Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that it may be faster for humans to run on all fours. (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The fastest human on the planet might be a quadrupedal runner at the 2048 Olympics, which may be achieved by shifting up to the rotary gallop and taking longer strides with wide sagittal trunk motion. More generally, investigation of quadrupedal running will not only result in the development of new techniques that allow biomechanists to study locomotion in natural settings but will also reveal the underlying principles of how these runners accomplish their astonishing performances.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I can run much faster quadrupedally, but I get exhausted faster too.

If you trained for it correctly, I bet a 100m dash would certainly win, but the marathon wouldn't.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I think they specify that this applies over short distances. It looks at the 100m in particular.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Humans are bipedal cause we can outrun anything over long distances. Humans hunted animals by running them till they collapsed.