Hurdles or Flat?

Which running track is harder on the body

(HealthDayNews) -- Which do you think is harder to do in a track-and-field competition: run a flat race or run one with hurdles?

Surprisingly, the winner, according to the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, is a flat track.

When a group of sprinters was studied on the 400-meter track and the 400-meter hurdles, their heart rate for both events was pretty much the same: 193 beats per minute for the flat track and 194 for the hurdles.

But when the researchers measured blood lactate -- an indicator of muscle fatigue -- runners averaged a lactate level of 16 in the hurdles, but had an average lactate level of 19 after going the same distance on a flat track.

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