Football Player is Concernced About His Speed After Strength Training
I recently received an email from a high school football player who was concerned about his speed. He explained that his coaches had him doing a lot squats with weights and even though he felt like he was getting stronger, he noticed he was also losing valuable running speed.
Here is how I advised him – and this applies to anyone in a similar situation.
The best thing you can do for sprinting is isometric training with the resistance band. With regards to squats and weight training exercises, the best thing you can do for now, since it is the off-season, is continue to do them and include the resistance training with isometrics as taught at www.AthleticQuickness.com. If possible you should do the speed training several hours later in the day after doing your strength training.
When you get closer to the first game of the season, for example about 4 weeks, out, start cutting back off of the squats, leg presses etc. Don’t eliminate them, just don’t do them to exhaustion as this will completely wipe out any fast twitch response in your legs. But stop doing them completely about 4 days before the game. Continue on very strong with the isometric training even up until 2 days before each game. Then continue this routine throughout the season
Speed training using isometrics and the resistance band will not interfere with strength training, however weight training will interfere with speed training
Remember, every exercise your coaches and trainers have you doing in the gym to get you faster will only take you so far. This is because of two reasons:
1) There aren’t any good ways to train your thigh flexor muscles. You cannot get to them on the leg extension machines, leg curl machines, abductor/adductor machines, squats racks, or hack squat machines. Why is this important to know? Because once you go from a three point stance in football to a full and upright position, the squat muscles aren’t as important as the thigh flexor muscles. These 7 muscles (thigh flexors) on each side of the body are responsible for lifting your thigh upwards and leg forward in front of you. They also help pull the back leg forwards as well. These muscles dominate the sprinting motion. Since you can’t train these muscles in the gym with weights, nor can you get to them by running sprints on the football field with a parachute attached to your waist or a weighted sled, you never fully develop any significant sprinting speed. Also, you cannot get to these muscles by jumping up and down off of square boxes.Â
2) The other reason is because weight training is designed primarily for strength and endurance, and not speed. Same goes for plyometric training. Ever notice how wiped out you feel after these types of training? When your training program leaves you feeling slower instead of faster when you are finished, it means it’s a strength and endurance program, not a speed program.Â
March 29th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
how often should i do the program in the off season?
March 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Kevin, During the off season you can do the exercises exactly as outlined in the manual - 3 times a week for each muscle group.
During the season you can continue doing the exercises, except you will want to allow two days rest before your game. Here is a link to an article about training during the season:
http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=52
June 7th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I want to get my legs stronger, but I also want to get faster. Should I just do the speed training program every day as directed and forget about strength and endurance if I want to get extremely faster come football season?
June 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Dr. Van Such writes about his recommendations for doing both speed training and strength training. Read his 8 tips at this link:
http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=91
June 19th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
k. Now I have been drinking a Creatine supplement that is supposed to increase muscle size and strength. Will drinking this while doing the exercises affect how the fast twitch muscle fibers are trained? Will they turn them into slow twitch by increasing their strength and not the quickness, or is this just something that I don’t need to worry about?
June 26th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I also would like to know how long it will take for me to get the light springy feeling in my legs because this is my third day and I haven’t noticed a signifcant difference in the lightness or springyness in my legs. Also, how long does it last? Will my legs always feel light and springy or just as I work out? I also noticed my cavs got a little bigger and so have my thighs, or maybe it’s just my imagination, is this normal? I also feel my ammy a bit for about 5-10 minutes maybe less after I finish the exercise. Is this normal?
July 6th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Jordan, here is the response from Dr. Van Such:
Certainly you should begin to feel and see results within the first 14 days. If not, make sure your are not “undoing” the training with excessive weight, plyos and runnnig exercises during this time. Once you train your muscles this way for at least a month, most athletes will continue to see and feel the added strength and quickness in their muscles for up to a year or so. This does vary from athlete to athlete and may be more or less in your paticular case. Increased size can and does happen, however, it is usually a secondary affect to the speed in which you should see.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Jordan, Its’ not the creatine that you should concern yourself with. Creatine is designed to increase muscle mass. However, to do so requires lots of weightlifting etc. It is the excessive weightlifting that may interfere with your speed, not the creatine.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Nevermind. I emailed customer support and they told me to get really aggressive and that it may take more time so I’ll give it a shot with both bands and use all my strength. I am sorry about my accusations against Larry about writing all those testimonials. I will try for another 2 weeks but at full strength and hopefully some good will come out of it.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Hi I work out six days a week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I am in the weightroom with squats on Monday and power clean on Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I sprint with strength shoes or a weight vest. I do all these in the morning so when should I incorporate the isometric bands for my best results for increasing my speed.
September 15th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Marcos, first read the recommendations on the link below:
http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=91
If you still have questions about incorporating the isometrics with bands into your existing routine then send your message to support@athleticquickness.com and you will get an answer.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I am a a high school track coach. We are curently 2 week away from our first meet. Should i continue to use the bands throughout the season? And if so do I have my athletes use them the day before a meet? I guess what I am asking if we have a track meet on a Tuesday and Thursday what days if any do we not use the bands.Thanks
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Josh, Read the training tips on this link: http://athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=91
Note in particular Tip #8 - which I have copied here.
Tip #8: It is very important not to over-train during the season. There simply is not enough time to recover from too hard of a workout (both strength and speed) and return to your peak performance in time for the game. Again, rest is just as important as the actual training sessions. If at all possible allow yourself at least 2 days of rest before any competition by just doing some light stretching/warm-ups the day before a game.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
what the difference between isometrics with weights and bands ive never heard about getting faster doing isometrics with bands if so why havent i heard this from other athletes, just a question..
April 14th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Mark,
Start by reading this page which begins to explain why isometrics with resistance bands far outperforms isometrics with weights when it comes to developing muscle speed.
http://athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=24