How does body weight affect running speed?

Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s fastest marathon runner and twice Olympic winner, weighs 52 kilograms at 167 centimeters. He is the only person today who has run the 42,195-meter marathon distance faster than two hours. At the same time, Usain Bolt – the most famous sprinter – weighs 94 kg at 195 cm, which is almost twice as heavy as Kipchoge. And both are the best at their respective distances. What then is the ideal weight for a runner and does it affect running speed?

founder and coach of the ERA club – Elkonin Running Addicts.

At World Championships and Olympic Games there is not a single athlete with a noticeable layer of fat under the skin.

Does weight affect speed?

It depends on how long you run. If you are a sprinter and the distance is not more than 400 meters, your muscles will work very intensively for several tens of seconds. Such work requires a lot of power: sprinters take more than 200 steps per minute, and each step moves the athlete forward by 2.2-2.4 meters. It is not surprising that guys and girls with powerful relief muscles get into the starting blocks at short distances.

Alexander: Sprinters spend a lot of time in the gym working with heavy weights. Otherwise they can’t develop the explosive power necessary for very fast running. If you are running 42 kilometers, however, your main focus will be on conserving energy. The elite marathon runners take 180-190 steps per minute, each 1.6-1.9 meters long. Among the best marathon runners there are no people with big muscles, they are very lean. That is, the less weight you carry, the less energy you will expend.

Simply put, there are two general patterns linking body mass and a runner’s speed:

• The greater the muscle mass, the (all other things being equal) greater the speed a runner can reach. At the same time, the time he or she can sustain a high speed decreases.
• The lower the body mass, the more endurance the athlete has and the faster he will be over long (>1000m) distances.

Is there an ideal competitive weight for a runner?

Any athlete who is serious about achieving the best performance in running strives to reach his or her optimal weight. Namely, a combination of the highest possible muscle mass (mainly leg muscles) and the lowest possible total body weight. All runners – sprinters and stayers alike – want to get rid of the fat that keeps them from running faster and longer. And that’s no surprise. For regular people who run for fun, controlling body weight is important, too.

How do you calculate your ideal weight for running?

Alexander: The well-known rule of thumb “ideal weight = height minus 100” works well when adjusted for physique. For those who inherited a small height and stocky figure from their mom and dad, the formula “height minus 90” may be enough. But only if the skin fold on the abdomen is quite thin and the relief of abdominal muscles (the very “cubes”) is clearly visible. Often such people are prone to weight gain, so they need to regularly get on the scale and carefully monitor the contents of the refrigerator. Their training, as a rule, should be aimed at developing and maintaining endurance.