What muscles determine how fast you run?

deadybai

Now I have been a couch pototo over the last number of years. I wasnt fast the last time I played sports when I was a young teen. A few months ago I joined a soccer club just to keep me busy. To everyone's surprise including myself, I am the fastest sprinter in the club. However after the sprint I would be fecked. These lads are no slouches and are fairly fit. I am now wondering what if I stuck with sports when I was younger, what my potential would have been to be a sprinter.

Any ways what muscles do sprinters primarily work on? My cardio is shocking so if I wanted to really try and reach my potential maximum speed I would obviously have to lose a bit of fat and increase my cardio. Why am I so fast?

EmcD123

deadybai wrote: »

Now I have been a couch pototo over the last number of years. I wasnt fast the last time I played sports when I was a young teen. A few months ago I joined a soccer club just to keep me busy. To everyone's surprise including myself, I am the fastest sprinter in the club. However after the sprint I would be fecked. These lads are no slouches and are fairly fit. I am now wondering what if I stuck with sports when I was younger, what my potential would have been to be a sprinter.

Any ways what muscles do sprinters primarily work on? My cardio is shocking so if I wanted to really try and reach my potential maximum speed I would obviously have to lose a bit of fat and increase my cardio. Why am I so fast?

im a competitive sprinter. theres not really any one muscle that used but the main ones would be the glutes, and core muscles such as your stomach ,hamstrings aswell.
When training to sprint faster its usually loads of lower back work,core and glutes specific stuff i'd work on because the more stable you are the faster you get and the better your posture gets. Triceps are quite important too for pushing with the arms but not as much as the previously mentioned ones. Basically if you want to get faster work on those muscles and do sprint repititions. if its for speed in soccer stick to shorter ones like 80m or even 60m because youll never have to maintain it for all that long and just do loads of them .The rest will all come eventually. some people are naturally better at running ,i see it all the time in the club, people enter the school races that have never trained in their lives and win a race against people who have been training since they were 10 . Talent only gets you so far though

tastyt

Determining how fast you run has an awful lot to do with genetics and type of muscle you may or may not have.

But to train speed there would be leg and glute strength exercises like squat and lunge, and secondary to that upper body work. However, it is the explosive aspect of Sprint training which will make the real didiference. Bounding, bunny hops, box jumps all train the muscles to exert maximum force which obviously generates speed.

You should be at a pretty good fitness level to be training plyometrics though

EmcD123

tastyt wrote: »

Determining how fast you run has an awful lot to do with genetics and type of muscle you may or may not have.

But to train speed there would be leg and glute strength exercises like squat and lunge, and secondary to that upper body work. However, it is the explosive aspect of Sprint training which will make the real didiference. Bounding, bunny hops, box jumps all train the muscles to exert maximum force which obviously generates speed.

You should be at a pretty good fitness level to be training plyometrics though

Genetics only really matter if youre competing in races at a high level ,hard work will often win over it at lower levels but its when you combine the two that you get the best results and it sounds like you have the natural talent so theres nothing stopping you from getting fast really.
Ya plyometrics only work properly if youre already pretty fast and fit and have a really good coach because its so easy to overdo it or attempt stuff your not ready for which leads to injury(from experience).
Join a club if you really want to get fast, there can be some really knowledgeable coaches there and it makes you less likely to run yourself into the ground

Naos

EmcD123 wrote: »

i see it all the time in the club, people enter the school races that have never trained in their lives and win a race against people who have been training since they were 10 .

EmcD123 wrote: »

Genetics only really matter if youre competing in races at a high level ,hard work will often win over it at lower levels

So which is it?

EmcD123

Naos wrote: »

So which is it?

haha i saw it as soon as i clicked post and hoped no one would notice. I think its a mix, those people i gave as examples are racing in athletics events. primarily in county\provincial level ,they tend not to do too well in all irelands then as thats where the athletes who've done a huge amount of training with very good coaches are and they usually dominate the events usually winning by a second or maybe 2 except in some cases. ive seen one won by almost 5 seconds before. in the lower levels though like county\connaught where there is actually only one all ireland finalist maybe 2 in the race but the other 10 or 12 entered may not nessecarily be all that fast people with the natural talent do well here. in higher levels its when you combine the 2 you get the best results but the experience and coaching usually wins out over talent in all ireland level once you go past say the age or 15 or 16.
Kinda off topic to what op asked in my opinion but just wanted to correct my contradiction from earlier on
Edit: dont worry ive spotted so many more contradictions, im finding it hard to say exactly what i mean in writing ,i know what im trying to say but i cant get it down right. either way OP sounds like he does have natural talent for running and should definitely pursue it, other than my horrible attempt at at describing the genetics stuff my other advice is fairly sound and goes along with what most would recommend (dont quote me on that haha)

guile4582

i am very stocky, but very fast. I reckon it could be down to deadlifts and therefore solid hamstrings..maybe