more energy, getting tired sooner.
It is not just a matter of efficiency
Joints, especially knees, hips and ankles are subjected to greater stress the more you weigh.
Increased weight therefore corresponds not only to a loss of efficiency but also to increased load on the joints, resulting in increased risk of injury, pain, inflammation, and the likelihood of long-term injury.
The 1% rule
If you want to give a measure of how much weight affects your performance, a calculation can help you.
It’s called the “1% Rule,” and it says that a 1% increase in body weight can slow your running speed by the same percentage.
Do you weigh 70kg and run at 5 min/km?
If your weight increases to 70.70kg, according to this rule, your performance will slow down by 3 seconds.
It may not sound like much but it can make a difference, and consider that the 7-ounce increase is definitely modest and is a physiological change in your body weight.
From 70 to 77 kg, for example, the slowdown becomes 30 seconds.
That’s not so little anymore, is it?
The Rule of Two Seconds Per Kilo per Mile
Another rule of thumb says that each extra kilogram can add about two seconds to the time it takes you to run a mile.
Translated into miles it means that each extra kilogram adds two seconds to the time it takes you to cover 1.6 km.
It is not so much only if you consider it over the single mile, but over the distance of a marathon it has a different effect: for every extra kilogram you actually lose 52 seconds (the marathon is just over 26 miles) over the entire distance.
Now what?
It seems unnecessary to specify it, but the most obvious solution is to lose weight.
It’s not the easiest, otherwise everyone would be doing it, right?
Think of it from another perspective: if your goal is personal best or otherwise beating your previous time in a race, you can use this motivation to control what you eat, not to indulge in reckless consumption in terms of both quantity and quality (avoiding, for example, processed food high in added sugars and focusing on a balanced diet rich in nutrients) and holding back when you would like to indulge in an encore or a snack that you can easily give up.
This is not about achieving extreme thinness, but about finding the ideal weight for your build and running style.
There is also the good weight
We are (also) physical bodies and we have weight.
It is inevitable and indeed, fortunate that we have it!
The “good” weight is the useful weight: muscles, skeleton, some fat reserve.
In fact, a paradox is that your weight can increase even as your muscle mass increases.
Would you feel so bad if the weight gain was due to the development of powerful muscles?
We don’t think so.
Increasing muscle mass can also improve your performance.
In fact, stronger muscles help you run faster and more efficiently, and they can also reduce your risk of injury, since they better support and cooperate with your joints, relieving them of some of the weight and strain of physical activity.
It is important to
Workout and diet are allies
Do you know anyone who has lost weight and maintained it without exercising?
You can lose weight, even quickly, with more or less aggressive diets, but if the goal is to maintain (and not just reach) your goal weight, there is no other solution than to be active.
But you’re already running, right?
You’re already starting out ahead of the game.
In short, consider that when diet and exercise work together, it also means that diet serves your energy needs.
That’s how the food you eat in short is used: it serves to give you the right fuel to move, and it doesn’t accumulate into spare fat, since you use it more intelligently (don’t worry: your body will take care of that).
The right weight
Body weight is crucial in your running performance.
It may seem difficult to achieve that form, but with a little effort and the right strategies, it can help you tremendously to improve your speed and reduce your risk of injury.
And as always, small changes can benefit you greatly as they change habits and change you, little by little.
(Via Runner’s Blueprint)