Discover the jaw-dropping changes that happen to you when you’re an elite track and field athlete. Athletics isn’t just a sport; it’s a catalyst for unbelievable body transformations. In this post, we dive deep into what happens to athletes when they push their limits in various track and field events.

Find out how sprinting increases your cognitive abilities, and how the triple jump can make your leg bones almost unbreakable. Learn about the remarkable adaptations that come with shot putting, middle to long-distance running, and more. From extreme muscle development to incredible cardiovascular enhancements, see how track and field shapes the human body in ways you never imagined and uncover the science behind the astonishing transformations from one of the most demanding sports on the planet.

No other sport tests the extremes of human performance like track and field. The physical demands of each event are so confused and singular that athletes must push their body and training to the very limits of what is possible.

In the same arena you´ll see the pinnacle of human strength and power by a 320 lb behemoth while a wiry runner half his size test the limits of aerobic capacity. Just by looking at track and field athletes you can see how their event shapes their bodies. Obviously lifting heavy weights builds muscle and running hundreds of miles sheds body fat. But the really fascinating adaptations are less apparent. In the pursuit of faster-higher-farther the body transforms in some incredible ways.

Shot putting demand maximum force production in an extremely short amount of time. To achieve this, throwers need mass and strenght. So you do things like lifting insane amounts of weights ad eating so much that you don´t even like food anymore. But raw strength and mass is just half of the equation. To throw the shot at an elite level you also need technique and power. So this means you also train the body to be fast and explosive while spending countless hours refining your technique so you can channel every bit of that power into the hand that pushes a 16 lb ball. When you do this thousands of times your hand will become less like a hand a mor like a boxing glove, building a layer of armor around the nerves, muscles and tendons underneath.

Triple jumpers have to be able to generate and then withstand extreme forces to hop, step and jump to greater distances. But it´s a brief moment between the hop and the step that leads to an almost superhero level adaptation in a jumper´s body. Here´s how it happens. The first jump is called the hop. A drastic understatement given that you´ll actually leave leap around 19 and a half feet. The speed it takes to propel your body this distance plus gravity pushing you back to Earth can equal forces to up to 22 times your body weight. This is like suddenly holding a rhino on your back while balancing on one foot. In fact if the forces is not returned within milliseconds of contact through the next phase, called the step, your leg could break. No other intentional movement in sport subjects a human limb to more force. Take this impact over thousands of jumps and your shin and thighbones will actually become substantially thicker and denser to withstand and return the force of this seriously brutal step.

Middle to long distance running brings several positive body changes in the body. When you reach the elite level these effects are significantly amplifyed. Take cardiac output for example, which is the amount of blood the heart can pump. A study compared untrained individuals, non-elite distance runners and elite distance runners. During maximal sustained effort untrained individuals could pump about 17 l per minute, non-elite runners managed around 26 l per minute, but elite distance runners reached an amazing 34 l per minute and other research sugget it could be as high as 40 l per minute in some athletes, which is almost unfathomable 10 gallons per minute. It´s five times what a shower puts out on maximum flow. Part of why this is possible is because endurance training actually increases the amount of blood you have by quite a bit. The demand for oxygen becomes so intense that your body responses by creating about 37% more blood compared to an untrained person. So for an athlete weighing 180 lb this means his blood volume can increase from approximately 6 l to more than 8. And endurance training changes more than just your physiology. It can also improve your pain tolerance. A study comparing elite endurance athletes, soccer players and non-athletes found that endurance athletes had the highest tolerance for cold pain, enduring it significantly longer than the other groups. But just because you can tolerate the pain doesn´t mean you don´t feel it, even if you are a 1500 meter gold medalist. Jakob Inab Bricken freely admits that the prospect of pain makes him really nervous before a race.

To be among the fastest humans on the planet, you need to generate immense power in each stride because sprinting isn´t about moving your legs fast. In fact elite sprinters don´t swing their legs any faster than recreational runners. Research has shown that the average person needs 50 to 55 strides to complete a 100 m dash whereas elite sprinters only need around 45. Speed comes from longer and more powerful strides but this power doesn´t come from building muscle through regular weight training. The key lies in how particular muscles adapt and grow significatly larger. A subtle yet profund change that sets sprinters apart from other athletes. A study comparing elite sprinters and sub elite sprinters found that while there wasn´t a big strength difference between the two, certain muscles were significantly larger in elite sprinters: gluteus maximus (45%), sartorius (47%) and tensor fasciae latae (57%). So why are the muscles larger but not necessarily stronger? Because sprinting is more than absolute strength. Optimized sprint training develops neuromuscular coordination and the rate of force production with very specific workouts that target these muscles and enhance their ability to rapidly contract and relax. This type of training translates into speed rather than just strength, enabling sprinters to generate explosive power within incredible efficiency. Sprint training also makes you smarter and happier, particularly at the elite level. A study found that intense sprint training dramatically increases levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor or BDNF. Surprisingly the more intense the training, the stronger this effect was. High BDNF levels are a very good thing because this protein supports neuron growth, enhaces cognitive functions, improves your ability to manage stress and can significantly elevate your mood. It´s clear evidence that pushing your physical limits doesn´t just transform your body. It supercharges your mind as well.

And finally there´s a common belief that extreme exercise pushes the body too far and athletes pay the price with shorter lives. It turns out that the opposite is true. A study that look at over 8,000 US Olympic athletes found that they live 5 years longer on average. So ultimately track and field not only improves your life but gives you more of it.

Bibliographic references:

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• Antero, J., Tanaka, H., De Larochelambert, Q., Pohar-Perme, M., & Toussaint, J. F. (2021). Female and male US Olympic athletes live 5 years longer than their general population counterparts: a study of 8124 former US Olympians. British journal of sports medicine, 55(4), 206–212. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101696