How to Get Faster for Your Sport: Why Strength Matters for Speed

If you want to become faster, you need to sprint.

There’s no weight-room exercise that completely replaces running fast.

But that doesn’t mean the weight room isn’t important.

One of the fundamental pieces of sprinting is an athlete’s ability to put force into the ground.

And that’s where getting stronger becomes really valuable.

Speed Requires Force

Every time your foot contacts the ground during a sprint, you have a very short window to produce force.

Produce enough force in the right direction and you accelerate.

That’s one reason relative strength matters.

If we can make an athlete’s legs considerably stronger without unnecessarily increasing their bodyweight, we’ve potentially given them a bigger engine to move the same body.

But Strength Isn’t Enough

If getting stronger automatically made you faster, the world’s strongest powerlifters would also be the world’s fastest sprinters.

They’re not.

Athletes don’t just need to produce force.

They need to produce it quickly.

That’s why our athletes don’t only lift weights.

We use sprinting, jumping, olympic lifting, plyometrics, and other implements that require aggressive, fast movement.

Heavy strength training develops the ability to produce large amounts of force.

Explosive training helps us learn to express force quickly.

Sprinting gives us the most specific opportunity to apply those qualities while actually running.

Acceleration Matters

When athletes say they want to become faster, they often picture someone running a 100-meter dash.

Most sports don’t look like that.

Most sports you have to beat your opponent in a 5 yard window. Winning the point of attack or reacting to a loose ball happens fast.

In many sports, the ability to accelerate quickly is at least as important as maximum-speed sprinting.

And overcoming your own inertia requires force.

That’s another reason strength can be so valuable.

Don’t Turn Speed Training Into Conditioning

If you’re performing repeated sprints with very little rest, eventually you aren’t practicing maximum speed anymore.

You’re practicing running tired.

There’s a place for conditioning.

But if the goal is speed, we need high-quality efforts with enough recovery that the athlete can actually move fast.

Being exhausted isn’t proof that you got faster.

Build the Whole Athlete

There’s no magical speed exercise.

Get stronger.

Sprint fast.

Jump.

Develop explosive power.

Improve your mechanics.

Then consistently train those qualities over time.

At STS Weightlifting and Performance in Naperville, that’s why our sports performance athletes don’t have to choose between “speed training” and “strength training.”

We develop both.

Because ultimately, we aren’t trying to create the strongest athlete in the weight room.

We’re trying to create an athlete who can take that strength onto the field and do something with it.

Want to Get Faster and Stronger for Your Sport?

At STS Weightlifting and Performance in Naperville, our Sports Performance program develops strength, speed, power and athleticism with training designed around the needs of the athlete.

Learn more about speed and performance training at STS.