The Best Exercises to Improve Your Sprinting Speed | TrainHeroic (2024)

FAQs

What exercises to increase sprint speed? ›

The 10-second barrier has historically been a barometer of fast men's performances, while the best female sprinters take eleven seconds or less to complete the race.

For reference, according to some athletic standards, elite 14-year-old male sprinters might run around 11 to 12 seconds for the 100m dash, while elite female sprinters might run around 12 to 13 seconds. However, these are just general benchmarks, and there's a wide range of performance levels at any age.

Top speed workouts should involve 4-10 bouts of 10-20m fly runs. A fly run is when you take your time and speed up slowly, hold your max speed for 10-20m, then slowly decelerate out. A common way to do these is over 60 meters: 20 meters to smoothly build up, 20 meters at max speed, 20 meters to smoothly decelerate.

You need to drills that stress that lower leg complex in a manner that will carry over to actual acceleration and sprinting. Things like jump rope, line jumps, 1-3 inch continuous box jumps, high rep calve work, and isometric holds fall into this category. Perform these movements for time or reps.

Warmup: Warm up for five minutes with walking, light jogging, or dynamic stretches. Sprint: 30 seconds at 80 percent of your maximum effort. Active recovery: Slow down your speed or walk for 60 to 90 seconds. Repeat this pattern for 20 to 30 minutes.

What is the secret of sprinting? ›

To accomplish this, your spine must be in an upright position. But remember, just because your spine is upright does not mean your chin or head needs to pop up. Your arms should be strong in extension or pulling back. This is important throughout the duration of your sprint, but it must be initiated from the start.

Yes, you can train sprinting. In this article, we explain how you can improve your speed with the right technique and targeted exercises. We also tell you what sprint training is and what benefits it has for your body and your athletic performance.

Add sprints into your long runs

By actively adding sprints into your training runs, your body will get used to adding these bursts of energy in, and you'll improve stamina too. This is an effective form of speed endurance training which will start showing results in your race times fast.

We recommend focusing on the key muscle groups involved in running, such as quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Strengthening these key muscle groups will allow you to see immediate results as you run faster than you ever have before!