When you go to the gym, practice field or track as part of your training for running speed and then after a good amount of time working out and doing drills you may be thinking that you have done everything you possibly can to help you get faster, however the fact is you have left behind upwards of 50% of the muscles responsible for running faster.

In addition, the muscles you have been training are not making you faster as you may be hoping.

The proof is in the results. When was the last time you had a major breakthrough in your speed gains? How often have you been frustrated trying to get faster no matter how hard you worked at it? And yet athletes continue to go through the same rigorous workout routines time and time again hoping to get faster and occasionally they get a small gain in their speed which may or may not last.

And this happens to close to 100% of all athletes on all levels from high school to professionals; it doesn’t matter who they are or how hard they try.

There are perhaps several reasons why half the muscles involved in running go untouched. First, ALL gym equipment is designed to help an athlete with the PUSH PHASE of running only but there are actually two other phases to consider. Squat racks, hamstring curls, leg extensions, leg presses, glute kick backs, lunges, etc. all target the hip extensors, leg extensors and calf muscles. While these machines are helpful, the muscles they target are for the push phase only.

Second, ALL plyometric exercises do the same thing: box jumps, bounding exercises, steps, medicine ball workouts, etc. all target the same muscles except they add the element of motion to them. Good idea, but it won’t change anything much more than what you are already doing, and that is ‘overtraining’ the muscles involved in the push phase.

Third, training routines like running with a weight sled or a parachute tied around your waist is another good idea, but this still only targets the same push phase muscles that weights and plyometric exercises are already training.

Fourth, when it comes to sports, resistance bands are often used the same way as a weight sled or parachute. This is where the athlete ties the band around his waist and another athlete or trainer holds the band behind them as they try to run forward. Good idea, but no change in the muscles targeted which are all push phase muscles.

Do you see a pattern? All this effort is being put into only one phase of running. Could this be why athletes are frustrated with their attempts to get faster and why they end up believing we have to be born with speed? What about the other muscles used in running speed?

The muscles I am talking about are the Psoas, Iliacus, Sartorius, Vastus Rectus, Pectineus, Adductor Longus and Addutor Brevis, otherwise known as your hip flexors.

These muscles as a group constitute the strongest muscle group in the body but in spite of their incredible inherent strength, they still go largely untrained by most athletes, including professionals.

 

For instance, when was the last time YOU trained your ILIACUS MUSCLE? How about never!

Why is this important? Several reasons:

First of all, the hip flexors determine your stride which is the part of the running process that determines how much ground you are going to take up when running, but that’s not all. Having a long stride is not nearly as effective as having a FAST LONG STRIDE.

Quick hip flexors help your body speed up your turnover rate, that is, to recycle the leg around in the running process. The quicker it recycles the faster you start to run.

Second, as you desire to become a complete athlete, try to think of your hip flexors as a bridge between your upper body and lower body.

These are long and incredibly strong muscles which enable your upper body to work in synch with your lower body. These muscles are crucial for maximum speed and athletic performance, yet still no one touches them. As an athlete you can have all the upper body strength and lower body strength in the world, but if they aren’t connected together with an equally strong set of hip flexors, you will always be weaker and slower than your true potential no matter how many squats, leg presses, box jumps or sled pulls you do. The good news is that every athlete, including top level professionals, has a huge potential of increasing their running speed in just a few days.

But you can’t get at these muscles with standard gym equipment. The only way I have found to effectively isolate and increase the speed of these muscles is with isometric training using the resistance band. No other workout is more effective at making these muscles faster.

The amount of time needed to train these muscles to show measurable improvements in your running speed is literally just minutes a day for just a few days a week.

This happens all the time and without exception.

With weak thigh flexors, your running speed will be significantly slower, more than you would imagine. With fast thigh flexor muscles you will be faster than ever before.

Even if you are currently in mid-season you could be setting new personal records in your speed within days. Your friends, coaches and teammates will be amazed - and you will explode past your opponents like never before!

If you have not used isometric training with the resistance band, the way we teach it, to your thigh flexor muscles, you have a huge reservoir of untapped muscular energy just waiting to be released - even if you think you are already fast enough!

By doing the speed training exercises the way we show you, you can’t help but improve your sports performance and stand out from the crowd, and run your fastest 40 ever!.