sprints- Glutes and Hamstrings

Want to be Entertained wrote:

If one wants to work the glutes and hamstrings more when sprinting, what is better, uphill or flat?

Uphill.

the entertainer wrote:

Want to be Entertained wrote:

If one wants to work the glutes and hamstrings more when sprinting, what is better, uphill or flat?

Uphill.

This is exactly wrong.

Hamstrings and glutes are primarily engaged in sprinting erect at maximum speed. This would be flat sprints at 50-120 meters for people here. Accelerating from the start (up to 30-40 meters) and hill sprints (proper form has you leaning forward as with acceleration) use the quads more.

Coach D showing his age in this post. This was the message in the 60s and 70s maybe. Now we know the importance of the hamstrings as a hip extender.Uphill sprints will work the quads, hamstrings, and glutes in the support phase all harder than flat sprints. Total speed will of course be slower though and the addition of the eccentric stretch-shortening will be reduced in terms compared to on the flat.The only way your hamstrings will be worked less in an uphill sprint than flat is in the recover phase, only because stride length will be slightly reduced on an uphill sprint, so your hamstrings/calves don't have to work as hard to recover your free leg back forward to enter the drive/support phase again.Overall your hamstrings and glutes will be worked harder uphill though.Also you shouldn't be leaning forward in hill repeats unless you are specifically working on your start and doing hill sprints of say 20-30 meters. Most sprint hill work is done over longer distances of 40-60 for speed/power development or 80-150 for some speed endurance/strength work. Either way you should be running tall, just like when you are on the track.

coach d wrote:

the entertainer wrote:

Uphill.

This is exactly wrong.

Hamstrings and glutes are primarily engaged in sprinting erect at maximum speed. This would be flat sprints at 50-120 meters for people here. Accelerating from the start (up to 30-40 meters) and hill sprints (proper form has you leaning forward as with acceleration) use the quads more.

Typical lack of knowledge you see from know-it-alls on letsrun. You can use whatever terminology you want, but the hamstrings and glutes have major force requirements at top speed, and that's when hamstrings get shattered if they aren't strong enough to handle the force requirements, and the largest force requirement is from the glutes:

Hills are frequently used by sprint coaches to teach acceleration technique. Even if you are standing vertically compared to the earth, you are still leaning forward compared to the direction of the hill/sprinting path. You ARE effectively leaning forward even if you think you aren't, and that shifts the force projection somewhat away from the glutes and toward the quads.

Back to your 9 minute jogging and making believe you actually know something.

Coach d, I agree with everything you just said. I disagree with your previous post. I never said that top speed sprinting doesn't work glutes and hamstrings, I was saying your glutes and hamstrings are worked hardest with uphill sprints.

Hamstrings explode under eccentric loading at top speed. This doesn't mean the muscle itself is working harder just because it is more likely to be injured.

I'm not an expert on biomechanics, but it seems you have to extend the hip more (due to starting from a more flexed position) when running on an incline, so running uphill at a given speed should require more work from the glutes and hamstrings than running on the flat at the same speed.

But why would you want to do this? If the goal is strengthening, you should use weights, not running. Also, why single out the glutes and hamstrings? Yes they are important, but no more important than anything else.