Fitness advice - Sprint Training

[Llama]

Title says it all. I'm good at the 100 metre sprint, I came first in the school last year, but I dont think at my current state i could do it again. What sort of exercises should I be doing to boost my time?

 

[Dan]

This may sound counter intuitive, but increasing your aerobic capacity will also increase your sprint speed. 100m is getting pretty short, mostly fast twitch muscles, and you can almost run it without breathing. But for things like 200 and 400, doing about half (maybe less for sprinters??) your volume of training at well below your lactic acid buildup threshold will allow your body to better use the oxygen it has.

From what I know about sprint training is that one thing you want to do is get your legs used to moving blindingly fast, even if they're not carrying a heavy load. Try doing some interval pieces once a week down a slight hillside and work on getting the highest turnover rate you can. Or if you have a friend you trust, attach a stretchy rope to yourself and get him/her to pull you along from a car. This is what the German sprinters do.

Other than that, weights 3-4 times a week, lots of leg press, squats, or whatever sprinting specific lifts you have. And then a mix of long aerobic work and fast (1-2 min x 8) interval pieces. Keep your fast work and your slow work separate. That mid range right around your lactic acid threshold buildup level (the point where you can feel a slow burning accumulate in your legs but can still go for a while) will tend to wear your body out and hurt your training.

Make sure to always get liquid sugars into your body within 30 min of doing any hard training. Your muscles replenish most of their energy right after hard work and sugar is the fastest energy they can get.

This is all coming from rowing experience and general knowledge, so I don't know the specific exercises sprinters do.

 

[AH_Viper]

Yeah, aerobic training is meant to be good for sprinting as well.

A couple of guys I know that are sprinters like sprinting 300m and 200m at a time while training, then when it comes down to like a fortnight before the race they do the 100m sprints. They say it makes the 100m seem like a breeze and you can get your body into expecting a 100m sprint in a fortnight so last week is basically training on getting out the blocks.

Whatever works for them might work for you, but they aint been taught professionally or anything, its just a routine they've got themselves into.

 

[Codcommando]

Do Tae Bo!!!!!

Sorry :|

 

[Llama]

Do Tae Bo!!!!!

Sorry :|

You should be ashamed of youself
(Sorry for the slight bump)

At the moment my time is about 12.4-13.2 seconds, and I'm currently 14. Do I need to worry about it or am I performing well enough anyway?

 

[short recoil]

Best bit of advice i can give, start running up steep hills, it really builds up the fast twitch fibres....you don't have to go for any great distances just really hammer yourself up there when you do, try and do this as much as possible.

And like most things, doing the activity repeatedly is usually the best way to get better at it, just watch your joints with sprinting.

As far as diet and supplements go, eat a good breaky of oats have good amount of carbs and protein but little fat (good fats when you do) eat little an often too, 6 smaller meals a day or so, try supplementing with creatine as well mix 5g with a few tablespoons of glucose into water and take after your exercise.

I used to be excellent at sprinting, despite being quite large framed .......i used to chase cars down the road :E but i've seriously cut down because i don't wanna break my joints sprinting at 14 stone.

 

[Pesmerga]

...and replace your legs with cyber-kinetic implants.