Arm swinging reduces the metabolic cost of running
Have you ever tried running without swinging your arms? It's not easy. Each step jars and it feels like hard work: but is it? Christopher Arellano, from Brown University, USA, says, 'We know from the literature that arm swinging plays an important role in balancing the motion of the swinging legs.' But it wasn't clear how the upper body movement affected the metabolic cost of running. And when Arellano and his thesis advisor, Rodger Kram, from the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, looked into the literature to find out whether the metabolic effects of arm swinging had been measured, they found few studies and those that they did find did not agree. With the jury out, Arellano and Kram decided to embark on a thorough study of the impact of arm swinging on the metabolic cost of running.