Fast Talk 395: The Difference Between Efficiency and Economy, and Why You Should Care
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Oct 30, 2025 Dr. Ray Browning, an exercise scientist and biomechanist who co-founded Biomodem and played a key role in Nike's Breaking2 project, dives into the crucial distinction between efficiency and economy in sports. He explains efficiency as energy output versus input, while economy focuses on energy required per velocity. Browning shares insights from the Breaking2 project, highlighting how footwear innovations enhanced running economy. He also discusses the importance of improving economy for better performance and offers actionable strategies to optimize training.
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Clear Difference: Efficiency Vs Economy
- Efficiency is a ratio of useful mechanical output to metabolic energy input and is hard to measure accurately.
- Economy is metabolic energy required per unit speed and links more directly to performance.
Shoes Can Improve Economy
- Footwear can offload muscle work by storing and returning energy, reducing metabolic cost at the same speed.
- Nike's carbon-plate shoes produced ~4% running economy improvement in their project.
Why Multiple Efficiency Metrics Exist
- Different efficiency metrics (gross, net, delta) try to remove baseline metabolic costs or examine changes across workloads.
- Gross efficiency remains the most commonly used despite debate about the alternatives.