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Will Buns of Steel Increase the Ability to Run Faster? (Read 1181 times)

    http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/209/11/2143
    The human gluteus maximus and its role in running The human gluteus maximus is a distinctive muscle in terms of size, anatomy and function compared to apes and other non-human primates. Here we employ electromyographic and kinematic analyses of human subjects to test the hypothesis that the human gluteus maximus plays a more important role in running than walking. The results indicate that the gluteus maximus is mostly quiescent with low levels of activity during level and uphill walking, but increases substantially in activity and alters its timing with respect to speed during running. The major functions of the gluteus maximus during running are to control flexion of the trunk on the stance-side and to decelerate the swing leg; contractions of the stance-side gluteus maximus may also help to control flexion of the hip and to extend the thigh. Evidence for when the gluteus maximus became enlarged in human evolution is equivocal, but the muscle's minimal functional role during walking supports the hypothesis that enlargement of the gluteus maximus was likely important in the evolution of hominid running capabilities.
      I don't know if buns of steel will increase the ability to run faster....but I can certainly guarantee that buns of steel on a bloke will make the run a lot more enjoyable for the female running behind him Big grin
      sluggo


      John

        Hefty, this is your most amusing thread yet!

        John
        www.wickedrunningclub.com

        In the beginning, the universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

        --- Douglas Adams, in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

        zoom-zoom


        rectumdamnnearkilledem

          Tamilee Webb must love this free advertising....

          Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

          remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

               ~ Sarah Kay

          C-R


            Hey that's an 80's throwback. Is Tamilee still looking like that today? Hefty - Not sure if you're stirring the pot or what. But if you are serious in getting fater - do what my fast running friends tell me - drop the weight and run lots of miles with specific purpose in mind (base, tempo, progressive, interval, etc.). These guys run in the sub six so I think they know of what the speak. If that doesn't work then I say go back another decade and hit the Jazzersice and run all training and races in leg warmers whilst singing "I'm a maniac".


            "He conquers who endures" - Persius
            "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel

            http://ncstake.blogspot.com/

            zoom-zoom


            rectumdamnnearkilledem

              Hey that's an 80's throwback. Is Tamilee still looking like that today?
              48 and still looks like this: Sheesh...she's got 13 years on me and looks 13 years younger than I do... Cry

              Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

              remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                   ~ Sarah Kay

                48 and still looks like this: Sheesh...she's got 13 years on me and looks 13 years younger than I do... Cry
                Not true! I've seen your profile pic.
                C-R


                  Ok lets put this in perspective. Things Tamilee propbably never enjoys: - Steak and Shake - Some real beer (not that watered down crap from Bud or Miller) but something more like a Chimay - A full course meal at Outback with the bloomin onion and a sweet potatoes loaded - YUMMMMM - Kickin back on weekends with friends at a burger and brat fest and eating all you like. To stay like that she has to only eat healthy foods prepared in the healtheist ways ( that means no real butter on that bagel) and workout like mad everyday. So what are we left with here - no clue but I do know I run becasue I like it and I can do any and all of the above and not worry about it. That being said - the Abs of Steel is still working for her.


                  "He conquers who endures" - Persius
                  "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel

                  http://ncstake.blogspot.com/

                  finney


                  Resident pinniped

                    And people thought I was a troll.... Tongue


                    A Saucy Wench

                      I all seriousness... If you have excess bodyfat, then adding muscle and losing fat will in general make you faster at the same weight (yes there was a study, and no, I have no idea where it is). Weights are a faster way to add muscle (which does help you burn fat) than running. If you are already lean, then weights add mass which over long distances makes you slower. I have DEFINITELY seen an improvement in speed and endurance with adding squats and other weight training. I cycle my weight training throughout the year...mass building during base building, stamina during stamina, light during speed... I had a little bump in the road with my weight but at 133 lbs now I carry about 3 lbs more muscle than I did last time I was 133. I am not going to negate my running training, but I am positive it has helped.

                      I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                       

                      "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

                      Hannibal Granite


                        Hefty - have you ever really looked at world class sprinters (100m-200m runners) or 'pure speed' players in the NFL like wide recievers / running backs? A lot of these guys (and gals) have big butts. Not big as in they need to lose weight big, but big muscular glutes. Watch some of the Track & Field at this summers Olympics to see what I'm talking about. For pure power production large powerful gluteal muscles will definitely help. However, when it comes to endurance, large gluteal muscles will be just like large powerful muscles anywhere else - they will tire quickly and slow you down. In other words doing 'buns' workouts won't help you run a 7-minute mile Smile

                        "You NEED to do this" - Shara

                          Hefty - have you ever really looked at world class sprinters (100m-200m runners) or 'pure speed' players in the NFL like wide recievers / running backs? A lot of these guys (and gals) have big butts. Not big as in they need to lose weight big, but big muscular glutes. Watch some of the Track & Field at this summers Olympics to see what I'm talking about. For pure power production large powerful gluteal muscles will definitely help. However, when it comes to endurance, large gluteal muscles will be just like large powerful muscles anywhere else - they will tire quickly and slow you down. In other words doing 'buns' workouts won't help you run a 7-minute mile Smile
                          The term "buns of steel" doesn't necessarily mean that the buns under scrutiny should be huge and bulky. Exactly what part did endurance running play in human evolution? http://www.ultrarunning.com/ultra/features/world/chapter-i-in-the-beginnin.shtml
                          [...] By 1000 A.D., the Vikings from Norway had established colonies in Greenland, and in the year 1009 Thorfinn Karlsefni set out to explore a new land that had been discovered to the West, Vinland. He had been given two Scottish runners, a man named Haki and a woman Hekja, both reputedly fleeter than deer. When Karlsefni arrived in this new land, he put ashore the Scots, ordering them to run south, to discover the nature of the land and to come back before three days had passed. The runners wore only a bjafal or kjafal, a hooded poncho, which fastened between the legs. It is likely that the Scots explored what later became known as Newfoundland. They returned three days later carrying grapes and self-sewn wheat, which may sound surprising today, but 1,000 years ago the province had a warmer climate than at present. Native Americans that the Scots may have met would have been part of the running culture that permeated the entire continent. There were, in fact, extensive trading routes throughout pre-Columbian America, used by traders and their porters traveling on foot. Within this wider context, early European settlers were to record networks of runners that tied tribes together. In the Northeast, in what was to become New York state, the Iroquois Confederacy was held together by running messengers who could cover the 240-mile Iroquois Trail within three days. In the far South, Aztec relay runners brought their king, Montezuma, news of the Spaniard Cortez' landing at Chianiztlan, covering the 260 miles in relay fashion within 24 hours. In 1680, a network of Hopi and Zuni runners coordinated a revolt against their Spanish conquerors among some 70 pueblos or villages, covering over 300 miles in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. Without horses, using only dogs as pack animals, Native Americans were conditioned to cover great distances on foot from an early age. It was recorded that Apache Indians, who were renowned for their toughness, at the age of 15 or 16 had to undertake a long run over rough country carrying a load on their back. Young men would be expected to go without sleep in a vigil that could last 48 hours. They then were required to go out into the wilds for two weeks, living through their own skill and toughness. An adult Apache could travel on foot over the roughest terrain from fifty to seventy-five miles a day, keeping this up for several days at a stretch. Outstanding runners in such a culture would become key figures in holding together widespread associations, such as the Iroquois Confederacy, or even loose groupings of proximal tribes, by carrying news and other urgent messages. A typical example of the role such runners played is recorded in Peter Nobokov's excellent book "Indian Running." In the 1860s a messenger runner of the Mesquakie tribe in his mid-fifties ran 400 miles from Green Bay, Wisconsin to warn Sauk Indians along the Missouri River of an enemy attack. Such messenger runners were probably part of the culture of the Sauk, Creek, Omaha, Kickapoo, Osage, and Menominee tribes, and possibly many others. Such runners dedicated their lives to this endeavor, following a strict diet and often practicing celibacy. On their runs they would carry a dried buffalo heart. We can get some idea of the kind of distances such runners covered from the journals of early settlers. As early as 1794, James Emlen wrote that Sharp Shins, one of the Iroquois Confederacy messengers, ran 90 miles from Canandaigua to Niagara between sunrise and sunset. In 1835, a correspondent to The Spirit of the Times newspaper told of a Native American who had run 100 miles in a day carrying a sixty-pound bar of lead. Another wrote of a member of the Osage tribe to skeptical members of the Indian Commission. Seeking to prove his veracity, he proposed a wager. An Indian was to take a message to Fort Gibson at sunrise and return with an answer before sunset, a round-trip journey of some 80 miles. The wager was won. [...]