How to swing your arms when sprinting

What your arms do in a sprint

Every time a leg swings forward, it twists your lower body around a vertical axis. If nothing cancelled that twist, your hips and shoulders would rotate back and forth with each step. Your arms swing in the opposite direction to each leg, so the twists cancel out and your torso keeps pointing down the track.

A 1987 study filmed 10 male runners on a treadmill in 3D. It found the arms made a meaningful contribution to the body's angular momentum only around the vertical axis, where their pattern cancelled the opposite pattern of the legs. The upper trunk moved with the arms. A muscle-driven computer simulation of running reached the same conclusion: the arms counteracted the vertical-axis angular momentum of the legs, while contributing less than 1% of the peak acceleration of the body's center of mass.

Whether the arms add any push is less settled. The companion study to the first one estimated that the arms supplied roughly 5–10% of the vertical impulse at running speeds of 3.8 to 5.4 m/s, with their share growing as speed rose. Those speeds are well below sprinting. A 2018 review of arm mechanics in sprinting concluded that the arms' role is still unclear and has had little research, and that coaches split between seeing the arms as a counterbalance and seeing them as a source of propulsion.

Arm and leg timing are linked. When researchers strapped 1 kg to each forearm of 22 rugby players, their legs changed with the arms: step frequency fell 4.1%, ground contacts got 6.5% longer and step length rose 2.1%. Their 10m and 20m times were about 2% slower.

Does arm swing make you faster?

A little. The most direct test is a 2022 study in which 17 athletes (7 track and field, 10 team sport) ran 30m sprints three times with normal arm swing and three times with their arms folded across their chest. Radar measured their speed.

Both groups ran slower with their arms folded, and the overall difference was 1.6%. The authors called the cost marginal and suggested the trunk and shoulders took over part of the arms' job, rotating to offset the legs. Your legs produce your speed, and with folded arms these athletes still ran nearly as fast.

A 2026 study of 16 middle school track athletes (8 boys, 8 girls) found that restricting the arms reduced sprint speed and stride length in both groups. Step frequency dropped only in the girls, whose speed also fell by a larger percentage. The boys rotated their shoulders more when their arms were restricted. Both studies are small, but they agree that arms help and that the body compensates when the arms are taken away.

Arm swing in acceleration

In the first 20–30m your legs take long, forceful pushes with plenty of ground contact time, and your arms match them. The swing is big at both ends: the hand comes up toward face height in front and drives well past the hip behind, with the elbow opening as it goes back. It is slower than at top speed, because the step rate is lower, and heavier in effort.

• Out of the blocks or a stance, the first arm action is a punch. As your back leg drives through for the first step, the opposite arm drives forward and the other drives hard back.
• Keep the arms swinging forward and back along your body, even though you are leaning. They move in line with your forward lean, so they push and pull along the direction you are running.
• Let the swing shorten gradually as your body rises over the first 20–30m, the same way your steps get quicker.

A study of block starts compared 6 elite sprinters (10.06–10.43 s for 100m) with 6 well-trained ones (11.01–11.80 s). As they left the blocks, the elite sprinters' hands were further forward, and they produced a larger impulse against the blocks. The authors concluded that arm coordination and muscular strength set apart an efficient start. The block start guide covers the rest of the start, and the three-point stance guide covers starting from a stance for the 40-yard dash.

Arm swing at top speed

At top speed your steps are quick and your ground contacts are short, so the arms swing faster through a slightly shorter arc. They still go forward and back, with the hand reaching about chin or shoulder height in front and passing the hip behind.

• Swing from the shoulder. The upper arm does the work and the forearm goes along with it.
• Keep the elbow bent to roughly 90°, letting it close a little in front and open a little behind.
• Keep your shoulders down and loose. Shrugged shoulders shorten the swing and spread tension down the body.
• Drive the elbow back. The forward swing comes back by itself, and a firm backswing keeps the arms from stalling in front of you.
• Keep the arms in rhythm with your legs, one full arm swing for each pair of steps.

The sprint form guide covers the rest of your posture at top speed, and stride length vs stride frequency explains how step rate and step length combine into speed.

Should your arms cross your body?

Some inward swing is expected, since cancelling the legs' twist is part of the arms' job. In the 1987 treadmill study, a slight crossover reduced side-to-side movement of the body's center of mass, and the authors found no clear advantage for a strictly straight-ahead swing. That was in distance runners, not sprinters. So a hand that drifts slightly in toward the middle of your chest is fine. Coach it when the hand swings past the middle and the shoulders start twisting with it.

How to swing your arms when sprinting

Pick one cue at a time and use it for a few reps. Trying to fix everything at once at full speed rarely works.

Film from the front as well as the side. Arm faults show up from the front: crossing, elbows winging out and shoulders twisting. A side view shows how far the hands travel in front and behind.

Arm swing drills

Arm drills are quick to learn and fit into a warm-up. Do them before your sprints, then carry one cue into the session. The sprint drills guide covers the full warm-up drill set, and the sprint warm-up shows where they go.

Use the drills to learn the shape, then put your attention on it during build-ups and fast reps, where it has to hold up.

Common arm swing faults

Crossing the midline

The hand swings past the middle of your chest and the shoulders twist with it. Use mirror arm swings and the cue "forward and back, not across."

Tension

Clenched fists, shrugged shoulders and a tight jaw. Loosen the hands first, then drop the shoulders. Sprint-float-sprint runs teach you to hold speed while staying relaxed.

A short swing

The hands stay in front of the hips and pump in a small arc. Cue "elbows back" and let the hand pass the hip on every swing, especially in acceleration.

Elbows winging out

The elbows flare away from the body and the arms swing sideways. Side-on wall arm swings keep the arm travelling close to your side.

Swinging from the elbow

The upper arm stays still and the forearm chops up and down. Seated arm swings teach you to move the whole arm from the shoulder.

Arms out of rhythm with the legs

The arms lag or rush the stride. Slow it down with A-marches and A-skips, then build up the speed with arm-led build-ups.

For football players, the how to get faster for football guide puts these arm actions into a full offseason speed plan.