Muscles Needed for Speed

Just How Important Are They? If you knew just how important your shoulder flexor muscles were for speed, then you’d probably invest a lot more time in training them.  This is because your shoulder flexor muscles create much needed thrust to go along with the leg pushing off the ground helping you to run your very best. Meet the Shoulder Flexor Muscles. The shoulder flexors muscles, also known as the arm flexor muscles, consist of 4 muscles.  Their names are 1) anterior deltoid, 2) pectoralis major, 3) biceps brachii and 4) coracobrachialis.  See Figure 1 below: Figure 1. The Shoulder… read more

There’s More to Your Calf Muscles Than You Know! Getting your calf muscles stronger will go a long way toward helping you achieve a faster running speed. It will also go a long way toward helping you jump higher and farther.  But, there’s more to appreciate about your calf muscles than simply knowing what they do and, perhaps, where they are located, but, let’s start there just in case. The calf muscles, also known as the ankle plantarflexors as well as simply, the calves, are located in the posterior lower leg region.  They are responsible for pointing the foot downward… read more

Strong Hip Abductors Will Help You Increase Your Lateral Mobility Lateral mobility is defined as the ability to move sideways either to the left or to the right.  This lateral movement begins with the separation of one of your legs away from the other as seen by the athlete’s right leg in the figure above.  The muscles responsible for this action are the hip abductors. Having strong hip abductors will enable you to be more successful in any sport where quicker and faster lateral mobility is needed.  This is because they will allow you to gain a more dominant position… read more

Improve Lateral Quickness by Strengthening Your Hip Adductors The hip adductors are one of the major muscle groups that need to be strengthened for any athlete looking to improve lateral quickness, or, side to side movements.  They do this by bringing your legs towards the midline of your body as well as across the body. This action is known as hip adduction and this type of movement occurs during running sports like football, soccer, baseball and basketball to name a few. They are also used in specific skills such as kicking in soccer as well as activities like horseback riding… read more

Runners and Sprinters Need Strong Glute Muscles! Every coach and personal trainer certainly knows the importance of glute strength for runners.  In fact, I will go so far as to say that the you probably realized this to some degree as early as your middle school days.  This is because if you ever played a  physical game like football, soccer or basketball, for example, chances are your buttocks were sore afterward and this is exactly where your glute muscles are located. However, if would be unfair to leave out the hamstrings in this discussion since they, along with the glutes,… read more

Any athlete who wants to run faster will certainly want to train their hip flexors for speed.  One reason is because they are the longest and largest muscle group in the body, comprising of seven different muscles on each side of the body and they drive the acceleration phase of sprinting like no other group.  The names of these muscles are: 1) Psoas, 2) Iliacus, 3) Sartorius, 4) Vastus Rectus (a.k.a Rectus Femoris), 5) Adductor Longus, 6) Adductor Brevis, and 7) Pectineus and be seen in Figure 1 below:  Figure 1.  The Hip Flexor Muscles. The hip flexors are also… read more

The Quadriceps Muscle, or simple, The Quads The quadriceps muscle is a group of four muscles located in the anterior thigh on both sides of the body and are needed to be strong and quick for faster running speed.  Their names are: 1) Vastus Rectus (a.k.a. Rectus Femoris), 2) Vastus Medialis, 3) Vastus Lateralis, and 4) Vastus Intermedialis.  These muscles are shown in Figure 1 below: Figure 1. The Quadriceps Muscle. Innervation, or, Nerve Supply to the Quadriceps Muscle The nerve supply to the quadriceps muscles is supplied by the the femoral nerve .    See Figure 2: Figure 2. LumboSacral… read more

The hamstring muscles, or, knee flexor muscles are a group of three muscles located in the posterior thigh region on both sides of the body. These muscles are loaded with fast twitch fibers and are a must for an athlete to exercise if they want to increase running speed. Their names are: 1) Semitendonosus, 2) Biceps Femoris and 3) Semimembranosus and are shown below in Figure 1. Figure 1. The Hamstring Muscle, or, Knee Flexors. Innervation, or, Nerve Supply of the Hamstring Muscles The nerve supply to the hamstring muscles is supplied by the great sciatic nerve. It is the… read more