📖 Part 17 of 18
🧠 Introduction
Throughout this series, we’ve asked one question over and over again.
💥 Why aren’t you getting faster?
At first, the answer seemed obvious.
Maybe you needed stronger:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
Then the picture started changing.
You discovered:
👉 both legs participate during every stride
👉 the hip flexors contribute to speed
👉 the arms contribute to speed
👉 the torso contributes to speed
Then another realization appeared.
💥 These contributors are actually organized into two different sides of sprinting.
👉 a pushing side
👉 a swing side
And both participate during the same stride.
Then another question emerged.
💥 Do both sides need to continue improving together?
At this point, something interesting begins to happen.
The conversation starts changing.
Because maybe the question is no longer:
👉 What contributor am I missing?
👉 What muscle am I missing?
👉 What exercise am I missing?
Maybe the question becomes:
💥 What does getting faster actually require?
🤔 Maybe Getting Faster Requires Something Different
For most athletes, the answer has always seemed straightforward.
Get stronger.
Then get stronger again.
And then get even stronger.
🤣
Fair enough.
Strength matters.
No question.
In fact:
💥 strength may be one of the most important requirements for getting faster.
But another realization has started to emerge.
The question is no longer:
💥 Does strength matter?
The question is:
💥 Where is that strength developing?
Think about what you’ve already discovered throughout this series.
Many athletes spend years developing:
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
Then later they may add:
👉 arms
👉 torso
And all of those contributors matter.
All of them can become stronger.
All of them can help support faster sprinting.
But many athletes eventually discover something frustrating.
They continue getting stronger.
Yet speed eventually slows down.
They continue training harder.
Yet speed eventually slows down.
They continue improving contributors.
Yet speed eventually slows down.
That doesn’t mean strength is bad.
It doesn’t mean training is bad.
And it certainly doesn’t mean effort is bad.
But it may suggest something important.
💥 Perhaps the issue is not whether strength is increasing.
Perhaps the issue is where most of that strength is increasing.
Because if sprinting uses:
👉 a pushing side
👉 a swing side
and both participate during every stride…
then perhaps getting faster requires more than simply improving individual parts.
Perhaps getting faster requires strength continuing to rise throughout the sprint system.
Not just one area of it.
And if that’s true…
the goal may no longer be finding another contributor.
The goal may be helping both sides continue advancing together.
👀 Imagine What Happens When Both Sides Start Rising Together
For most of your athletic career, you’ve probably spent the majority of your time trying to become stronger in one area of sprinting.
Fair enough.
Those contributors matter.
But let’s imagine something for a moment.
Imagine the contributors responsible for the swing started becoming dramatically stronger too.
Imagine a stronger swing side.
Imagine the leg attacking forward with more aggression.
Imagine the thigh driving forward harder.
Imagine the swing thrust launching forward as if it were shot out of a cannon.
Now imagine that happening while the pushing side continues becoming stronger too.
Not instead of.
Alongside.
Imagine what your stride might look like.
Imagine what your turnover rate might look like.
Imagine how much quicker the sprint could reorganize itself from one step to the next.
Imagine how much more aggressively the body could cycle.
Imagine how much more support the pushing side might receive from a stronger swing side.
Imagine what kind of push might become possible when the swing side starts contributing more than it ever has before.
Imagine the entire sprint becoming more aggressive.
Imagine both sides continuing to push one another higher.
Imagine the sprint system becoming capable of things it couldn’t do before.
Now we’re no longer talking about one side trying to carry the sprint by itself.
We’re talking about the entire sprint system continuing to rise together.
🤯 Imagine What Else Might Improve
Most athletes think about speed in one way.
👉 faster times
👉 greater top speed
👉 better performance
And those things matter.
But imagine what else might happen.
Imagine your stride becoming smoother.
Imagine your turnover rate becoming quicker.
Imagine your foot attacking the track with more confidence.
Imagine ripping the track back underneath you with every step.
Imagine running mistakes starting to disappear.
Imagine movements that once felt rushed suddenly feeling natural.
Imagine movements that once felt awkward suddenly feeling smooth.
Imagine your running form improving without constantly thinking about your running form.
Imagine feeling:
👉 lighter
👉 quicker
👉 smoother
👉 more explosive
👉 more connected to the ground
Imagine feeling like the sprint is finally working with you instead of fighting you.
And perhaps the most exciting realization of all…
💥 Imagine discovering that your speed plateau wasn’t necessarily your ceiling.
Maybe the sprint system simply needed something different than what it had been receiving.
Maybe the door isn’t closed.
💥 Maybe you’ve just been pushing on one side of it.
🧭 The Direction Forward
If you’ve followed this journey from the beginning…
something important has started to emerge.
The answer may not be another miracle exercise.
It may not be another sprint workout.
And it may not be another attempt to squeeze more development out of the same contributors that have already received years of attention.
Instead, another possibility has appeared.
💥 Perhaps some of that development needs to begin flowing elsewhere.
Not away from the contributors that matter.
But toward the contributors and sides that may have received far less attention.
Think about where much of the development in sprinting has traditionally gone.
👉 glutes
👉 hamstrings
👉 quads
👉 calves
Fair enough.
Those contributors matter.
But if those contributors have already received years of attention…
perhaps the answer isn’t continuing to pour even more development into the same area of sprinting.
Perhaps the answer is beginning to distribute some of that development elsewhere too.
Because if speed depends on the entire sprint system…
perhaps getting faster requires more of the sprint system continuing to rise too.
💥 Not more development.
💥 More complete development.
And that’s important.
Because it means your speed plateau may not necessarily be your ceiling.
It may simply be a sign that the sprint now requires development in places it didn’t require before.
The athlete who first begins running faster often improves by developing a few important contributors.
But the athlete who continues getting faster may eventually need the entire sprint system to continue advancing together.
And if that’s true…
the question is no longer:
💥 Why aren’t you getting faster?
Perhaps the question becomes:
💥 How much faster can you still become?
📖 Next Up: Part 18 of 18
➡️ We’ve Done The Hard Part. Now It’s Up To You.
