Train Horizontally to Go Forwards - Faster!

Back in September of 2009 an article was posted to www.t-nation.com called "Dispelling the Glute Myth" by Bret Contreras, a then up-and-comer in the strength and conditioning industry.

He followed that up with "Advanced Glute Training" 1 month later and in it he discussed 'load vectors' which refer to the direction of the resistance relative to the human body. Since load vectors are relative to the human body, then you must take into account the position of the body as well as the direction of the resistance, to determine the load vector.

To cur right to the chase most lower body exercises train in the axial, or straight up and down, load vector, We're talking squats, deadlifts and most single leg exercises.

What you really need to do to take your sprinting speed and running economy to the next level is anteroposteriour load vector exercises. We're talking exercises that displaces your hips backwards and/or forwards when standing up or in a supine position.

When you run you're actually displacing your body horizontally through the air with each step so the squats and deadlifts will train for you to handle the vertical forces involved in ground contact, but you also need resisted sprints, swings and hip thrusts to propel you forward with speed.

Here's a list of some of the best anteroposterior exercises that you should include in your training program starting yesterday:

Resisted Sprints - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZxqgqeTRPI

Hip Thrusts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlr3TN8xke0

Overspeed Eccentric Swings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEHBmouwf9Y

Sprints - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-4cI1OlVQs

Bounding - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObK4L03ZOoQ

I posted an exercise on Facebook about this time last year I called "cable swings" which is either a swing on a cable machine or an explosive pull through, depending on what you're familiar with. Either way it looks pretty silly but I felt that I couldn't really get the overspeed eccentric on a regular swing that I was looking for and as I train on my own, I couldn't do partner assisted swings either so I suppose I invented these.

Lange Swings anyone?

Anyway I did these for Dan John's 10'000 Swing Challenge and ran a 2.94sec 20m sprint without doing anything at all in those 2 weeks so it did something!

Cable Swings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFcyLdym7No

Keep some axial exercises in your program as vertical force production is still critical but do not neglect the anteroposteriour load vector for results that will actually carry over to the field.