What is Running Economy (RE) and how does strength training improve it?

Running Economy (RE) refers to the amount of energy (or oxygen) your body uses to run at a specific submaximal speed. If you have good RE, you're more efficient – you use less fuel to cover the same distance at the same pace compared to someone with poorer RE.

Strength training typically improves RE by 2-8% through several neuromuscular and musculoskeletal adaptations, rather than by increasing your maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O₂max). These improvements include:

• Enhanced Mechanical Efficiency: Your muscles learn to produce force more effectively and coordinate better, meaning less wasted energy per stride.

• Increased Musculo-Tendinous Stiffness: Your tendons (like the Achilles) become better at storing and returning elastic energy with each foot strike, acting like more efficient springs.

• Improved Neuromuscular Control: Better recruitment and firing of motor units in your muscles allow for more forceful and coordinated contractions.

• Delayed Recruitment of Less Efficient Muscle Fibers: Stronger fatigue-resistant muscle fibers can handle more of the workload, postponing the need to use less economical, faster-fatiguing fibers.