Speed Development and Exercises for Running

With these excercises for running, every athlete can develop speed, strength, agility, and power. Begin your speed development workout with a 10-minute dynamic warm-up. Perform static flexibility stretches after your workout to bring your muscles back to normal length. Workout speed – you have to train fast to get fast Do all of your speed training drills with maximum effort. If you give less than maximum effort when you workout, you will not improve your speed.

Strengthen your whole body including your upper body and core. Being strong and flexible will help you reach your potential! You can do exercises like bridges, and planks to strengthen your core. A strong upper body will help you pump your arms faster, which will help you run faster.

Building leg strength is very important. Doing squats and leg presses are the best way to do this. Some other great lower body exercises to increase your speed include, lunges and step-ups and doing plyometric exercises such as box jumps squat jumps, and bounding. Also strengthen and condition your hamstrings. Having good lower body strength will improve your running speed and power. These exercises develop your power center. Increasing your power or how fast your muscles produce force will improve your running speed.

Improving your vertical leap will improve your straight-ahead speed. Doing plyometric exercises like squat jumps and weighted squat jumps will help you improve your vertical leap and your speed and power. An explosive, powerful athlete will be a faster athlete. You should start to do plyometric exercises after you have built up enough strength your body enough to withstand these high intensity type of exercises. Jumping and landing techniques should also be mastered before progressing to full speed plyometric exercises. Never do plyometric exercises on hard surfaces such as concrete and asphalt.

Improve your speed acceleration. Sometimes being quick is better than being fast. Sometimes getting to the spot quicker is often more important than being faster than your opponent. Unless you’re on a breakaway for a 50-yard touchdown run, you rarely reach your top speed in many sports; this is why your acceleration speed becomes important to your success. Wes Welker the New England Patriots receiver may not be the fastest player in the league but he may be one of the quickest. This is a big reason for his success.

Work on your running form and technique. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The more force you apply to the ground with your feet when you run, the more power the ground will giveback to you. This running technique is often overlooked. When you run, try not to lift your knee beyond the point of your thigh being parallel to the ground. By doing this, you will maximize use of your power center to apply force to the ground. Running with high knees is not the best running form to use. When you run make sure your feet land under your hips. When the foot leaves the ground, it should come straight up to the buttocks, and not flail from side to side. Another common running mistake is over-striding. When you over-stride, your heel lands first. You want to be landing on the balls of your feet to create a pushing off the ground effect.

Improve your speed endurance. Athletes and teams who are stronger and faster in the fourth quarter win more games. Speed endurance is the ability to maintain maximum speed or a high percentage of maximum speed for a prolonged period of time. When you are fatigued, it is important to maintain proper running technique. Doing so will give you an edge over your opponent.

Sports that require speed endurance include basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and tennis. These sports require repeated sprints followed by short periods of rest.

Plyometric Exercises