Best excercises for acceleration and/or sprinting? I know explosive stuff, olympic lifts, etc. Anything more specific or something youve found really works?
When Michelle’s pit bull gets that look in it’s eye, squares off, and then bears down on me like a pissed-off freight train, my acceleration and speed pick up dramatically.
I highly recommend it for anyone looking to make improvements in those areas.
Deads, glute-ham raises, and leg curls, along with the other leg movements have worked wonders for me.
- A fast white boy
You could try plyometrics. In the September 2003 of Runner’s World, there is an article about this. Ultimately it still boils down to being able to generate large amounts of explosive muscle power, but there were four exercises that the article recommended.
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Alternate bounding - a very long running stride with exaggerated knee lifts.
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Skipping - a lesser version of alternate bounding.
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Split-squat jump - start in a lunge position, jump upward and forward, pushing off the front leg. Land in lunge position and repeat continuously.
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Two-foot ankle hops - Stand up straight, keep feet together, and hop forward.
It’s all about increasing your capacity for explosive power. Anything that accomplishes that would probably be useful.
“- A fast white boy”
Yeah, but I bet you can’t jump, scrub…
As for Oly lifts, opt for the power snatch, though you don’t have to exclude the other variants.
Plyos are great for reactive ability, but are you talking acceleration from a dead stop?
in addition to the hamstring/glute exercises i would recommend, and
it might sound silly but, “run faster”.
try just working on “starts”. 5-15yd sprints.
also anything you can do to get your core strength up is going to help you maintain strong form and allow you to be faster, longer.
speed drills such as ladders have helped me too. this is where you mark out a grid of boxes along the ground- each box about a foot in length. about 8-15ft is plenty. each time you step your foot in a box, you double pump your foot(that is your foot on your right foot comes down and you quickly pull it back up and push it back down as quickly as possible) before taking your next step into the box ahead.
another great, although very taxing(BE CAREFULL!) is short sprints down a declined slope. it doesnt take much and it will tear your knees to crap if you get sloppy at all. but its a good tool in my experience. the grade doesnt have to be much at all. dont start sprinting down hills!
good luck,
ryan
Mike: I’ve got mad hops. Don’t make me dunk on you.
in the weight room, i lke powercleans, heavy squats slightly below parralell, and leg curls. never been a fan of stifflegged deads because they make me freeze up from soreness. out of the weightroom, ladders, floaters, straightaways,downhill &or uphill [though there’s a school of thought that thinks uphill sprints are useless] and depending on your sport, plyos. if you play basketball plyos are not needed as hoopin is pretty much a plyo session in and of itself.
i cant attest to the trackwork [playin is my speed training, though i will start sprintin before legs soon here] but i can attest to the weightwork. i’m 5’9" 160somethin, can dunk a ball2handed from a standstill and was clocked in the 4.4 range.
hope i helped brotha.
ps scrub, if you ever in h-town you ready to get your ass handed to you in a dunkcontest?
Glute ham raises and, um, sprinting. Really. I also found foot speed drills helpful as well. But mainly the sprinting.
Mike, that was you in the backyard? You’re lucky…Ruby got in the way and I couldn’t get a shot off. Next time just ring the doorbell…but DON’T come in until the dog has been reined in. 
- Natural Glute Ham Raise
- A better sprint workout (http://www.charliefrancis.com)
couple of years ago i did a lit review that basically came up with the conclusion hanging powercleans (weight lifted compared to body weight ) was the best predictor of 40m sprit time. seems reasonable to me.
my guess is accleration would be mainly quad/glut/calf based whereas hammies/glut dictate max speed… any thoughts?
Snatch-grip deadlifts are great for help with developing power out of the blocks.
This is for Rugby if it matters at all. Thanks for all the ideas guys, Ill try and put this stuff to work.
I’d practice sprinting. better time out of the blocks? I’d practice getting out of the blocks.
For the acceleration phase the basic strength lifts such as Squats, Front Squats, Bottom Half Squats, Deadlifts, Deep Lunges, Single Leg Squats, Bench Press are proven to work. The higher speed lifts include power clean, snatch close grip snatch, push press, deep jump squats.
There are only two ways to increase sprinting speed 1)Lengthen strides 2) quicken strides.
How do Olympic lifts further either of these two goals? (other than perhaps recruiting more type IIB ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibers and making them stronger but not necessarily faster or longer).
Olympic lifts are performed on a vertical plane making them ideally suited for those interested in improving the muscles involved in jumping but sprinting is performed on a horizontal plane and although there is some carry over between the muscles groups involved, if your goal is to gain sprint speed you need to focus on the horizontal plane and weird muscles like the hip flexors. I would think lunges and those hip flexor machines would target the ‘sprinting muscles’ better.
See this interview with Tudor Bompa and his comments on the need for sports specific training that emphasize the right muscles in the right plane of motion for the given skill you are looking to improve.
for the record i disagree with cre-king (no hard feelings 
), especially on this matter as we are talking about acceleration. When you are accelartion you are leaning forward and generating near vertical movt.
If its for rugga, stick with O lifts, GHR (and other hammie work) and plyo. Sprint drill should be based aroun 10-40m distances. use the 100m+ for lactate training as opposed to pure accelleration/technique training.
Also dont try to run like a sprinter cause you’ll get fuckn waxed on the field. Drop you centre of graviy and take a wider stance, until you have clear running space then make sure you have one arm in the air saluting the crowd as they scream in exitement… sorry lost track there…