How to Incorporate Speed Into Your Workouts
Get-Fit Guy explains why speed is a necessary component of your training regimen. Plus, how to incorporate speed exercises into your workout.
Ben Greenfield
When I walk into a health club these days, I often see one component missing from the workouts of my fellow gym-goers: speed.
While it’s certainly safe and effective to move weights (especially challenging weights) in a slow and controlled manner, you should also have some element of your training that is focused on quick, explosive lifting.
Here’s why that kind of speed training works: By engaging more muscle motor units than if you’d trained at lower speeds, it is an effective method to recruit new muscle tissue. This is called a neural adaptation and you can consider it a form of training for your nervous system.
Through faster training, not only does your brain literally learn how to fire faster and control your muscles more efficiently at higher speeds, but you also develop more powerful and quick muscle fiber contractions, which comes in handy for hard surges in everything from a 5K race to a tennis match to a tough workout.
So what’s a safe way to start doing what you do faster to get fitter? You could start with a technique called Complex training, which is a workout comprised of a strength exercise followed by a plyometric or speed-strength exercise. Examples of Complex training include:
- Squats followed by squat jumps
- Lunges followed by lunge jumps
- Front squats followed by drop jumps
- Bench presses followed by medicine ball chest throws
- Overhead presses followed by overhead medicine ball throws
- Pull-ups followed by medicine ball slams
The science behind these matched pair of exercises is that the strength set primes your central nervous system so that more muscle fibers are available for the subsequent explosive exercise.
So the next time you’re in a gym, think about including at least one set that you do quickly and explosively so that you’re not missing out on the benefits of speed.
Have you incorporated speed into your training regimen? Share your results and questions with us at Facebook.com/GetFitGuy!
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.