Top 5 Movements for Speed Training
Top 5 Movements For Speed Training
Get out the speed ladders and agility bags, that is how you get faster correct? WRONG, speed is the amount of power output your body can create. So speed is actually very closely related to strength. In college, I personally went from a 185 lb. freshman running a 5 second 40-yard dash to a 235 lb. senior running a 4.7 second 40-yard dash. So I gained 50 lbs over 4 years and dropped my 40 by 0.3 seconds. How did I get stronger? Train with Garage Strength and use these movements we use for speed!
1) Snatch
Snatching is one of the best movements any athlete can do in general. Snatch is a very important factor in becoming faster. Snatch helps your central nervous system fire faster, which allows you to move faster from a dead start or change directions quicker. Along with helping your CNS, it helps you achieve greater mobility. Gaining the mobility in your hips, hamstrings, quads helps lengthen those muscles. We like to say at Garage Strength, “lengthening is strengthening” which in turn, strength is power, power is speed!
2) Clean
Cleaning goes hand in hand with snatching. Both olympic weightlifting movements drastically help your CNS fire faster and the mobility to lengthen your muscles. Not only that, every pull off the floor strengthening your hamstring, glutes, and back. Also when catching a clean you brace your core, standing up uses your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. This lift hits everything you need to become a speed demon.
Single leg squats might be the most important lift anyone can use to increase the speed of an athlete. Think about the movement, one leg on the pad close to a 90-degree angle and then the front foot on the ground with the knee behind the foot until touching the knee to a pad and then the knee comes over the toe, just like running. This movement isolated one leg at a time, hits the hamstring, glute, and quad all at once. Then you program it to have heavy sets for strengthening for speed. After the heavy sets you program drop sets to help with speed and muscular endurance. This exercise is a thing of beauty. A must for the need for speed!
4) Hammies
This movement is an accessory movement we use a ton of for athletes at Garage Strength. We call them hammies, it is a movement to isolate the hamstring and glute directly. The hamstring and glute are directly involved in the pulling motion of running, while the quad finishes the movement by pushing off at the end. All important, but the hammies are key!
5) Hill Sprints
Gaining strength is very important, but obviously running has form and technique to it. The way to practice form and technique is by doing the actual movement. Hill sprints are the best way to practice form because of what it makes you do. Hill sprints force you to drive the knees as you are running, an essential for speed. Along with teaching you to drive the knees, hill sprints are a great way to teach you to run with a forward lean. Driving the knees and having a forward lean are two of the most important factors in sprinting and speed. Yes, there are other technical movements for running such as making sure everything is moving forward and not side to side, but that is why you have a Garage Strength coach to help you achieve your speed success!