Part 4 of 18
🧠 Introduction
After the last article, one question should still be sitting in the back of your mind.
👉 Is there more to speed than glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves?
If the answer is yes…
then the next question becomes:
👉 What other muscles actually contribute to speed?
For many athletes, this is where things start getting interesting.
Because most speed conversations eventually lead back to the same place.
👉 Glutes.
👉 Hamstrings.
👉 Quads.
👉 Calves.
Those muscles are important.
But if they aren’t the entire story…
then there must be other contributors involved too.
So let’s slow things down for a moment and look at what happens during a single stride.
Most athletes naturally focus on the leg pushing against the ground.
And that makes sense.
It’s easy to see.
It’s producing force.
It’s helping move the body forward.
But while that leg is pushing…
👉 is anything else happening at the same time?
Or is the pushing leg doing all the work by itself?
Because the answer to that question may open the door to one of the most overlooked contributors in speed training.
👀 Watch The Other Leg
Most athletes spend years focusing on the leg pushing against the ground.
And honestly…
that’s understandable.
It’s the easiest part of running to notice.
👉 It’s producing force.
👉 It’s supporting your body weight.
👉 It’s helping move you down the track.
So naturally, most speed conversations begin there.
But let’s go back to the question we just asked.
While one leg is pushing into the ground…
what is the other leg doing?
It isn’t standing still.
It isn’t waiting for its turn.
And it certainly isn’t taking a break.
👉 It’s swinging forward.
👉 It’s preparing for the next ground contact.
👉 It’s actively traveling through space.
In other words…
every stride contains more than a leg pushing backward.
It also contains a leg swinging forward.
💥 At the exact same time.
And once you start noticing that, another question immediately appears.
If the leg swinging forward is doing something important…
what muscles are responsible for making that happen?
💥 Meet The Hip Flexors
The answer is surprisingly simple.
The leg swinging forward doesn’t move by itself.
Just like the pushing leg relies on muscles to drive it backward into the ground…
the swing leg relies on muscles to drive it forward.
Among the most important of these are the hip flexors.
Their job is to help pull the thigh forward during each stride.
And while most athletes have heard the term before…
very few ever stop to think about what that actually means for speed.
Because if one leg is pushing you down the track…
and the other leg is simultaneously swinging forward…
then both movements are contributing to what you see when someone runs.
💥 Not just the pushing leg.
This is where many athletes experience their first major shift in thinking.
For years, they viewed speed as something created primarily by the muscles pushing against the ground.
Now they suddenly realize:
👉 there are important muscles involved on the other side too.
👉 muscles responsible for driving the swing leg forward.
👉 muscles contributing to every stride.
And once you see them…
it’s hard to pretend they aren’t there.
Because every step you take includes both actions.
👉 a leg pushing backward
👉 and a leg swinging forward
💥 at the same time.
🤔 Who Carries The Leg Forward Again?
Here’s another way to think about it.
For years, you’ve been trying to make your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves stronger.
And that’s understandable.
Those muscles contribute to speed.
But after those muscles finish pushing against the ground…
👉 what carries them forward again?
Think about that for a moment.
The glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves you’ve spent years developing don’t simply disappear after the push.
They are still attached to the leg.
And after every push…
something still has to bring that leg back in front of the body.
👉 something still has to swing it forward
👉 something still has to prepare it for the next stride
👉 something still has to carry those muscles through the air
💥 Which muscles are responsible for that?
The answer is primarily the hip flexors.
These muscles help drive the swing leg forward after the push is complete.
Because the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves don’t carry themselves forward.
The hip flexors have to do that job.
And suddenly the hip flexors—and the swing leg they help drive—start looking a lot more important than most athletes ever realized.
This doesn’t mean the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves aren’t important.
They are.
But it does raise an interesting question.
If you’ve spent years making those muscles stronger…
have you spent the same amount of time developing the muscles responsible for carrying them forward again?
🤔 How Much Attention Have You Actually Given These Muscles?
Now let’s make this personal.
Think about your training over the last:
👉 week
👉 month
👉 six months
👉 year
How much time have you spent intentionally trying to improve the muscles responsible for driving the swing leg forward?
Not accidentally.
Not indirectly.
Intentionally.
Specifically.
How many exercises can you name?
How many workouts were built around them?
How much attention did they receive compared to:
👉 squats
👉 deadlifts
👉 sprinting
👉 jumps
👉 sled work
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
For many athletes, the answer isn’t difficult to find.
The difference isn’t small.
It’s enormous.
Most athletes spend years developing the muscles responsible for pushing against the ground.
Meanwhile, the muscles responsible for driving the swing leg forward often receive very little attention by comparison.
And that’s what makes this realization so interesting.
Not because you’ve been doing something wrong.
But because you may have discovered a contributor to speed that has been sitting in plain sight the entire time.
A contributor that participates in every stride.
A contributor that helps carry the leg forward again and again.
And a contributor that many athletes have barely thought about.
💥 Why This Is Good News
The purpose of this article isn’t to convince you that the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves don’t matter.
They do.
The purpose is to show you that they aren’t the only contributors involved in speed.
For many athletes, that’s exciting.
Because it means there may still be opportunities for improvement that have nothing to do with working harder.
Nothing to do with adding more volume.
And nothing to do with spending even more time doing the same things you’ve already been doing.
Sometimes improvement begins with discovering a piece of the puzzle you didn’t know existed.
And for many athletes, the muscles responsible for driving the swing leg forward are one of those pieces.
But here’s the interesting part.
The swing leg isn’t the only overlooked contributor in sprinting.
There are others.
💥 And that’s exactly where our journey goes next.
🧭 Your Journey To Faster Speed Continues Here
At this point, one thing should be becoming clear.
The question isn’t:
Do the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves matter?
They do.
The question is:
Are they the only muscles contributing to speed?
And today you’ve discovered they aren’t.
Every stride includes:
👉 a leg pushing backward
👉 and a leg swinging forward
💥 at the same time.
Which means the muscles responsible for driving the swing leg forward deserve far more attention than many athletes ever realize.
And that’s exciting.
Because it means there may still be opportunities for speed improvement that you’ve never fully explored.
But here’s the interesting part.
The swing leg isn’t the only overlooked contributor involved in sprinting.
There are still other parts of the body helping create speed.
Parts that many athletes spend even less time thinking about.
💥 And that’s exactly where our journey goes next.
📖 Next Up: Part 5 of 18
➡️ Why Most Athletes Underestimate Their Arms (And Why They Matter For Speed)
