Training Program Helps Improve Running Speed Without Running
MADISON—You don't need to run to become a faster runner. It sounds completely impossible - even counterintuitive - but David Knight, athletic performance coordinator with UW Health Sports Medicine, insists that if a sprint runner wants to improve his or her speed, developing leg strength and paying attention to physics trumps wind sprints every time.
Knight refers to the principle of physics called the spring-mass model. It's what he uses to improve the high-school sprinters he works with in the Power2 Athletic Performance program.
"This isn't a traditional approach," says Knight, who also works with young athletes in sports like hockey, basketball, track and soccer. "In the past, we've always taught that adjusting running technique is the gold standard for training sprinters to sprint fast. But what we're trying to do with this model is put more horsepower in a runner's engine."
According to Knight, there are two variables that can make someone run faster. The first is the amount of force a runner's footfall imparts to the ground, a figure that can amount to as much as three to four times a runner's body weight. The second is the time it takes for the foot to support that force - i.e., how long a runner's foot stays on the ground before moving forward again.
"Think of how a spring works," explains Knight. "The idea is that for each stride, a runner should be getting all energy put into the spring out again. This requires great amounts of lower body strength - and that's something that most athletes can significantly improve."
To maximize the force a runner's muscles produce, Knight recommends that runners work to increase their maximum leg strength by performing high-intensity, lower-repetition dead lifts, in addition to optimizing ground contact with plyometric training (jumps and hops). The key, he says, is for a runner to maintain a fixed body weight without putting on additional muscle mass. That means lifting heavy weights with fewer than six repetitions and optimal recovery time between sets.
Knight's seen the success of his principles in action: Among a group of 15-17 year-old male and female runners in the Power Track program, the athletes averaged a 19 percent improvement in key areas like maximum speed, stride length and ground contact time.
"It's actually a very simple thing to do," says Knight. "And yet the difference it can make for a runner is huge."
Date Published: 05/13/2009
News tag(s):
sports
