How to Sprint Faster

Improving Your Technique

Try running on the balls of your feet. Although the scientific evidence on this remains mixed, many believe running on the balls of your feet may help you move faster. The less time your foot is on the ground the better. This will be a bit unnatural at first. Try running barefoot, and then emulating that form with shoes on. Running with your heels first may also bad for your joints, muscles, and ligaments. It creates a highly unnatural "V" shape with your lower legs and feet that puts unnecessary strain on everything.

Take more steps. You may think taking longer strides will mean a faster pace, but that is not true. After all, you can't move forward with your feet in the air. Taking shorter strides will actually speed you up more (if done correctly). When you over-stride, you lose your form. Your front foot struts out in front of you and actually acts as a sort of brake on your entire body. You then have to carry yourself over your foot, leading to a bouncing that just isn't good for form or speed. Keeping your stride normal also means you won't get winded as quickly.

Lean forward just a bit. Just two degrees can mean the difference between a decent sprint and a great sprint. This doesn't mean throwing all your weight forward so it's a constant battle to avoid falling forward. Just a slight incline is sufficient to help you move faster without losing your balance. It's also important not to lean back. Sometimes when nearing the finish line or checking to see those behind you, you may be tempted lean back or look up and change your form. This, too, slows you down. You can look around when your sprint is done.

Use your arms. Your arms can help propel you if you move them in the right way. They should pump with your legs, driving you forward.

When starting a race, you should keep your head down in your neck and keep your body at an angle when coming out of the blocks. Your body should gradually get more and more upright as the race progresses. After about 30m, you should be relatively upright. Think of making an "L" shape with your arm: your relaxed fists should reach as high as your chin and be drawn back with your elbows.

Push yourself. You should never decelerate during a sprint. If you are moving less than your top speed, you lose valuable time. If you feel the need to slow down, concentrate on pushing through it. If this is a problem for you, start out a bit slower. Ideally, you'll finish faster than you started.

Breathe effectively. At all times, you should be harmonizing your breathing with your strides. There is some disagreement as to whether it is more beneficial to breathe through the nose or mouth, or whether it makes any difference at all. The crucial thing is to make sure you are getting enough oxygen, so try both and see what feels comfortable and works best for you. If you're not tired but your muscles are, try to inhale more deeply. It's probable that your muscles just need more oxygen. In addition to working on your form and running ability, you should work on your breathing. Concentrate on it when you're warming up so you are primed to do it correctly and deeply during your sprint.

Eat well. It is very important to follow the kind of dietary guidelines that everyone could benefit from. Athletes, however, have additional dietary needs. Carbohydrates are key, as these will release loads of energy and give you strength. Cereal, bread, pasta, and potatoes are all good examples. Additional protein is also necessary for muscle-building. Consider lean proteins such as turkey and cottage cheese. Champion sprinter Usain Bolt lives on a regimen of yams, pasta and rice, chicken and pork, and stays away from fast food. You will also require more calories over the course of a day than less active people. Make time for yourself to eat a healthy breakfast every day, especially if you are working out that day. If you have a run coming up, load up on the right foods beforehand. However, hold back on the power foods a few hours before a run. You don't want your stomach acting up during the race.

Stay hydrated. All the exercise you'll be getting means you'll lose a lot of fluids through perspiration, so to stay hydrated, you'll need to drink lots of water. If you're training in the sun, it's even more important. A good rule of thumb is to replenish with a pint of water for every pound you lose after a workout. So, weigh yourself before and after to get an idea of how much you need to be drinking. A high school football player, for example might lose five pounds from perspiration after practice.

Visit a training gym frequently. Proper weightlifting, or strength training, while breathing correctly, is another important part of increasing your speed, and it should be incorporated into your schedule at least twice a week. weightlifting that really tests you (but is not so heavy that you shake or can't get started) is going to condition your muscles for sprinting by making them bigger and more able to endure soreness. Every gym is different and the machines will vary. Be sure to look for ones that focus on working your legs. Don't push yourself too hard, as this can lead to serious injury. Work up to the heavier weights slowly. If you aren’t confident in your ability to jump right into weight-training at the gym, you can strength-train at home.

Work on your leg muscles. The leg muscles are, of course, the key to running fast. Make use of a squat machine to strengthen your quad muscles. Do various exercises on this, such as jumping squats and lifts. There are also a number of barbell exercises that can strengthen your legs: Do deadlifts. Find a long bar designed for handling lots of weight. Put some weight on it, squat down and pick it up. Then, stand up straight. Now, just bend over using your back and try to get the bar to touch your feet, while holding onto it. You should feel this in your hamstrings, the most important muscles for running. Try the "power clean," a maneuver that involves squatting down to pick up a long barbell, and then standing up rapidly as you simultaneously life with your arm. Do barbell squats. Rest a long barbell across your shoulders, holding it in place with both hands. Then, in a wide stance, do squats, keeping your chin parallel to the ground.

Work on your abs. Working on your abdominal muscles takes a lot of time, but having a strong core will make everything easier, making it worth the effort. it can also help prevent injuries. One good exercise for your abs is to take hold of a weight bar (25 to 45 pounds) or hand weights, and then just do some sit-ups. Work on your lower abs, too. For a good lower-ab workout, find a pole, or something of the sort (for example, a leg support to a bench press machine, the railing of your bed, etc.), grip it very tightly, lie down, and do some leg-lifts. Keep your legs together and bring them up and down very slowly. You should feel burn in the bottom of your abs, so you know it's working.

Work on your shoulders. The shoulders are also important for a fast sprint. They give your body the drive it needs to run quickly, increasing both acceleration and control. If there is a shoulder press or a bench press at your gym, make sure to spend some time using it. Bench presses also help your chest muscles, which are also important. Be very careful when working around your shoulders and neck. Injuring this area can be extremely painful and put your workout routine on hold for quite a while, as you'll need time to recover.

Run uphill. Not only is running uphill great for your lungs and your leg muscles, but it naturally improves your form too. You'll find yourself automatically going for the balls of your feet and leaning slightly forward. Think about your body like a car. Sprinting is hitting the acceleration button to speed up. Your legs are the engine, so strengthening your legs can improve your performance. Think of hill sprints as a mix between sprinting and weight-lifting. It burns a lot of calories and is great for building your calf muscles.

Building a Routine

Warm up. You need to get yourself warm and loose before you start sprinting. To do that, you'll want to try a combination of jogging and dynamic stretches, before transitioning to running drills. To begin with, jog around the track a couple of times at a comfortable pace. Don't use up too much energy at this point, you're just warming your muscles up. It used to be taught to stretch before running. Now experts advise traditional stretches prior to exercising can actually lead to (or even cause) injury. Instead, try dynamic stretches. These are gentle arm and leg swings performed in a smooth, continuous motion, rather than holding a for stretch in a specific position. For example, you can stand perpendicular to a wall and swing your outside leg back and forth, increasing the height which each repetition. Then, turn around and stretch the other leg. If you have a specific injury or stiffness, (such as a sore hamstring) it may be a good idea to stretch out these areas prior to the main workout.

Perform some drills. Once you are starting to get warmed up and limber, do some drills to get your heart pumping and your body ready for real action. You can perform running drills, in which you start off at a brisk pace and accelerate to sprinting speed. There are also many other drills that are great for sprinters: High knees: Walk while bringing your knees all the way up to your chest. Arm drills: Make L's with your arms, using the elbows as the corner of the L (i.e. a 90-degree angle). Now, just swing your arms forward and backward, using only your shoulders to swing your arms. Alternate movements, driving the elbow of one arm all the way back while the other arm is all the way up to, but not passing, your face (i.e. up to your chin). When you get comfortable with that, increase the speed. Go as fast as you can for as long as you can. Long strides: Take long strides with your legs, using high knees to bring your leg up. The idea is to get as far as you can in as few long steps as possible. Don't put much weight on the front leg (especially the balls of the foot). If you do so, you might lose balance and trip. Back pedals: Turn around and run backwards. Use your heels and reach outwards, in a kicking motion. Alternate jogging and sprinting: Jog for 10 yards (9.1 m) and burst into a sprint for 50 yards (45.7 m). This exercise is great for shifting gears; the sudden changes in tempo improve your "burst-speed," which will be crucial to your sprinting efforts. In fact, shifting between low- and high-intensity exercise like this is one of the best ways to improve your cardio fitness and endurance, which will help your body pump oxygen more efficiently when you sprint and help keep you from tiring.

Design a workout routine that suits you. There is no perfect routine for everybody, because every individual has their own needs and their own schedules. Ideally, however, you'll want to set aside at least three days to work on speed and two days to weight-lift. Here's an example schedule: Monday (Speed Day): Run ten 80-meter stretches (i.e. run 80-meter dashes five times, taking 2 minute breaks between each one), six 70-meter stretches, four 60-meter stretches, three 20-meter stretches and one 100-meter stretch. Tuesday (Weight-Lifting Day): Go into a weightlifting room and work on everything. Try to keep all of your muscles in shape; you'll need every single one for running, and even more so for sprinting. Wednesday (Speed/Endurance Day): Run four 300-meter stretches. It's important to get this kind of run and to give it all you’ve got. Endurance training makes your heart stronger, which will make you much faster. Thursday (Semi-Speed Day): Run five 200-meter stretches, three 100-meter stretches, and two 50-meter stretches. Friday (Weight-Lifting Day Two): Go back to the gym and increase the challenge level. Once you feel you’ve mastered a certain exercise or piece of equipment, be sure to move on to a new challenge. As your body learns to move a certain way, it becomes more efficient, meaning you do less work for the same activity and hit a plateau. Avoid this by keeping your workout routine fresh. Don't forget to to warm up before each workout, and to cool down afterwards. Take the weekend off. You need time to rest and for your muscles to take a break. Usain Bolt Usain Bolt, Olympic Sprinter Hard work pays off. "I think a lot of people, they see you run and they say, ‘it looks so easy, looks effortless’. But before it gets to that point, it’s hard; it’s hard work."

Optimizing Your Performance

Get the right gear. While you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on clothes and shoes if you're just looking for a faster run, top-of-the-line running gear will be useful if you're going competitive (or setting world records). Get shoes designed just for sprinters. You'll want a lightweight shoe that has sprint spikes. The less you're weighed down the better, and all that time you spend on the balls of your feet will be made easier with sprint spikes. Make sure that your shoes are the right size! Improperly fitting shoes can seriously hurt if you run with them for too long. Wear the right clothes. Being comfortable is the key. You want your workout clothes to fit comfortably and keep your body the right temperature. Unless you really like the feel of them, however, you don't need to worry about buying lower-limb compression garments. Research suggests they don't do much to improve performance. Get some sprinting blocks. If you're really serious about sprinting, pick up a set of the blocks you've seen Olympic sprinters use to take off from. They help your propel yourself off the starting line. The nearest sporting goods store should have them.

Run with others. Whether you're on a track team or just racing with your friends, running with others is almost guaranteed to make you run faster. A little friendly competition is likely to help you get motivated. Whether it's on a row of treadmills or on a track, running with friends can give you a drive to be the best that's harder to find on your own. Seeing people in your periphery (or trying to zoom ahead of you) will keep you very literally on your toes.

Time yourself. Sprinting truly is about how fast you're going and how long it takes you to get from point A to point B. To know if you're really getting better, you'll need to time yourself. If you want to improve your time, the best thing you can do is run regularly. Staying in shape and pushing your body will ensure you keep breaking personal records! Odds are you probably want to get going on setting new personal records. However, only try this two or three times a day at most; once you've been at it for a while, you're performance will start to decline. You'll just get more frustrated as you get tired and find yourself unable to match your previous efforts.

Cool down. To stay loose, prevent injury, and decrease your aches and pains later, spend a few minutes after every sprinting workout doing some light exercise, such as jogging, and the last five to ten minutes stretching all your muscles. Your legs, ankles, arms, shoulders, and neck all need to be stretched. Stretching helps remove waste products such as lactic acid that accumulate in your muscles and cause swelling and soreness, and helps them build back up more quickly. This is generally important for all exercise, but especially for running, which uses the whole body. See How to Stretch for more details on a cool down stretch. You don’t need to be totally exhausted by the end of each run to make progress and improve your sprinting skills.