What lifts are most important for a sprinter to improve speed? I'm a high school kid aiming to improve my 100m to sub 11, but I also want to improve in the 200 and 60m. I currently bench 225, deadlift 400, squat 300. I weigh 150 at 5"9'. Should I focus more on supporting muscles, or what should I do for optimal performance during my next season.
midenthlete wrote:
What lifts are most important for a sprinter to improve speed? I'm a high school kid aiming to improve my 100m to sub 11, but I also want to improve in the 200 and 60m. I currently bench 225, deadlift 400, squat 300. I weigh 150 at 5"9'. Should I focus more on supporting muscles, or what should I do for optimal performance during my next season.
You have enough strength, rather your powerlifting numbers are good enough. You need to work on power- do olympic lifts and or variations of them. Also add plyometrics. Some sources to look up are Boo Schexnayder and Tony Holler.
Is it possible, you may sprint 100m 1/2 a second faster if you increase your free weight squat number to 450 lbs? Maybe.
So many things combine to make someone a great sprinter: flexibility/range of motion, strength to weight ratio, inseam to height ratio, neuromuscular coordination, ability to max your adrenaline for 100m dash and early explosive movement activity or sport participation.
You are almost identical in morphology metrics and lifts to me when I was in high school / college freshman (your lifts are a little bit better than mine). I ran 10.5-10.6.
You are strong enough already at your frame; you can maintain your strength with some lifting, but now you need to progress to more twitchiness: e.g., Plyometrics, short maxVelocity Fly-ins, accel/drive (uphill sprints, blockwork technique)... just keep sprinting. Your Max Strength is plenty, it just needs to learn to be ennervated at a more explosive rate. Sprint reps & plyoms do that
Alberto Nonino\'s Wardrobe Malfunction wrote:
You are almost identical in morphology metrics and lifts to me when I was in high school / college freshman (your lifts are a little bit better than mine). I ran 10.5-10.6.
You are strong enough already at your frame; you can maintain your strength with some lifting, but now you need to progress to more twitchiness: e.g., Plyometrics, short maxVelocity Fly-ins, accel/drive (uphill sprints, blockwork technique)... just keep sprinting. Your Max Strength is plenty, it just needs to learn to be ennervated at a more explosive rate. Sprint reps & plyoms do that
Thanks a lot for the advice, I’m starting to implement more and more plyos into my workouts. What if I don’t have big hills near me? what would be the equivalent of an uphill sprint?
midenthlete wrote:
What lifts are most important for a sprinter to improve speed? I'm a high school kid aiming to improve my 100m to sub 11, but I also want to improve in the 200 and 60m. I currently bench 225, deadlift 400, squat 300. I weigh 150 at 5"9'. Should I focus more on supporting muscles, or what should I do for optimal performance during my next season.
Sure been a lot of slender/slim great sprinters. Not sure about the weights for a sprinter, pretty much you either have it or you don't.