How to Get Faster with these Simple and Free Exercises

You don't need any fancy equipment to get blazing speed. Here are simple and free exercises to get faster.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Sprints
   If you are training to get faster and not actually sprinting, you need more help than I can probably offer, of the mental persuasion. Obviously speed is all about sprints so you need to be doing them regularly. Depending on your sport, your sprints could be as long as 120 yards or as short as 5. Most athletes use a combination to prepare them for all situations they could come across on the field and concentrate most of their sprints on the distance they will most often run. An offensive linemen for football would probably have most of his sprints at 20 yards or less while a soccer player would probably run many 120s. Sprints should be done in sets just like any other exercise. Use your time walking back to the start as your rest and start at 2 sets of 3 sprints. You could also do a pyramid like this.
   
   2x10 yards
   2x20 yards
   4x40 yards
   2x60 yards
   1x80 yards
   1x100 yards
   1x120 yards
   
   Then stair step back down to 10 yards.

2. Stairs
   Like many things, the cheapest and easiest training solution is also one of the best. Stairs are essential in speed training like water is essential in swimming. Neglecting them in your training is speed suicide. Stairs force you to increase leg drive like nothing else. Vary your training. Run up the stairs one by one, then bound up two by two, then run up again one by one. If you do it safely, going back down the stairs can be a good type of over speed training, which will increase your foot strikes. Make running stairs a part of your training. After lifting, go do stairs for 10-20 minutes.

3. Plyometrics
   Just about everyone knows about the European sensation training style. Plyometrics are various exercises that improve speed and vertical jump by building the fast twitch fibers of the poster chain, also known as the P-chain. You don't need anything to get started and you can get as difficult and complex as you want. A box is a great tool to have while doing plyometrics to do box jumps and quick feet drills. Over time, plyos will make you react faster and more explosively.

Resources

• Fierce Training for the Serious Athlete