The Ultimate Guide to Speed for Lazy People
Speed training is not only of great importance in ball sports. In other sports such as athletics, too, training variations to improve speed play a very important role. Become faster and more efficient - we will tell you how!
Effective speed training
Speed training can be used very broadly: Studies have even examined the effect of speed training in seniors on everyday performance and the results are positive. (1) Learn the basics of speed training and the best exercises for your training units!
Just a few years ago, speed training was heavily questioned with regard to the possibilities for adaptation. This is because the ability to speed is essentially reduced to the energetic component and seen in connection with the muscle fiber distribution. A large number of the fast type IIx fibers was seen as a basic requirement for fast performance, often in connection with the assumption that a change in the muscle fiber composition was not possible. The current view is that an adapted, goal-oriented training program can massively improve speed. (2) (Read also: Diagnostics of sprinting and jumping ability )
Why are there fast and slow muscle fibers?
Depending on the amount of enzyme used and the contraction properties, a distinction is made between slow muscle fibers (type I) and fast muscle fibers (type II). In the case of the fast muscle fiber types, a mixed type (type IIa) is distinguished from the fastest fibers (type IIx). The muscle fiber types differ both in the motor neurons that they supply and in the stimulus response that they give to a signal and in the provision of energy.
The slower muscle fibers generate maximally lower tension values, but have a higher number of cell power plants and can thus provide energy for a very long time. The lack of anaerobic capacities is due to a poorer supply of corresponding enzyme systems, so that lower amounts of energy can be generated anaerobically.
However, this is important in order to be able to generate as much energy as possible quickly. Fast muscle fibers are innervated by large motor neurons and can deliver a lot of energy very quickly due to the use of enzymes. Overall, they are also able to generate higher voltages.
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How important is the proportion of fast muscle fibers?
With every contraction, no matter how strong it is, slow type I muscle fibers are initially activated. With increasing strength, more and more faster muscle fibers are added. The greater the proportion of fast muscle fibers, the faster a contraction can occur and the greater the maximum states of tension that can be achieved. Due to this physiological basis, the muscle fiber distribution is seen as the most important influencing factor for speed training. Overall, besides the 3 muscle fiber types mentioned, there seem to be other mixed types whose differences on the sarcomere level lie in the proteins involved.
Can muscle fibers be converted?
From the point of view of training practice, it is important whether muscle fibers are changeable or whether you are really “born” to be a sprinter. However, this question cannot be answered conclusively. Experiments have shown that type IIx fibers can be converted into type IIa through appropriate training. Obviously, strength training can lead to a conversion from fast to medium-fast muscle fibers. There is also evidence that high-intensity training with weights in combination with anaerobic interval training units can lead to a conversion of type I muscle fibers into medium-speed muscle fibers.
If that's true, improvements in speed are conceivable not only through training in neural control or muscular interaction, but also with regard to muscle structure. However, changes seem to be triggered only in specially predisposed muscle fibers. It is assumed that only about 20% of all muscle fibers can be changed. The distribution of the muscle fibers thus plays an important role, although changes can at least partially be triggered by training. The transformation through training only remains stable as long as you train accordingly. Without appropriate stimuli, the fibers recede.
The basis for your speed: strength training
Speed training is often equated with various strength training techniques that only work suboptimally for developing fast, vigorous performance . For a long time, training with moderate weights in strength training at a high output speed was referred to as the rapid strength method. If you look at a strength-time curve, however, it can be assumed that this method is inferior to training with maximum loads.
When considering strength training, the speed of movement and the speed of contraction have to be considered differently. At maximum loads, the goal must be to work with an explosive contraction against the load. The movement will look slow from the outside, but if the trainee tenses against it explosively, a large number of motor units will be recruited at once and the increase in force, the so-called explosive force, will take a steeper course. The number of maximum possible motor units that can be switched on depends on the maximum force.
If only small loads are accelerated, a fast movement is generated by the motor, but the measured force values are lower compared to a maximum contraction! Training with maximum loads thus forms the basis of speed training, but can then also be supplemented by methods in which the speed of movement is in the foreground! The basis of the speed strength training is thus the maximum strength method, in which very high loads are moved around 95–100% of the 1 repetition maximum (RM). We recommend 4–5 sets of 1–3 repetitions.
Hypertrophy for the slow guy!
Since the muscle fiber distribution has a lasting influence on speed performance, there is another effect of strength training that must be discussed in connection with speed training . Fast type II muscle fibers react more strongly to a training stimulus aimed at muscle growth, so that hypertrophy training can lead to increased muscle growth of the fast muscle fibers.
The number of fast muscle fibers does not increase, but the proportion of the total muscle cross-section does. Thus, strength training with the aim of increasing the muscle cross-section can also lead to increased rapid strength. This happens with the background that you increase the volume of the fast muscle fibers. In view of the adaptation mechanisms on the morphological level and also on the neural level, it has been shown that strength training can be associated with improved rapid strength and thus with increased speed due to different adaptation reactions .
Both the hypertrophy method with the aim of increasing muscle mass and maximum strength training, in which less muscle mass is expected, lead to corresponding adjustments. The myth, still widespread among coaches, that strength training makes athletes slow, must definitely be referred to the realm of fables! Strength increases the speed of movement. This applies to top athletes in various sports as well as to senior citizens who need to improve their speed in everyday activities, for example to enable them to cross a traffic light during the green phase.
Train acceleration!
In many sports the linear walking paths are limited. Long linear sprints are a rarity, especially in ball sports. And if they happen once, it is rarely long enough for the maximum possible speed to be reached. (2) Most athletes reach their individual maximum speed at around 40–60 meters.
However, most sprints in soccer end at an average of 25 meters, in basketball and handball the starts are even shorter. (2) For this reason, especially in specific speed training, a special focus should be placed on the acceleration phase. Train specifically to kick start from different positions, in connection with special tasks, such as receiving the ball. These exercises should take up a large volume in speed training.
Notice the complexity of the movement
In many training contents, the focus of the stressed muscles is on the front of the leg. It is important that the back muscles are also adequately stressed. It must always be taken into account that the hamstrings, in addition to their function as flexors, primarily act as "extensors" in the hip. The hip-extending hamstring muscles on the back of the thighs are a very important part of the muscles that are relevant to acceleration.
The same goes for the gluteal muscles. Classic exercises in the coordination ladder, however, focus on the muscles of the front due to the position of the feet and legs. However, these exercises are not a substitute for isolated hamstrings, especially when you want to focus on the hamstring muscles.
Additional training equipment in speed training
Especially when it comes to sprinting and speed skills, a large assortment of aids has developed in recent years, which are primarily about generating increased resistance during the usual speed performance. In these so-called "pull resistance runs", the athlete is simply braked during a "normal" sprint run . This is done, for example, with rubber bands, in which the trainer and the athlete each wear a “harness” around their torso and a rubber rope has a braking effect.
But pull sleds that can be loaded with weight discs are also widespread, as are brake parachutes or simply car tires that have to be pulled. The disadvantage of such methods is that the running economy can be influenced. In top sport, when it comes to tickling every power reserve from the highly trained body, exercises with resistance can be an opportunity to work on absolute top form - but only after the basis has been laid in strength training or other forms of speed training have been extensively implemented Training process have been integrated.
Conclusion
If you look at the training practice in speed training in recent years, the training has developed significantly. For a long time, the focus was on considerations in which fast movement execution was the focus of training efforts, but the view on speed training is clearly shaped by findings on physiology and the dimensions of speed.
On the one hand, the specific training plays an important role - a sprint is trained by sprinting. As a further basis, the training of strength skills should be the focus of athletes and coaches. The realization that the maximum strength is very closely related to the speed strength and the speed is fundamental. The speed of movement in strength training is less important, but the speed of contraction is very important!
Tips for your workout
Maximum strength training improves your speed strength.
Periodize your weight training.
Hypertrophy and maximum strength training must be tailored to the specific sport.
Speed training with braking elements can also be carried out.
Literature:
- Journal of Aging Physical Activity, 2009, Vol. 17, pp. 257-271
- NSCA's Performance Training Journal, 2011, Vol. 10 (4), p. 6
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