Best Strength Training Exercises To Improve Speed And Run Faster

This article is going to give you the best speed training exercises to improve your speed. We’re going to go in depth into how to do a variety of different exercises and really give you the concepts for what you need to be doing on a consistent basis in order to have the strength and the power to be able to improve your speed. We’re going over 14 different types of strength training exercises. This is putting a focus on resistance training so you also get faster.

Let’s start with what I think is the best one: the lunge. There are so many different ways that you can incorporate lunges into your workout: there are reverse lunges, step back lunges, walking lunges. All of these we’re going to go and give examples and I’m even a big fan of ISO holds in lunges even controlling the amount of time you’re going through the knee bend. We can go with the barbell, we can go with the dumbbell, just a great concept to be able to do in order to improve your speed and get your leg stronger, build up the stability that you need.

For all of these exercises there’s going to be a wide variety of different amounts of sets and reps that you can do. Next one that we’re going to go into is the Nordic hamstring curl or just a standing hamstring curl, can even do a lying hamstring curl the ability to build up the hamstring essentially so the great thing about the leg curl is it’s really isolating the concentric action within the hamstring which is a critical part of being able to run fast. The one muscle that is going to be 100% active or is utilized the most when sprinting is the hamstring and so in order to run faster you got to get your hamstrings stronger. This is the best way to be able to do that really the Nordics are the best way to be able to do that but I do think that the leg curls is a great way to isolate it as well.

Number three is going to be a rear footed elevated split squat. This is something that really replicates the lunge as well, technically a split squat which means that the focus is on that knee bend but it is a very similar pattern. Another exercise where you could use a barbell, dumbbell, kettle bell, you could do even technically jumps with this. This is just another one of those exercises that is just so critical when it comes to being able to increase your strength and be able to run faster.

Number four is going to be step ups. I think this is such a great exercise because it helps build in the hip flexors and that knee drive and being able to be great with your knee drive is a critical component to being able to run fast and no better way of being able to build that than step ups. The higher that the box is or the higher that the step up is, the better. Also another thing that I would say is being able to do this with the barbell as well as a dumbbell and the barbell would be a better option just because it requires a little bit more balance but regardless I would say that it is a great exercise to be doing on a consistent basis, and something that really requires a lot of balance in order to do effectively is the deadlift.

I would say with a deadlift it’s better to do more of like a RDL or semi bend within the knee, not a full knee bend like a traditional deadlift. I think the RDL is a little bit better when it comes to your sprinting, the importance of having a great amount of control, great amount of range of motion during the deadlift.

Number six is going to be the kettle bell dorsiflexion. So you’re going to put a weight onto your ankle, just work on being able to come up and down, work on being able to go in a circle, just building up your ankle strength. There’s so many guys that I see that come to the performance side, we work on their sprinting and they just don’t have that lift within the ankle, don’t understand how to use their ankles effectively to be able to strike the ground and by doing this exercise and also coaching them through that foot strike, that ankle strike, they are able to get significantly faster very very quickly. There’s a lot of you guys that are reading this article that could get a lot faster by just starting to do this exercise, not only does it have an impact on your ability to perform at a higher level and run faster but it’s also great in strengthening your ankles to make sure that you’re able to stay healthier for longer.

The next one is going to be a trap bar deadlift or a goblet squat. This is going to be more of the knee bend type of exercises that we’re going to be utilizing when it comes to improving your lower body strength. So what’s important here is we’re not going to use a barbell squat, we’re not going to use a front squat, we’re not going to do any of those types of things. While I do think there is some benefit, these are the best speed training exercises. I think the trap bar lifting something up from the ground as well as the goblin squat are two things that are much more beneficial when it comes to your overall performance. If I was going to give a squat, I would probably say an overhead squat would be your best bet when it comes to exercises that are specifically tailored to improving your speed and I say that just because of the range of motion that is required within your hip flexors in order for you to be able to do these effectively.

Number eight is a side lunge. The adductors are the muscles that are working within the side lunge. The biggest adductor is actually considered a potential fourth hamstring so you have three hamstrings in your bicep. They say there might be two different heads of the bicep which would make it for hamstrings. The adductor magnets the big groin muscle that you’re training when you’re doing side lunges is potentially a fourth hamstring because of its connection, because of its influence on your sprinting, and so it’s really important to have strong adductors and you’re actually working your adductors a lot more than you think when you’re doing things like Nordic hamstring curls, leg curls, things like that.

Next one is going to be a weighted calf raise and really, calf raises in general – this is another important part of being able to run fast is you have to be strong within that ankle joint. I also think it’s important to do bent knee calf raising. I think it’s important to do horizontal calf raises and so just be doing calf raises in a variety of different positions so you get plenty of extension, do it with your shoes on, do it with your shoes off, do it with weight, do it with no weight, do it with a knee bent, do it with your foot behind you, do with your foot in front of you, do it with a slant board, do it without a slant board… Just try to add as many different ways of being able to force your ankle to extend as possible so then you are able to do that in all the different varieties of sprinting that are going to be required for you. You’re going to have to accelerate well, you’re going have to start well, you got be able to have top end speed and in order for you to have all those things you got to have the right range of motion within the ankle.

Next one’s going to be the glute bridge. This is really focusing on the glute development we could do this with your foot raised, we could do this with just a dumbbell on your hip, you could do this with a barbell on your hip, you could do this with one foot, you can do this with two feet – there’s a wide variety of different ways that we could really emphasize hip extension which is the point of the glute bridge. I love this exercise, such a great way to be able to build strength and hip extension which is so important when it comes to being able to run fast and getting a great push off, you got to be able to utilize the glutes and these are the best ways to be able to do that really the glute bridge. There’s a wide variety of different options when it comes to doing a glute bridge so then you can get the proper benefit.

Next one is going to be power clean. A power clean essentially teaches you how to use that hip extension when you are sprinting. It’s a little bit more of a complex movement and this isn’t technically a strength training exercise, it’s more of a power training exercise or power development exercise and also considered Olympic lift but I do think that it has a direct correlation to being able to effectively use your hips when you are sprinting. I see a lot of people that have a hard time with getting their hips in the right position especially when it comes to their foot strike and when you are doing cleans, it really allows you to get into that triple extension and get into that position within your foot knee and hip.

Next one’s going to be a single leg RDL and the reason I put this with just the regular deadlift is I think it’s such a different exercise when it comes to single leg RDL because it’s so much more about your balance and so much more about the stability within the ankle. We could use and do this with a variety of different modalities or resistances: put a band around their knee or their ankle, you could use one dumbbell, you could use two dumbbells, you could use one kettle bell, you could have a foot on a bench or a hand on a bench, you could have your foot on a stability ball… There’s just so many different things you could do within that single leg RDL using a barbell and therefore I I think it deserves its own category when it comes to the resistance training. Understanding the importance of the single leg development is a great thing as well, so you want to be doing deadlifts to kind of build up that strength within your hips (the hip extension movement). You also want to be doing single leg RDLs to help you develop the balance that is necessary to be able to maintain great positioning within the hips, within the ankles, and be able to have great contact times.

Then the last exercise and certainly not the least important is good mornings. Very similar to the RDL traditional deadlift except now we have the barbell on our back. I think this is a great exercise to be able to build up that lower back strength so we can get the full range of motion within our hips, get full extension within the hips, get the whole complex of the lower back hip, glute hamstring complex working in tandem with each other, so when you’re driving off the ground and you’re driving that hip through with a lot of familiarity, you can really utilize that to get you into the upper scale of speed. You get to the end of races, 400, 200, when you’re getting to your top speed, when you’re really trying to push you got to use those hip muscles, those upper hamstrings glutes, even in the low back to really get you over over that hump.

We see a lot of the greatest sprinters are able to do that and I think that the good mornings are such a great way of really being able to build a great relationship within that part of the body. You may also watch our video below so you can follow through each exercise:

These exercises should be super super beneficial for you. You should see immediate improvement within your strength and therefore be able to run faster. If you’re not running faster from these exercises then I would make the argument that strength is not the thing that’s holding you back, it’s probably more of your technique which is something you’ll be able to find out more about in our blog articles or YouTube videos.

Talk to you on our next blog article!