Speed Training Secrets

The video on this page demonstrates how to get faster by conditioning the hip (thigh) flexor muscles for dramatic increases in your sprint speed.

Why do leading sprinters use pylometric training if it doesn’t condition fast twitch fibers the way your program does?

That’s a question I received recently and it’s probably something many have wondered about. Here is my short answer.

Running is a plyometric exercise; however, if all you had to do to run faster was to go out and run, then each time you ran, you should be faster then the previous time out.  But, we all know this is not true.  This is because running more does not make you faster; but, rather, it improves your strength and endurance to run longer.
 
Most of these sprinters do plyometric training, not because it helps increase their speed, but because it helps them maintain their speed.  If you have ever watched a 100 meter or 200 meter sprint, it always “appears” that the guy out front is “pulling away from the field”.  This is rarely the case however.  What is really happening is that the other sprinters are falling back, unable to maintain their top end speed, whereas the winner is usually the one who can maintain his speed the longest.  This is why some athletes are built fast in the 40 yard dash but cannot compete in the 100.  And likewise the guy who wins the 100m rarely wins the 200m and so on up to longer races.

All the best!
Dr. Larry Van Such