Study finds the size of your bum affects how fast you can run

The study tested the muscle anatomy of 42 men.
The study tested the muscle anatomy of 42 men. Photo credit: Getty

Scientists revealed having a big butt could be the key to being a speed sprinter - a skill we cannot photoshop, unfortunately.

Experts from Loughborough University found that sprinters with a large gluteus maximus - a muscle that forms the bottom - run up to 44 percent faster.

The study, published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal tested the muscle anatomy of 42 men.

It tested five elite sprinters, 26 sub-elite and 11 healthy but untrained participants, to understand whether the size of their muscles affected their performance.

The findings found that top sprinters were generally more muscular -  members of the elite group had "far bigger" muscles compared to the untrained men and sub-elite sprinters.

The muscles extending the hip joint were 32 percent bigger in the elite athletes compared to the sub-elite group.

"The biggest differences between the elite sprinters and the sub-elite sprinters was due to the size of the hip extensor muscle group, and the gluteus maximus muscle in particular - which is the large muscle which gives your buttock its round shape," Professor Jonathan Folland of the University of Loughborough told CNN.

"Sprint performance depends on so many different things: psychology, technique, nutrition. All sorts of factors. We found the gluteus maximus seemed to explain 44 percent of the variability."

The team at Loughborough University are now researching female sprinters.