With the Olympic year in sight…Cyrus has begun to post blogs again, therefore I’ll be sporadically posting Schaudt outs as well! I will kick it off with an overlooked aspect to become faster.

To begin we must define what we are trying learn: what is the definition of being fast in the context of this blog post? I am talking about explosive linear acceleration and top end speed.

An area that can be overlooked in sprint training is raising your maximum strength ceiling. Your maximum strength is basically the most weight you can lift at whatever speed you can lift it in. There are three disclaimers to consider…1) This process should happen in the offseason/preseason. 2) Women need to retouch their max strength in some form more frequently than men (every 3-4 weeks). 3) Excessive muscle growth for sports whose primary resistance is their own body weight must be monitored.

The second part of this secret to getting faster is to transfer your maximum strength to sport specific movement in a ballistic fashion. The logic behind this is that a 400 runner that can run a 200 in 20.5 will be able to exert less energy than a 400 runner with a 21.5 200 time if they both cross the 200 mark at 22.0 while running a 400.

This transfer should progress down in percentages from your maximum strength in the weight room while moving from more resisted sport specific movements to body weight movements to less resisted movements. An effective top end speed transfer could be hills to body weight speed bounds to sprints on a slightly declined hill.

To all athletes out there that #TrainBIG, start putting hay in the barn of max strength…you will thank yourself when you toe the line of competition.

Schaudt is out!