Individual and unorganized sports with a health-related focus, such as recreational running, have grown extensively in the last decade. Consistent with this development, there has been an exponential increase in the availability and use of electronic monitoring devices such as smartphone applications (apps) and sports watches. These electronic devices could provide support and monitoring for un...

Psychological mechanisms explaining running performance have not been fully identified yet. One of the factors potentially important in is positive orientation—a higher order construct capturing core self-esteem, life satisfaction, and optimism. The aim study was to investigate role orientation recreational runners. involved 204 runners taking part a marathon race. Before race, they reported th...

Radionuclide gastric emptying studies using 99m-Tc human serum albumin egg omelette have been carried out in 10 long distance runners at rest and during a 90 minute run at sustained speed. Resting values are compared with controls comprising 10 sedentary subjects. Runners show a significantly accelerated basal gastric emptying (runners t 1/2 = 67.7 (5.9) min; sedentaries t 1/2 = 85.3 (4.5) min,...

Marathon runners tend to form clusters during competition, possibly as a means of improving their performance. Studies of international competitors in Fukuoka and Tokyo races have shown a density of 0.44 to 0.80 runners.m2 among those maintaining a pace of 4.8-5.6 m.s-1, clustering being most marked among elite performers. Some 95% of clustered runners maintained a minimum distance of 0.5-1.5 m...

Background It is reported that 75% of long distance runners use a rearfoot strike (RFS) technique. This percentage decreases in faster runners, where the incidence of midfoot and forefoot strikers (FFS) increases [1]. It is possible that FFS better utilises the passive-elastic mechanisms of the lower limb reducing energy cost. Williams et al. [2] found runners who converted from RFS to FFS duri...

Regular exercise is associated with substantial health benefits; however, little is known about the health impact of extreme levels of exercise. This study examined the prevalence of chronic diseases, health-care utilization, and risk factors for exercise-related injuries among ultramarathon runners. Retrospective, self-reported enrollment data from an ongoing longitudinal observational study o...

The current dominance of African runners in long-distance running is an intriguing phenomenon that highlights the close relationship between genetics and physical performance. Many factors in the interesting interaction between genotype and phenotype (eg, high cardiorespiratory fitness, higher hemoglobin concentration, good metabolic efficiency, muscle fiber composition, enzyme profile, diet, a...

In this paper, we study dynamic stability during running, focusing on the effects of speed and the use of a leg prosthesis. We compute and compare the maximal Lyapunov exponents of kinematic time-series data from subjects with and without unilateral transtibial amputations running at a wide range of speeds. We find that the dynamics of the affected leg with the runningspecific prosthesis are le...

Increased incidence of stress fracture has been reported for amenorrheic runners, while some studies have reported decreased spinal bone mass in amenorrheic runners. Based on results from these studies, one tends to associate decreased spinal bone mass with an increased risk of stress fracture. The present study compared regional bone mass and external loads during running between six female ru...