Sprint Muscle Power

SPRINTING USES THE MAJORITY OF YOUR BODY’S MUSCLES BUT SOME ARE MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS

- John Shepherd

MANY athletes and coaches may think that when it comes to sprint speed and muscle power, the quads and glutes are the most important for generating sprint speed. After all it makes sense that the quads, for example, exert force on the running surface when pushing off into each stride and so they do. However, it seems that other muscles may actually be more important and these are the ones located around the front and rear of the hips.

Sprinting requires the legs to move from a position behind the body to one in front as quickly as possible every stride cycle. The hip and hamstring muscles contribute significantly to this cyclical movement. The hips can be seen as a kind of fulcrum around which the sprint action takes place – they “whip” the leg from behind the body to the front, with the foot passing near to or above the knee at max velocity, before pulling it down to the track close to the sprinter’s centre of mass for foot-strike. During this later movement it’s the hamstrings play a vital role – of which more later.

Ralph Mann, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the biomechanics of athletics has written that: “The greatest contributor to sprint success appears to be the muscular activity of the hip. From toeoff to foot-strike, the hip flexor activity needed to recover the leg, as well as the hip-extensor effort produced to halt the leg recovery and extend the limb toward foot-strike are significant contributors.”

A great deal of research actually exists on the “sprinting muscles” and backs up the crucial role of the hip muscles and Mann’s thoughts. A team writing in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology analysed sprint technique during the acceleration, top speed and speed maintenance phase of the 100m.