Is strength training for speed all that’s needed to help an athlete get faster?

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Strength training is important to helping athletes get faster. The stronger the athlete the more easily he will be able to carry and move his body weight. At some point, however, his strength will be sufficient and any additional improvements in speed will depend largely on the contraction speed of his muscles, that is, how fast his muscles can contract.

With regards to sprinting speed, strength training works only if you are able increase your strength without increasing your body weight too much. Take for example running; many athletes hit the gym real hard doing squats, leg presses, leg curls etc, along with upper body workouts as well. If you increase the amount of weight you can squat, let’s say from 200lb to 250lb, and you are able to maintain your body weight while doing so, (let’s say 190 lb), then you should be able to move your body faster, and run faster. But, if you pack on an additional 5-10 lbs of muscle weight, you may not see any improvement in your athletic speed.

Another drawback of extensive strength training is that it could actually decrease the contraction speed of your muscles and offset any speed gains related to strength, and it could therefore cause you to sprint slower.

Most athletes who have been lifting weights for a while find themselves at the point where their strength is near the max needed for their body weight or any other resistance involved in their sports skill. Doing more strength training won’t help too much with speed at this point, though it is still a good thing to maintain the strength you have. At this point, here are a few options you have to get faster:

You can continue to push yourself to get stronger while keeping a close eye on your weight and your muscle speed. It can work, but it can take a long time and much effort to see modest improvement.

You can try to drop a few pounds while trying to maintain your strength. This isn’t always easy to do, though it should be considered.
Or you could focus specifically on developing muscle contraction speed. This is best accomplished by conditioning the muscle fibers responsible for contraction speed, which are not the same fibers responsible for muscle strength.

Speed training workouts that use isometric training with the resistance band improve the speed in which your muscles contract. This speed training method retrains your muscles for a fast twitch response while at the same time increasing the strength and improving the elasticity of the muscle tendons.

This last option allows for much more dramatic improvements in athletic speed in much less time than simply increasing the size and weight of your muscles.

Tagged with: Athlete • Athletic Speed • Contraction • Doing Squats • Drawback • Few Options • Improvements • Leg Curls • Leg Presses • Lifting Weights • Long Time • Muscle Weight • Muscles • Resistance • Rsquo • Running • Speed Gains • Sprint • Strength training • Upper Body Workouts

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