The Best Exercises to Improve Speed in the Weightroom

When you shift sprinting to the hierarchy of your programming for athletes it makes all subsequent work easier to program. 

The kinematic locomotive movement of sprinting will tell you everything you need to know about selecting the right movements in the weightroom to help supplement your speed work. In order to do so, simply break down the movement from a biomechanical standpoint, identify the muscles working within that plane, and then create a template accordingly. 

That said, it is my current belief that the hamstrings are the most important sprinting muscle in the air, whereas the gluteus maximus is the most important sprinting muscle on the ground.

Muscular strategy shift in human running: dependence of running speed on hip and ankle muscle performance

Tim W. Dorn, Anthony G. Schache, Marcus G. Pandy 

https://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/11/1944

Changes in Muscle Activity With Increasing Running Speed

Heikki Kyröläinen 1, Janne Avela, Paavo V Komi

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16194986/

Exercise Taxonomy of Performance 

Vertical Plane Hip Extension 

Horizontal Plane Hip Extension 

Knee Flexion Training 

Hip Flexion 

Eccentric and Isometric Foot Strength 

Eccentric Adductor Based Exercises 

Alteration Based Exercises 

Acceleration Phase of Sprinting (Horizontal Plane) 

In early phases of sprinting, where the trajectory of one’s body represents greater knee flexion, toe off, ATP, and more glute utilization it would make sense to pick exercises that heavily involve these planes of movement. 

Top Speed | Absolute Speed (Vertical Plane) 

In later phases of sprinting in which you have more vertical stiffness, relative athletic posture, eccentric foot strike, fast wing leg recovery, cycling and casting - you should focus more on vertical triplanar competency such as posterior chain work, eccentric adductor work, eccentric/isometric foot work.