Improving Acceleration, Levers, and an Explosive First Step

I’ve mentioned multiple times how to organize your sprint training for athletes. 

It’s important to break up the development of each physical quality into three distinct phases, while undulating each qualiting within the three phases. 

A majority of coaches who work with athletes spend time in acceleration, phase 1, and rightfully so. The benefits of training go far beyond what most intend. 

During the acceleration phase is where the majority of your athletes build the most strength, use their levers the most appropriately, and develop the starting power needed to maintain position through the entire sprint. 

However, power is plane specific and position of the skeletal muscle dictates its function. 

We know this applies in the weight room. Changing the angle, lever, and anthrokientamtics of a joint will utilize different cross section areas of muscle. 

When you think sprinting - you immediately think gait, posture, position, torque, and coiling. 

Except, weight room training is gait training. 

When you train in the weight room you are training stance, swing, load, and propulsion - all important components of sprinting. 

Furthermore, without refuting, we know that the number one contributing factor to sprinting speed is horizontal force (Hunter et al 2005). 

What is the most powerful fulcrum (lever) during sprinting? The Hip. How can we train the hip in alignment with producing horizontal sprinting? 

Zweriful, 2017 - showed anteroposterior exercises (hip thrusts/deadlift variations) involving greater forces closer to hip extension while axial loaded exercises (the squat) tend to produce greater forces in higher degrees of hip flexor use. 

Contreras et al further showed that anteroposterior training improved short distance sprint performance by more than vertically oriented exercises. 

Furthermore, understanding the importance of force vectors in human performance is critical in the patterns and exercises you chose to use for the specific adaptations you’re looking for. 

Utilizing anteroposterior (sagittal hip dominant) exercises can help improve the strength of the hip as it is used as the primary lever in acceleration, improve posterior sagittal control (primarily hamstrings/abs), and anterior sagittal control (hip flexors, quads, and back extensors) throughout acceleration. 

Here are a handful of exercises we use to improve anteroposterior force vectors. 

• Single Leg Glute Bridges and Single Leg Hip Thrusts

• Barbell Glute Bridges and Barbell Hip Thrusts

• Pendulum Quadruped Hip Extensions and Cable Pull Throughs

• Back Extensions and Reverse Hypers

• Nordic Ham Curls, Glute Ham Raises, and Slideboard Leg Curls