📖 Part 7 of 18
🧠 Introduction
A few articles ago, speed seemed simple.
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
Then another contributor appeared.
👉 the hip flexors
Then another.
👉 the arms
Then another.
👉 the torso
And naturally, many athletes begin asking:
💥 How many contributors are there?
That’s a fair question.
And for now:
👉 we’ve covered the most important ones
But as the list has grown, another realization has started to emerge.
The question is no longer just:
👉 what contributes to speed?
It’s also:
👉 how do those contributors work together?
👀 Let’s Start With The Push
Most athletes agree on at least one thing.
When you sprint:
👉 one leg pushes into the ground
Fair enough.
That’s easy to see.
And that’s usually where most explanations begin.
But let’s think about that for a moment.
While one leg is pushing…
👉 what is the other leg doing?
Does it simply wait its turn?
Of course not.
It starts moving forward.
It starts swinging.
And it does that while the other leg is still pushing.
Not before.
Not afterward.
At the exact same time.
💥 So right now we can already see something very important.
The legs are not waiting for one another.
While one leg is pushing into the ground, the other leg is already moving forward.
The pushing leg and swinging leg are active together during the same stride.
👀 What About The Arms?
If the pushing leg and swinging leg are both active during the same stride…
what about the arms?
Do they wait until the legs finish?
Of course not.
While one leg is pushing into the ground:
👉 the arm on that same side is moving forward
And while the opposite leg is swinging forward:
👉 the arm on that same side is moving backward
💥 all during the same stride
Now we can see something else.
The arms are moving right along with the legs.
Not before.
Not afterward.
During.
The legs are active.
The arms are active.
And all of it is occurring during the same stride.
👀 And What About The Torso?
Now think about the torso.
In the previous article, we used the example of an oblique sit-up.
One repetition the torso flexes upward, rotates in one direction, and the arms travel with it.
The next repetition the torso rotates the opposite direction.
And throughout the exercise:
👉 the torso is actively participating in the movement
Nobody looks at an oblique sit-up and assumes the torso is waiting its turn behind some other body part, or, muscle group.
The torso is involved throughout the entire exercise.
Now think about sprinting.
While:
👉 one leg is pushing
👉 the opposite leg is swinging
👉 the arm on the pushing side is moving forward
👉 the arm on the swinging side is moving backward
what is the torso doing?
Does it wait?
Of course not.
Just as the arms and torso participate together during an oblique sit-up…
👉 they participate together during sprinting as well.
So now we have a more complete picture.
👉 the pushing leg is active
👉 the swinging leg is active
👉 the arms are active
👉 the torso is active
And all of them are participating during the same stride.
Not one after another.
Not taking turns.
💥 Together.
💥 Something Important Is Starting To Appear
A few articles ago, the goal was simply identifying contributors.
Now a different realization has emerged.
The pushing leg doesn’t act alone.
The swinging leg doesn’t act alone.
The arms don’t act alone.
The torso doesn’t act alone.
💥 Speed is not built by separate contributors taking turns or acting independently of one another.
Instead:
💥 Sprinting is a highly coordinated full-body activity.
⚠️ Let’s Be Honest For A Moment
Now let’s go back to how most athletes train.
For years, the focus has been almost entirely on:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
And that’s understandable.
Those muscles are easy to see.
Easy to feel.
Easy to train.
But let’s think about what we just discovered.
While one leg is pushing:
👉 the other leg is swinging
👉 the arms are moving
👉 the torso is participating
All during the same stride.
So if sprinting is a highly coordinated full-body activity…
why would training focus almost entirely on only part of that system?
👀 Why The System Matters More Than The Parts
Imagine two athletes.
Athlete A spends years developing:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
But gives very little attention to:
👉 hip flexors
👉 arms
👉 torso
Athlete B develops all of them.
Not equally.
Not perfectly.
But all of them receive attention.
Now ask yourself:
👉 which athlete would you expect to have the more complete sprint system?
Most athletes would probably choose Athlete B.
And for a simple reason.
Sprinting is not performed by one contributor.
It is performed by all of them.
💥 This Changes How We Think About Speed
For years, many athletes have been taught to think about speed one contributor at a time.
Train the legs.
Train the push.
Train the force producers.
And those things matter.
But once you recognize sprinting as a highly coordinated full-body activity…
another realization begins to emerge.
💥 The goal is not simply building stronger contributors.
The goal is building a stronger sprint system.
Because speed is not created by isolated contributors acting independently.
Speed emerges from contributors participating together during the same movement.
💥 The Realization
Over the last few articles, we’ve discovered something important.
First:
👉 the hip flexors contribute to speed
Then:
👉 the arms contribute to speed
Then:
👉 the torso contributes to speed
And now we’ve discovered something even bigger.
None of those contributors operate independently.
The sprint doesn’t separate those contributors.
The sprint uses them together.
Now think about your own training.
Go back:
👉 last week
👉 last month
👉 last six months
👉 last year
How much attention have you given your:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
Now compare that to the attention you’ve given your:
👉 hip flexors
👉 arms
👉 torso
Have they received the same level of focus?
The same level of effort?
The same level of training?
For many athletes, the answer is obvious.
The difference isn’t small.
It’s enormous.
So looking back…
💥 maybe it shouldn’t be surprising when speed improvement eventually slows down.
After all:
if sprinting is a highly coordinated full-body activity…
why would we expect only part of the system to keep carrying the entire sprint forever?
🧭 Continue The Journey
If all of these contributors participate during the same stride…
another question naturally appears.
💥 Do all contributors need to improve together?
Or can one contributor continue improving while the others stay behind?
Because if speed is created by a system…
understanding how that system continues improving may be even more important than understanding the contributors themselves.
📖 Next Up: Part 8 of 18
➡️ Why Most Speed Training Keeps Developing The Same Muscles
