Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 379, Messages: 54577

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Improve my 100 yard dash time?

froshman
froshman
Posts: 441
Joined: 2003/07/12
United States
2009/09/04, 02:53 PM
I have started sprinting the local football field to try and get into shape. I do it once or twice a week (with treadmill and weights on other days). The fastest I was able top do was a tad under 16 seconds. I see that the record is 9 seconds and an average is 11-12 seconds. I obviously am nowhere near this. My question is: Can I get faster, and if so, how do I do it?

Also, I notice I don't have that second wind- the adrenaline rush- towards the end that might earn me a second or so like I did when I was younger. Any way to get that back?
bigjockhill
bigjockhill
Posts: 88
Joined: 2009/07/03
United Kingdom
2009/09/07, 06:12 AM
Yes you can get faster, the fitter you become the better, as sprinting requires short explosive bursts of energy, you need to have strong cardiovascular fitness (heart and lungs) also you need very powerful quads (thigh muscles) lots of squats and stretching, your cardio should involve running at jogging pace with short bursts of speed, also keep doing your football field 2 to 3 times per week.
Good luck, keep us informed of your times.
bigjockhill
bigjockhill
Posts: 88
Joined: 2009/07/03
United Kingdom
2009/09/08, 05:27 AM
I hasten to add that this info was given to me in high school, a long time ago, so things will have changed a bit from then, I'm sure other sprinters out there will have better advice than me but what i have said will get you fitter at the very least.
Hope this helps.
groomglenn
groomglenn
Posts: 3
Joined: 2009/09/21
United States
2009/09/24, 03:33 PM
Well in college we learned a few things that our h/s teachers forgot to tell us: muscle memory, fiber tension, and reaction time. over 2/10th of a second, in the 100, is the start even more the better you become at it. I would stick with muscle memory. In a nut shell its the bodies way to process motion in muscles through repetition. the more proactive you become in teaching your body how to move how to breath and how to act under stress and intense force the more instinctive it will become. you will glide not push to the finish line. you will need to see videos that an actual coach has done before w/ real athletes. but u needn't worry too much you wont have to get into that until 11's and 10's come up on the stop clock.

Lifts- Powerclean's, deep squats, incline bench (trust me on that one) and really any kind of lift that involves your core, oh yea and jump rope( and yes like rocky). do you know why dragsters have massive back tires and tiny lil guys up front? its to reduce friction and your feet, as awesome as those $120 pair of black puma's may be, the longer they stay on the ground the slower you are going to be. practice you form and get someone that knows the proper form to help you.



when you start off running be sure that you stretch a lot also.

disclaimer *****
you are born with muscle fibers... true? yes .and those muscle fibers make more muscle fibers right? NO!
what you are born with is what you have to deal with. if you are tall and thin your dad is tall and thin your sisters are all tall and thin... join the X-country team... sprinters are born with fast twitch muscles that allows them to run at high speeds for short distances. our down fall is the build up of lactic acid that only lets us do it for short periods of time

good luck with training if you need anything else hit me up
bigjockhill
bigjockhill
Posts: 88
Joined: 2009/07/03
United Kingdom
2009/09/25, 05:21 AM
Hi groomglen, when i was at school doing sport, we were only taught the basics for 13/14 year old kids and this was about 34 years ago, god, how things have changed, really technical, i take it that is why I'm not a world class sprinter lol, those are some neat stats you have on your profile.
Good luck with your goals. :dumbbell:
jspiked
jspiked
Posts: 47
Joined: 2009/06/14
United States
2009/09/29, 12:26 PM
running parachute helped me alot. there not very expensive you just throw it on and do your sprints. If you do your sprints say 3 times a week use the parachute for say 2x and then on your 3rd see the improvement do this every week. Also incorporate all the other pieces of advice because they are Excellent. The exercises, form, stretching, all very important. there is a little exercise to help your upper body form (which is very important) you sit on your butt with your legs extended straight in front of you. bend your arms at a 90* angle and pump them back and forth as fast as you can. your butt shit bounce on the ground as if your lifting. this exercise can help with your upper body form

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When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot, and hang on.
~pres. Roosevelt
dnews0810
dnews0810
Posts: 3
Joined: 2009/09/26
United States
2009/09/26, 07:55 PM
1st of all stretch, stretch, stretch especially your legs, quads, calfs, and hamstring at least a 15min stretch. then you can run on the field and then track if you have one. you can run 4 50yrd dashes with 1min rest, 2 100yrd dashes with at about 50%, then Jog the 400 twice with a 5min break inbetween. which is 1 lap around the track. You can also run on a tread mill when on the treadmill, on the treadmill it has a track on it on the straight part of the track sprint at a comfortable speed, jog on the corners 2. Do this 2 laps around take a break then 2 more laps around doing the sam thing.