Hypergravity running: A “centrifugal track” for sprint-specific strength training

Abstract

After having discovered that, unlike humans, greyhounds do not slow down when running round a tight bend (Usherwood & Wilson, 2005 – https://doi.org/10.1038/438753a), desert lizards actually swim in the Sahara (Crofts & Summers, 2011 – https://doi.org/10.1038/472177a) and water strider insects are able to jump on water (Koh et al., 2015 – https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1637), we are now going to find out how sprint-running athletes can improve their strength capabilities by running under an augmented gravitational acceleration similar to that of Jupiter without actually having to leave Earth. The centrifugal track exploits the centripetal acceleration to increase the runner’s body weight during the foot-contact phase of running. Since inertial forces are distributed, the overload produced by running on the centrifugal track does not harmfully affect the musculoskeletal system. It has been shown that this overload does not cause acute detrimental changes to the running technique. The centrifugal track can be proposed as a viable alternative to traditional sprint-specific strength training tools.