C. Delecluse, INFLUENCE OF STRENGTH TRAINING ON SPRINT RUNNING PERFORMANCE - CURRENT FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING, Sports medicine, 24(3), 1997, pp. 147-156
Today, it is generally accepted that sprint performance, like enduranc
e performance, can improve considerably with training. Strength traini
ng, especially, plays a key role in this process. Sprint performance w
ill be viewed multidimensionally as an initial acceleration phase (0 t
o 10m), a phase of maximum running speed (36 to 100m) and a transition
phase in between. Immediately following the start action, the powerfu
l extensions of the hip, knee and ankle joints are the main accelerato
rs of body mass. However, the hamstrings, the m. adductor magnus and t
he m. gluteus maximus are considered to make the most important contri
bution in producing the highest levels of speed. Different training me
thods are proposed to improve the power output of these muscles. Some
of them aim for hypertrophy and others for specific adaptations of the
nervous system. This includes general (hypertrophy and neuronal activ
ation), velocity specific (speed-strength) and movement specific (spri
nt associated exercises) strength training. In developing training str
ategies, the coach has to keep in mind that strength, power and speed
are inherently related to one another, because they are all the output
of the same functional systems. As heavy resistance training results,
in a fibre type IIb into fibre type IIa conversion, the coach has to
aim for an optimal balance between sprint specific and nonspecific tra
ining components. To achieve this they must take into consideration th
e specific strength training demands of each individual, based on perf
ormance capacity in each specific phase of the sprint.