📖 Part 15 of 18
🧠 Introduction
In the last article, we uncovered another assumption many athletes never stop to question.
💥 The push may be much bigger than the leg itself.
At first, many athletes think of the push as belonging primarily to:
👉 the glutes
👉 the hamstrings
👉 the quads
👉 the calves
But as we looked closer, another possibility began to emerge.
What if the push belongs to something larger?
What if the pushing leg is participating alongside other contributors during the same stride?
That led us to a new idea.
💥 The pushing side.
A side of the sprint responsible for supporting the push.
But another question immediately appears.
If there is a pushing side…
💥 what’s on the other side?
🤔 Most Athletes Already Know The Swing Exists
Let’s start with something obvious.
🤣
Nobody watches sprinting and misses the swing leg.
The leg is right there.
Every stride:
👉 one leg pushes
👉 one leg swings
Easy enough.
The question isn’t whether the swing exists.
The question is whether athletes think about it very much.
For most athletes, the answer is probably no.
Instead, attention usually goes toward:
👉 pushing harder
👉 producing more force
👉 becoming more explosive
👉 developing the contributors supporting the push
Fair enough.
Those contributors are easy to feel.
Easy to train.
Easy to talk about.
But another question starts to appear.
While one side is busy supporting the push…
what exactly is responsible for the swing?
Because the swing isn’t happening by magic.
🤣
The leg doesn’t simply float forward by itself.
Something is responsible for driving it.
Something is responsible for repeatedly bringing it forward every stride.
And if that contribution exists during every sprint…
could it deserve more attention than it usually receives?
👀 Maybe The Swing Is Bigger Than The Leg
Think about what we’ve already discovered throughout this series.
At first, many athletes viewed speed almost entirely through the lens of the push.
Build stronger:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
And eventually speed should improve.
Simple.
Then another realization appeared.
💥 Every stride contains a swing too.
Not after the push.
Not before the push.
During the push.
At the same time.
And that raises an interesting question.
If the push may be bigger than the leg itself…
could the swing be bigger than the leg itself too?
Let’s assume for a moment that we’re right.
Let’s assume the swing side includes:
👉 the swing leg
👉 the muscles responsible for driving it forward
Together, these contributors make up what AQ calls:
💥 the swing side.
And all of them participate together during the same stride.
That’s important.
Because many athletes spend years thinking about the push.
But very few spend much time thinking about the side responsible for the swing.
Yet both show up during every sprint.
Both show up during every stride.
And both appear every time an athlete attempts to run faster.
🤯 How Much Attention Has The Swing Side Actually Received?
Now let’s make this personal.
Think about your own training.
Over the last:
👉 week
👉 month
👉 six months
👉 year
How much attention have you given to:
💥 the pushing side
The pushing leg.
The arms.
The torso.
Now compare that to the attention you’ve given to:
💥 the swing side
The contributors responsible for repeatedly driving the leg forward.
For many athletes, the difference is enormous.
And honestly, that’s understandable.
🤣
Most athletes have been taught to think about:
👉 the push
👉 force
👉 power
👉 explosion
Not the swing.
Not because the swing doesn’t exist.
But because the swing rarely receives the same attention.
And that creates another interesting possibility.
What if an entire side of sprinting has been receiving far less attention than the other?
💥 Suddenly the conversation changes.
Now we’re not just asking whether contributors exist.
We’re asking whether both sides of sprinting have received the same level of development.
💥 Maybe This Is Another Reason
Think about where we’ve been throughout this series.
At first, speed seemed like a pushing problem.
Build stronger:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
And speed should improve.
Simple.
But one realization after another started expanding the picture.
You discovered:
👉 the swing leg matters
👉 the arms participate
👉 the torso participates
👉 the pushing side may be bigger than the leg itself
And now another realization begins to emerge.
💥 The swing side may deserve more attention than many athletes realize.
The leg doesn’t simply appear in front of the body by itself.
The swing doesn’t happen automatically.
Every stride requires contributors responsible for driving the leg forward.
Yet despite participating during every sprint…
many athletes spend far less time thinking about them.
If you’ve spent years focusing primarily on one side of sprinting…
while giving far less attention to the other…
could that eventually matter?
Could it become one more reason speed stops improving the way it once did?
💥 Could it become one more reason you’re not faster?
At the very least, it’s a possibility worth considering.
🧭 Continue The Journey
A few articles ago, speed seemed simple.
Then another realization appeared.
💥 Sprinting uses both legs.
Then another.
💥 The arms participate.
Then another.
💥 The torso participates.
Then another.
💥 The pushing side may be much bigger than most athletes realize.
And now another realization has emerged.
💥 The swing side may deserve more attention than many athletes realize too.
At this point, something interesting is starting to happen.
We no longer have:
👉 one contributor
👉 one muscle
👉 one body part
We now have:
👉 a pushing side
👉 a swing side
And that raises a much bigger question.
If both sides participate during every stride…
do both sides need to improve together?
Because if speed depends on both sides of the sprint…
understanding the relationship between them may be just as important as understanding the sides themselves.
And that may be one more reason you’re not faster.
📖 Next Up: Part 16 of 18
➡️ Do Both Sides Of Running Need To Improve Together To Keep Getting Faster?
