100m training tips, advice, equipment, gear, and more.

Alot of athletic coaches will focus on sprinting form. It’s important, but what is more important is to have the strength, power, conditioning, and speed turnover that will allow you to run fast.

No matter how great your sprinting form is, it will never allow you to outrun another athlete that has more speed, power, and explosiveness than you.

So you need to ensure that you do the following.

1. Develop your explosiveness and power so that it is superior to the other athletes that you will be competing against.
2. Develop your speed endurance so that you can run at a more intense speed for a longer amount of time.
3. Develop your sprinting form and technique so that you can run as efficiently as possible.

Please pay attention to point number 3. As you develop your conditioning, you want to minimize the amount of wasted energy so you can run more efficiently, at a higher intensity.

Things that you will need to consider in your sprinting form depends on how you plan to execute the race that you are about to run.

What are the factors in the sprinting form that you need to consider?

Starting phase

You will need to train with reverse lunges, reverse lunge bounds, and reverse lunge sprints to train your muscles to explode out of that position.

Drive phase

• You need to be able to explode outwards and drive your body forward. This means your body will be on a 45 degree angle for the first 20-30 metres of the race.
• Your sprinting form and conditioning needs to allow you to project force pushing you forward. This means you need to train the muscles (quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors) to explode in a way that activates those muscles to drive.
• Sled runs (Pushing and pulling), single leg glute bridges, and explosive lunges will help with developing the power needed for your drive phase.

Acceleration phase

Acceleration will rely on your hip flexors. Conduct bounding training for distance to maximise your power from every step. Glute bridges, squats, power cleans, and lunges will also help you with your acceleration.

What should you keep in mind with your sprinting form?

Project your force in a straight line.

• You want to power the force behind you.
• You want your arms to move in a straight line going forward and behind you.
• You want your knees and ankles to rotate in a straight line in front and behind you.

Keep your ankles above your knees when you sprint.

This will help you to extend your stride length.

Condition your body to run intensely over distances longer than your race.

This will help you to maintain your form, since your form will breakdown as your body fatigues.

If you run 100m or 200m sprints, condition your body to maintain a fast sprinting pace over 400m. This will allow you to maintain form and finish strongly in the race.

The quick answer is you don’t need to get another set of spikes to run indoors since the surface will be similar to what is used outdoors. The main thing you will need to account for is that there are no weather conditions affecting the track since it is indoors.

So a few things that you should keep in mind is that:

• The surface will always be dry.
• The surface won’t be affected as much by heat changes compared to tracks that are in direct sunlight.
• Wind won’t affect the way that you are running.

You will mainly need to think about the way your foot and spikes strike the ground.

It is worth practicing in your spikes in an indoor track. If you do want to get a separate pair for indoor competitions, you can if it is a preferance.

Many people that start running find themselves short of breath and unable to maintain the intensity that is required for their run. There are a couple of things to this.

1. Your body will adjust and you will develop a breathing pattern that will suit your running style and intensity demand.
2. You will use a rhythm to control your breathing while running.

How can you improve your breathing technique while running?

Inhale through your nose

You want to inhale as much oxygen as possible in through your nose. This will go into your body and muscles, which will help you perform.

Inhale steadily so you can feel the air fill up your lungs.

Exhale through your mouth

Exhale air through your mouth (not your nose). Exhale as much of the carbon dioxide out through your mouth so you can inhale the new oxygen through your nose to fuel your body and your muscles.

Inhale and exhale based on your stride pattern.

You want to inhale and exhale steadily. E.g. 1 second in, 1 second out. 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out, etc.

You will need to train your body to control your breathing pattern.

It is easier to inhale and exhale based on your striding pace. So inhale on steps 1-4, then exhale on steps 5-8. Then repeat.

As you build up your cardiovascular endurance, you will be able to increase the inhale and exhale timings and pacing.

It’s really important that you understand how your body works so you can minimize the risk of injury. One of the things that runners will experience is lower back pain.

Unfortunately, runners won’t understand why or how they are getting the pain in their lower back. And when the pain comes, what they need to do to resolve the pain.

When lower back pain comes, people think that they need creams, ice packs, pills, or physio.

It’s more likely that the lower back pain is coming from tightness in your muscles. There are things that you can do to prevent this, without having to opt for expensive treatments.

If your lower back is sore, check for tightness in the following muscle groups.

Sore lower backs usually occur from tightness that pulls the muscle attached to the lumbur spine. The muscles pulling muscles that will affect the tightness will either be:

• Hamstrings
• Glutes
• Hip flexors
• Quadriceps

The first thing you need to do is work out if the muscle groups are tight and if they are responsible for pulling the muscles in your lower back.

If you have tight hamstrings, it isn’t the hamstrings that need to be stretched. It is actually the hip flexors or the quadriceps that need to be stretched since they are rotating the hips forward.

Stretch your hip flexors

You can do this by doing lunges on the ground. If you are unable to go forward, your hip flexor is too tight. So you need to work on getting the muscle to relax.

Stretch out your quadriceps.

A quadricep stretch will help. Sometimes, you need to keep on stretching and waiting for the muscle to relax over a few hours or days so that it stops pulling on your spine.

Stretch your glutes

Stretch your glutes and also get them to relax.

Do dynamic stretching with lunges.

Simply lunge forward until your knee touches the ground. Then stand/power straight up so that the movement goes through your glute. This will dynamically stretch the hip flexor, quads, and glutes.

Do weight training to help you overcome any lower back pain.

Squats, Deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, and reverse lunges are great for strengthening the core and stretching out the muscle groups. Even though you will feel the pain and you think you won’t be able to do the exercises, it is actually one of the best ways to help you recover.

You will need to strengthen your abdominals and hip flexors for running.

It’s likely that you’ve got a sore back because you are weak in your abs and your hip flexors. This means you need to do core exercises that will allow you to build the strength endurance with these muscle groups.

Hanging leg and knee raises will be key, but you will need to train them so you can do them at a high volume.

Once those muscle groups fatigue when you are running, it will incorporate other muscle groups including your lower back, which will lead to lower back pain.

Train yourself to run with high-knees

You can focus on developing your running technique so that your abs and hip flexors won’t tire and start using your lower back muscles. A simple trick is to keep running with your ankles going over your knees.

Pay attention to make sure that your lower back isn’t being used. If you find that your lower back is being used, lower your knee movement and running pattern. Make sure that your core remains engaged at all times.

Is it really effective to do running exercises to lose weight?

The quick answer is yes. But it isn’t as straightforward as running and losing weight.

You can maximize the intensity of your exercise by doing running activities. The more intense you do the running, the higher your heart rate will be. The longer you can maintain the exercise, the more calories, fat, and weight you will lose from your body.

However…

You will only be able to lose weight from the running exercises that you are doing if you do the following.

1. You track what you are consuming in your nutrition. You need to know the macros and the calorie intake and burn that you are doing to ensure that you are in a calorie deficit. If you are not in a calorie deficit, your body won’t burn the calories which will make you lose fat.
2. You need to track the amount of estimated calories that you are burning from your running activities. This means you need to track the time, the distance, and work out the intensity of your run. Ideally, you will be able to track your heart rate to see the rate that you are able to maintain during your run. Ideally, you will be able to keep your heart rate above 160bpm to burn your body fat aggressively through running.
   
   However, you should still be able to achieve good results with a 130bpm.

There are a few things that you should consider when running to lose weight.

It will originally be difficult on your joints.

Because you will have to put so much stress and intensity on your muscles, you will get aches and pains. You need to progressively load the muscles and the joints so that they become used to the intensity that’s required to run.

You will get better over time.

As your body becomes lighter and you start to get used to the biomechanics of your body, and you will end up running with better technique, efficiency, and intensity.