10 Exercises to Improve Running Speed

If you want to improve your speed and power, you need to work at getting faster. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't have to be complicated workouts, just simple things like these tips and 10 exercises:

1. Starting and acceleration speed is critical during games because you rarely reach maximum speed. Work on quick start drills and plyometric power exercises like squat jumps, long jumps and box jumps (pictured below).

When you do box jumps, the platform needs to high enough to challenge you, but not too high. From an athletic stance, bend your hips and knees and swing your arms back to gather momentum.

Explosively jump onto the box and hold for a second. Step off the box. That's one repetition. Repeat for 6-8 repetitions.

2. Work on your running mechanics every day. Wasted motion and bad running technique will stop you from improving.

3. Strengthen and condition your hips, glutes, thighs and hamstrings. These groups make up your athletic "power center."  Clock or 3-D Lunges work well here.

4. Keep your hips loose and flexible by doing exercises like leg swings (pictured below). Tight hip flexors will cause problems to other areas such as the glutes.

5. "Powerize" your running with exercises like power step ups and squat jumps. Other single leg exercises like lunges are great because single leg exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run.

6. Run fast! You get faster by training fast.  If you play a sport, do your practice drills at full speed.

7. Make squats, deadlifts, good mornings, glute/ham drops and hang cleans regular exercises in your routine.

8. Strengthen your core every day. Exercises like planks, side planks and bridges can be done every day. A strong core is important for speed endurance.

If you will do these simple things on a regular basis, your running speed will improve. You will probably need the help of a professional trainer to make sure you are doing things right. 

Train hard and smart!

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Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

How Change-of-Direction Speed Improves with Core Strength

You have to train purposely to improve your change-of-direction speed (quickness and agility).

In many instances, quickness is more important than straight ahead speed. In many sports, maximum speed is rarely reached or needed, but explosive reaction is often necessary. Athletes can improve reaction times by training to make the right choices (choice reaction).

Reaction time is the ability to respond quickly with proper posture and control to a stimulus such as sound or sight.

How many times have you seen a player with "not great speed" repeatedly make plays to help the team win. This is not an accident. You can improve your change-of-direction speed with proper training. Read my post that discusses change-of-direction speed in detail.

Improve your change-of-direction speed these 3 ways:

1. As with any athletic move, core strength is critical. Overall body strength is also important.

Before you begin to train for speed and power, the foundation should be laid with sufficient core and body strength. Failure to lay this strength foundation will lead to certain injuries for you.

2. Body positioning is critical if you want to improve your change-of-direction speed. You will need dynamic balance. In many sports, it is not that easy to change direction and accelerate because the athlete is often off balance.

Some sports, such as football and basketball require running with or bouncing a ball. And, other sports, such as soccer require moving a ball with the feet. The best running backs, tennis players, basketball players, shortstops, etc. all have great dynamic balance.

Having great dynamic balance means that you are able to maintain your center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support. Thus, quickness and agility drills help you to improve dynamic balance and change-of-direction acceleration while not wasting motion.

3. To improve change-of-direction acceleration, you should have a shin angle of approximately 45 degrees for the first few steps. Your shoulders should also be slightly leaned forward.

The body lean should be at the ankles and not the hips. Having the feet just wider than shoulder-width apart will give you the most stable base of support. This is not always possible during athletic competition.

Therefore, stability needs to be added by lowering the center of gravity. Change-of-direction acceleration could be laterally, at an angle or forward (when back pedaling) and will catapult you to near maximal speed quickly.

The first step in the change-of-direction is important. If this step is too long, you will over-stride and bring the shin to a vertical angle instead of 45 degrees. This will slow you down. So, the first step should be under your hips. Again, the body lean should be at ankles and not the hips.

Improving your coordination will help improve your multi-directional speed and linear speed (straight-ahead speed). A player rarely reaches maximum speed during game competition.

Having great change-of-direction speed (agility with quickness) allows you to beat your opponent "to the spot" or recover from mistakes in positioning.

Improve your quickness and agility with these drills and then apply them during your movements in a game:

a. jump rope (one foot, two feet, slalom, Ali shuffle, backpedal)

b. speed ladder drills

c. cariocas, tapiocas, back pedals, shuffles, toe taps

d. hip turn and hip flexibility drills (like leg swings)

Work hard and expect success!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Calf Muscles Improve Power and Explosive Speed

Everybody's looking for NEW ways to improve running speed....sometimes, the simple answer is right there in front of you....pay more attention to training your lower legs for strength and power....

The lower legs can provide 20% to 25% of the power needed for an explosive start. And, explosive starts can be the difference in you making the play or winning the race.

Rate-of-force production (how fast your muscles produce force) or speed strength is one of the best indicators of whether you will succeed in your sport.

When you plan your workout routine, include more calf muscle exercises like:

1) Explosive standing dumbbell calf raises (go as fast as possible to failure 3-4 sets). You can progress to one-legged calf raises (pictured above).

2) Explosive lifts on the leg press with only your toes lifting the weight (3 sets/20 repetitions). You can progress to one-legged lifts.

3) Barbell calf raises using jumping motion (explode upward on your toes as if you are jumping). Do 3 sets of 20 repetitions. Progress to one-legged raises.

You can work the calf muscles more frequently than other muscle groups (up to 4 times a week) because they bounce back faster.

Its also important to do static calf stretches after your workout to bring muscles back to their normal length.

Get Faster, Sooner!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

How to Build Speed Strength and Power Explosion

Speed strength is a combination of starting speed, explosive speed (maximum velocity in the shortest time) and reactive speed.

Speed strength is also known as power. Proper training methods will produce the strength, power and speed the athlete needs to succeed in his or her sport.

See Top 10 Speed Training Tips

The three building blocks of integrated training for the athlete are:

STABILIZATION (2 Phases) – Primary goals are to correct muscle imbalances, joint dysfunctions, postural distortion patterns, improve kinetic chain (human movement system), integrity and recondition/rehabilitate.

STRENGTH (3 Phases) – Primary goals are to improve stabilization strength/endurance and increase muscle hypertrophy (growth) and strength.

POWER (2 Phases) – Primary goals are to enhance neuromuscular efficiency, increase power production, increase speed strength and create neuromuscular adaptations throughout the entire range of motion.

All seven phases of training may not be necessary for all athletes. For example, some sports do not require optimum levels of muscle hypertrophy.

The training program is Multi-Planar (sagittal, frontal, transverse), Multi-Joint (exercises such as bench press, squats, lunges), Multi-Dimensional (stabilization, strength, power) , Proprioceptively Enriched (high neural demand) and Sport-Specific.

You should follow a systematic approach with the following goals in mind: injury prevention, body fat reduction and increased lean muscle mass, strength, endurance, flexibility and performance.

Rate-of-Force Production (muscles producing force in the shortest period of time) is one of the best physical indicators of the level of an athlete’s performance and future success.

After an adequate strength foundation has been built, you can work on increasing speed strength. This is best done by using a combination of:

1) Plyometrics
2) High speed medicine ball exercises
3) High speed weight training exercises
4) Multidimensional speed training exercises

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

Train Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers for Speed and Explosion

To improve your speed and explosiveness, train and activate the bulkier fast-twitch muscle fibers often.  Speed training athletes shouldn't do much slow, long distance running during training.  If you do too much long distance running, your slow-twitch muscle fibers will take over and make you slower and nonexplosive.

What about speed endurance training? This is something totally different. Speed endurance is the ability to maintain maximum velocity or a percentage of maximum velocity for a prolonged period of time or in a fatigued state.

When you are fatigued, it is important to maintain proper running mechanics. Doing so will give you an edge over your opponent.

Several sports require speed endurance including football, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, field hockey and tennis. These sports require repeated sprints followed by short periods of rest (walking or jogging).

Interval training for speed endurance is different than regular speed training. Speed endurance sprint intervals last from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Also, recovery time is reduced to prevent complete recovery by the athlete.

I was once asking a client about running exercises they were doing in school athletics to improve running speed. The answer was disappointing and typical.

Some of the running drills were:

1. mile runs
2. stadium steps for endurance
3. gasers for conditioning

"Did you run any sprints?" "No." Guess what? Those athletes aren't getting any faster....they are just basically running for conditioning.

Conditioning has its place but if you want to get faster, you have to train fast. That means sprinting drills with enough recovery time to run each sprint full speed. About 1 minute of recovery time is needed for each 10 yards sprinted (50 yard sprints need about 5 minutes recovery time).

Running sprints after practice won't get the job done either. Players are too tired at this point to give maximum effort. So, coaches, do your sprinting drills at the beginning of practice when your players are fresh.

Explosive strength training can also train and activate your fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Train hard and smart to get faster.......Check out Perform Better.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

5 Tips to Improve Speed with Lower Body Strength and Power

Lower body strength and power will improve your running speed.  Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. 

You need the right kind of lower body training to enhance your speed and power. 

Here are a 5 tips to help you run faster:

1. Strengthen and condition your hips, glutes, thighs and hamstrings. These groups make up your athletic "power center."

"Powerize" your running with exercises like power step ups and squat jumps. Other single leg exercises like lunges are great because single leg exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run.

2. Make squats, deadlifts, good mornings, glute/ham drops and hang cleans regular exercises in your routine.

3. Strengthen your core every day. Exercises like planks, side planks and bridges can be done every day. A strong core is important for speed endurance.

4. How much lower body strength do you need to develop optimum power and speed? A male should be able to squat his body weight 8-10 times and a female should be able to squat about 75% of her body weight 8-10 times. If you are not able to squat, then you should be able to leg press about 1.5 times your body weight 8-10 times.

It doesn't help you to continually get stronger if power development is not there also. Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best physical predictors of success in sports.

5. The running mechanics are important to improve straight-ahead speed. Practice these mechanics every day!

Train hard and smart!

Download your FREE 10-Minute Strength and Power Workouts now!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut