Why a Skip Costs More Than a Step
During a skip, your body’s center of mass—the average position of all your body mass—rises noticeably off the ground. Your legs must push against the ground to give you upward speed, increasing your gravitational potential energy: the energy you have because you are higher above the ground. The higher the rise, the more work your muscles must do.
That upward launch also creates airtime, but it does not carry you forward for free. On landing, your legs have to manage the downward motion and prepare to push off again. Repeating the cycle means repeatedly accelerating and lowering much of your body, rather than keeping its path comparatively level.
Some Energy Comes Back—but Not All
A landing is not a complete energy reset. Tendons and other elastic tissues can stretch as your legs absorb force, then recoil to help with the next push. That spring-like return reduces the work muscles need to supply.
But the return is incomplete: some energy becomes heat, and muscles also spend energy controlling the landing and stabilizing the body. The cost comes from repeatedly lifting and catching yourself, not simply from being airborne. A skip may feel playful and make each stride more dramatic, but those repeated rises and landings are why it can demand more effort than moving with less vertical bounce.
