Best Powerlifting Workout for Speed

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What’s up Athlete,
Each week, we dive into a question that many athletes like you can relate to. This week’s focus? Sprinting, Powerlifting, and the 3 best exercises to improve speed and power.

Have a question of your own? We’d love to hear it! Just send it to [email protected], and you might see it featured here in a future edition.

ON YOUR MARK

How Powerlifting Can Impact Speed and Sprint Performance

Powerlifting, focusing on maximal strength through compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, is often associated with building raw power.

This raw power can be an advantage for sprinters, as sprinting requires strong, explosive hip extension and overall lower-body strength.

Problems can occur if powerlifting is not correctly added to a sprint training program.

Focusing too much on building strength without working on speed and agility can make you less flexible, slow down your stride, and add extra bulk that might hurt your sprinting ability.

That said, powerlifting itself doesn't inherently make you slower. Instead, the key lies in how it's used in your program:

• Explosive strength training: Techniques like speed squats or power cleans can mimic sprint-specific movements.

• Periodization: Alternating strength phases with speed-focused periods helps to maintain a balance between power and agility.

• Muscle adaptation: Building strength without focusing too much on hypertrophy ensures you gain power without sacrificing speed.

Athletes like sprinters, football players, and martial artists can become stronger and more powerful by doing powerlifting. This helps their muscles work better and produce more force.

Yet, powerlifting must be tailored to complement the demands of sprinting.

For sprinters, the power gained from exercises like squats and deadlifts can make a big difference in how fast you explode off the starting line and how much force you can generate with each step.

To avoid getting slower or bulky, it’s important to focus on speed-strength exercises. For example, sprinters can do “dynamic box squats,” which are performed with lighter weights and as much speed as possible on the way up.

This helps train your body to be fast and powerful without slowing down your stride. Here's how it applies across different sports:

GET SET

Three Exercises to Build Explosive Strength Without Making You Slower

1. Speed Squats

Perform squats with 50–60% of your one-rep max, focusing on a controlled descent and an explosive upward movement. This exercise builds explosive strength in your quads, glutes, and hamstrings while training your body to generate force quickly.

• For sprinters: Slightly narrow your stance to mimic the angles used during sprint starts. Focus on maintaining proper form to optimize power transfer during your strides.

• For soccer players and team sport athletes: Add resistance bands around your knees or barbell to create extra tension, simulating the multidirectional force demands of quick cuts and turns on the field.

• For racket and precision sports athletes: Incorporate paused squats (holding for 2–3 seconds at the bottom) to develop stability and improve control during explosive movements, like returning serves or sprinting to reach a ball.

• For martial artists: Include a jump at the top of the squat to practice explosive power for jumping kicks or quick transitions.

2. Power Cleans

This Olympic lift develops full-body explosiveness by targeting fast-twitch muscle fibers in the legs, hips, and upper body. The quick, powerful movements replicate the force generation needed for sports performance.

• For sprinters: Focus on the speed of the hip extension and barbell pull to replicate the explosive drive from the starting blocks.

• For soccer players and team sport athletes: Pair power cleans with sprint drills to immediately apply the power developed to game-speed movements.

• For racket and precision sports athletes: Use lighter weights with perfect form to improve power generation without losing the precision required for swings and throws.

• For martial artists: Combine power cleans with rotational movements, such as medicine ball slams or Russian twists, to enhance torque for strikes and kicks.

3. Sled Pushes

A weighted sled push at maximum effort for short distances (10–20 meters) is an excellent way to train acceleration, core stability, and full-body strength.

• For sprinters: Push the sled while maintaining a forward lean, focusing on long, powerful strides to replicate sprint start mechanics. Gradually increase the sled’s weight to develop strength without sacrificing speed.

• For soccer players and team sport athletes: Incorporate varied sled weights—light for speed and heavy for endurance. Use multi-directional sled drags to mimic the demands of cutting and defensive shuffles.

• For racket and precision sports athletes: Use moderate weights and focus on speed to improve reaction time and the ability to reach balls quickly. For tennis players, practice changing direction immediately after the sled push to simulate court movements.

• For martial artists: Perform sled pushes in intervals to simulate the high-intensity bursts needed during rounds. Add a rotation element by pushing the sled sideways to train lateral movement strength.

GO

DISCLAIMER: None of the content provided in this newsletter constitutes medical, training, or performance advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not intended to be a substitute for professional guidance or personalized coaching. Please be mindful of your limitations and perform exercises at your own risk.