5 Things You Can Do To Become A Speed Sprinter with Colin Jackson
Getting more explosive can help boost your athletic performance and build speed, power and endurance. Explosive power is not the same as strength. You can gain explosive power from jumping, bounding, lunges. Try doing box jumps, hops, death jumps, step-ups and rebound jumping to increase explosive power.
Posted on Thu 10 Feb 2022 · by Colin Jackson
Explosive Power
Getting more explosive can help boost your athletic performance and build speed, power and endurance. Explosive power is not the same as strength. You can gain explosive power from jumping, bounding, lunges. Try doing box jumps, hops, death jumps, step-ups and rebound jumping to increase explosive power.
Mobility
Mobility is simply the ability to move well and is important if you want to run well. If your muscles and joints can’t move through the entire range of motion required with each stride, you won’t be as efficient, you won’t run as fast and your risk of injury will increase. In order to run well, you need to have good mobility through your feet, ankles, knees, hips and spine.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the passive range of motion available to you when you temporarily stretch a muscle using gravity, a strap, or the help of another person. In sprinting, flexibility can help create a greater range of motion and to produce a longer stride.
Strength
Strength training can give you much-needed horsepower to improve your sprint times. Weight training and circuit training can increase your cardiovascular ability and general and physical strength. If your sprint times aren’t getting better, try focusing on getting stronger with big lower-body lifts like squats, deadlifts and lunges. Don’t forget side-to-side and rotational movements too.
Genetics
The ability to run fast is pretty much determined genetically by your predominant muscle type - the fast twitch fibres and how many of them you have been blessed with. Even though, that's not to say that you can't improve on what you already have. The key is to work with what you have.
How to set the right goals for you
- Pick a goal that is exciting yet realistic
- Set mini goals to act as stepping stones to the long term goal
- Don’t set your goals to suit others
- Take a note of your daily improvements
- Make it measurable so you are accountable to yourself.
- Train in a way you can fully recover
- Train in a way you can stay motivated and excited
- Factor in plenty of sleep
- Plan good nutrition
- Share your goals with at least one person
- Celebrate your hard work and achievements along the way