Muscles used in sprinting

In article said:

Can anyone identify what joint actions and prime movers
are involved in sprinting? What main muscles are involved
in assisting these actions and in stabilising the actions?

Nearly all parts of the movement are multi-joint. For
example, when you push off, you get the quads and glutes and
calves (gastroc/soleus) firing closely followed by the
hamstrings and hip flexors -- much like doing a power-clean
with weights (if you're thinking of weights for x-training,
power cleans are a good place to start).

But this is already an over-simplification because you get
one leg going up while the other toes off (to counter-
balance back-momentum of the leg that toes-off) and arms
moving in time with the opposite leg to counter-balance
torque at the hips. The forward movement of the arm includes
the "pushing" muscles -- the anterior delts, and pecs. There
is also concurrent movement at the elbow joint (biceps).
Then when the arm moves back, the "pulling" muscles: lats,
posterior delts, are used. I think the biceps and triceps
need to work to stabilise the elbow joint during this phase.

So that's why sprinters have good overall muscular
development.

The above is a termendous over-simplification partly because
I don't know enough to explain it properly, and partly
because even if I did know, I could fill a book with the
answer to that question.

Why ask anyway ? Are you looking for cross-training
exercises with weights for sprinting (some of us could
recommend specific exercises or even weights programs for
this) ? Or were you just curious ?

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

In article said:

Can anyone identify what joint actions and prime movers
are involved in sprinting? What main muscles are involved
in assisting these actions and in stabilising the
actions?

Nearly all parts of the movement are multi-joint. For
example, when you push off, you get the quads and glutes
and calves (gastroc/soleus) firing closely followed by the
hamstrings and hip flexors -- much like doing a power-clean
with weights (if you're thinking of weights for x-training,
power cleans are a good place to start).

But this is already an over-simplification because you get
one leg going up while the other toes off (to counter-
balance back-momentum of the leg that toes-off) and arms
moving in time with the opposite leg to counter-balance
torque at the hips. The forward movement of the arm
includes the "pushing" muscles -- the anterior delts, and
pecs. There is also concurrent movement at the elbow joint
(biceps). Then when the arm moves back, the "pulling"
muscles: lats, posterior delts, are used. I think the
biceps and triceps need to work to stabilise the elbow
joint during this phase.

So that's why sprinters have good overall muscular
development.

The above is a termendous over-simplification partly
because I don't know enough to explain it properly, and
partly because even if I did know, I could fill a book with
the answer to that question.

But you really don't think about it in terms of isolation
exercises. Powerlifting-type workouts in sets of 3-5 reps
with long rests are very effective--if you're a powerlifter.
But you only have a certain about of central nervous system
resources and heavy weight/long rest workouts consume a lot
of CNS resources. The problem, if you're a sprinter, is that
max speed sessions also consume a lot of CNS resources, and
if you leave it all in the weight room, you don't have it
for the track (which is more important).

So most sprinters do just a few exercises, with emphasis on
compound movements. Everyone does bench and squats, and
different people do different things for the rest. Some do
Olympic lifts, some don't. Some do quite a bit of heavy
weight; Others, like me, concentrate on hypertrophy (I
normally do 4 sets of 10-12) and do sets of 3-5 for just a
few weeks. You HAVE to get the upper body strength to get
your body moving out of the blocks (so every good sprinter
has to bench areond 300 or higher); everything else comes
down to getting as much useful strength as possible while
reserving enough CNS resources for the track.

Mauice Greene's weight program (midseason):

Tues and Thurs....Upper Body (no more than a minute rest
between sets)

Bench Press....5 X 10, 8, 6, 6, 6 Incline DB Press....3 X 15
Rear Delt DB Flyes....3 X 15 Straight-Arm-Front DB
raises....3 X 10 Arm Running motion with DBs....4 X 4 (15
lbs, 10 second burst, 30 sec rest) Dumbell Curls....3 X 15
(45 lbs, alternating arms) Lat Pull Downs....3 X 10 (wide
grip) Dumbell Shrugs....3 X 10

Mondays and Fridays....Lower Body

Squats....4 X 10, 8, 6, 3 (each rep is held at the bottom
for 5 seconds, then explodes up) Power Cleans....5 X 3
(start at bottom in deadlift position, [censored] BB up top
chest, drop the BB back down on floor) OR, Clean/Front
Squats....5 X 5 (start same as power clean, [censored] weight to
chest, then squat. Dont do squats or cleans when including
this exercise) Single Leg Curls...3 X 10 Single Leg
Extentions....3 X 10

Lyndon "Speed Kills...It kills those that don't have it!"
--US Olympic Track Coach Brooks Johnson

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Les said:

Can anyone identify what joint actions and prime movers
are involved in sprinting? What main muscles are
involved in assisting these actions and in stabilising
the actions?

i can't really answer the questions, but.....

there must be some benefit to doing even a bit of
sprinting as part of longer distance training. anyone? any
info on that?

i've heard much about doing strides near the end of runs,
and i've begun to incorporate that into my training. will
see if that makes some difference.

Cam

"onemarathon" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article
<[email hidden]>, Les

Quoted message said:

Can anyone identify what joint actions and prime
movers are involved in sprinting? What main muscles
are involved in assisting these actions and in
stabilising the actions?

i can't really answer the questions, but.....

there must be some benefit to doing even a bit of
sprinting as part of longer distance training. anyone? any
info on that?

It certainly helps to improve running economy

cheers,
--
David (in Hamilton, ON) www.allfalldown.org "The most
insecure people are the ones you see, putting other people
down constantly."

In article said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Les said:

Can anyone identify what joint actions and prime movers
are involved in sprinting? What main muscles are
involved in assisting these actions and in stabilising
the actions?

i can't really answer the questions, but.....

there must be some benefit to doing even a bit of
sprinting as part of longer distance training. anyone? any
info on that?

Depends on what you mean by "sprinting". It's one of those
terms that is often abused.

I would not call anything slower than your 400m pace
"sprinting", so I'd say that there's little benefit in
sprinting, and it's probably little more than a fruitful
source of injuries, at least for distances of 5k and up. If
you watch a sprinter train, they take what looks to us like
VERY long rests, because they need full recoveries to get
even close to their desired pace (no slower than 400m pace)

However, most distance runners are so out of touch with
speed, what it really feels like to run a real sprint that
they use the term "sprinting" to describe speeds as slow as
1 mile race pace. This sort of so-called "sprinting" is
quite useful.

Aside from strides, I also sometimes do 4x200m after a tempo
run. I need to take a brief rest (4 laps of jogging is good
enough) after the tempo to catch my breath, then I'm ready
to run quickly again. I usually don't put a watch on these,
because I don't want time pressure on them, but when I have
timed them, they are usually close to my 800m race pace. No
slower than 1 mile race pace, and somewhat slower than 400m
race pace.

Quoted message said:

i've heard much about doing strides near the end of runs,
and i've begun to incorporate that into my training. will
see if that makes some difference.

Strides are also good, they're a fun unstructured workout.
The way to approach these is to run the quickly, with good
turnover, but you should be relaxed. You're trying to
improve running economy, not produce as much muscle
activation as possible. Basically, as fast as you can run
without the bear jumping on your back is a good rule of
thumb. This should be close to your 800m race pace, and
certainly no faster than 400m pace.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>,

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article <cam_wilson-D03ED1.22301401042004@nr-

tor01.bellnexxia.net said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Donovan Rebbechi <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

I would not call anything slower than your 400m pace
"sprinting", so I'd say

makes sense. i always thought sprinting meant an all out
effort, for a short distance, like about 400m max.

Quoted message said:

However, most distance runners are so out of touch with
speed, what it really feels like to run a real sprint that
they use the term "sprinting" to describe speeds as slow
as 1 mile race pace. This sort of so-called "sprinting" is
quite useful.

true. we train our muscles to learn "fast" running as our
respective 5K race paces. not exactly sprinting... although
the front runners in my races always looked like they were
sprinting (in comparison to ME).

Strides are also good, they're a fun unstructured workout.
The way to

Quoted message said:

approach these is to run the quickly, with good turnover,
but you should be relaxed. You're trying to improve
running economy, not produce as much muscle activation as
possible. Basically, as fast as you can run without the
bear jumping on your back is a good rule of thumb. This
should be close to your 800m race pace, and certainly no
faster than 400m pace.

no bears in my neck of the woods. my strides have been much
faster than 800m race pace, and are more like a pace for
400m or shorter. so bring it down a few notches?

so... good turnover, relaxed, running economy... that's what
one strives for in strides? my intent is to knock down my 5K
PR this year, and several sources recommend strides as a
part of the training to get there.

thanks for the info,

Cam

In article said:

no bears in my neck of the woods. my strides have been
much faster than 800m race pace, and are more like a pace
for 400m or shorter. so bring it down a few notches?

Maybe. I don't like imposing hard and fast rules, but it
shouldn't feel like you're killing yourself doing them --
they should be easy and fun, but fast.

Quoted message said:

so... good turnover, relaxed, running economy... that's
what one strives for in strides?

Yep.

Quoted message said:

my intent is to knock down my 5K PR this year, and
several sources recommend strides as a part of the
training to get there.

Strides are good to use when you're not doing any "real"
speed work. They're especially recommended in base building
or "off season" as a way to keep it fun and keep some speed
in there while minimising stress. As you add more speed
work, you can do them after tempo runs (you'll need 5 min
recovery first) or omit them.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Hi, thanks for your help Donovan, didn;t notice the reply
yesterday. I was searching for my name not the title. I
needed the information for an assignment I am trying to do.
I have got the basics and wondered if there was anything I
was missing. When you break it down completely there is so
much that goes into it, like you said from toes upto
shoulders. Thanks again, much appreciated!

Donovan Rebbechi <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In article <cam_wilson-B5D47F.22333802042004@nr-

tor01.bellnexxia.net said:

no bears in my neck of the woods. my strides have been
much faster than 800m race pace, and are more like a
pace for 400m or shorter. so bring it down a few
notches?

Maybe. I don't like imposing hard and fast rules, but it
shouldn't feel like you're killing yourself doing them --
they should be easy and fun, but fast.

Quoted message said:

so... good turnover, relaxed, running economy... that's
what one strives for in strides?

Yep.

Quoted message said:

my intent is to knock down my 5K PR this year, and
several sources recommend strides as a part of the
training to get there.

Strides are good to use when you're not doing any "real"
speed work. They're especially recommended in base
building or "off season" as a way to keep it fun and keep
some speed in there while minimising stress. As you add
more speed work, you can do them after tempo runs (you'll
need 5 min recovery first) or omit them.

Cheers,