As most parents will attest, we are constantly amazed by the things our children attempt/accomplish, especially at an early age. My latest experience of amazement came on our trip to Maine, as I watched (and attempted to chase) my daughter running down Blue Hill Mountain, with reckless abandon.
This activity only allowed for a brief video clip, as I feared for my life/livelihood while chasing her on the rest of the descent! If this is Amelie descending a mountain, you can imagine the speed at which she pursues her flat terrain activities. Hooray speed work!
As I reflected on my potential for loss
of life or limb, it got me thinking: When do we stop sprinting down hills? And
for that matter, when do we slow down in all aspects of our daily movement
practice?
Many of us would probably say that we
notice this change as we get older.
My next question: Do we slow down because we age or, do we age because we slow down? Who says we have to stop running down the mountain just because we are not 4 years old?
Why Speed Work?
In my previous blog post, Running Away
from Running, we dove into the benefits of speed training (or HIIT), as
it relates to endurance training. Here are the Speed Endurance highlights1,2:
1. HIIT causes a dramatic
shift in the rate of energy depletion in the body, when
compared to steady state cardio.
2. Both intensity
and duration of training impact the body’s adaptation response.
3. Intensity of
the stimulus is more important than the duration of the
stimulus.
4. HIIT recruits
more muscle fibers into the exercise – causes the muscle to use up
available fuel sources faster. HIIT requires use of both fast and slow twitch
muscle fibers, whereas endurance training primarily recruits only slow twitch
muscle fibers.
5. HIIT increases
mitochondrial density in muscles (improves the energy production/utilization
capacity of the muscles)
6. HIIT is important for cardiovascular
health – it improves the heart’s ability to pump blood (expressed as our VO2
max) and improves the structure of the heart.
7. HIIT is safe for
people with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and
diabetes.
In an attempt to build on
these principles of endurance training, why not incorporate more speed work
into our entire plan of care?
Speed Work Warm Up:
Why don’t we program more speed work as a warm up? The goal of the warm up is to efficiently prepare the body for activity. Per the American Heart Association, a warm up achieves this goal by dilating your blood vessels, ensuring that your muscles are well supplied with oxygen3. It also raises your muscles' temperature for optimal flexibility and efficiency3. The Amelies of the world spend their days bouncing off of walls in a perpetual state of "warm up," so their preparation time will be brief. The rest of us desk jockeys may want to take 5-10 minutes to knock the rust off of the joints with some speed work warm up movements.
Here are some examples of speed-based warm ups:
Jumping Jacks:
Hopping:
Medicine Ball Tosses:
Speed Strength:
Utilizing speed as a component of
strength training can be beneficial, as it improves your ability to produce
power with your movements. Power is defined as the rate at which work is done.
As it relates to exercise, power is the ability to generate lots of force in a
short period of time2. As it
relates to life, power is the ability to keep up with your 4-year-old daughter!
3 Pillars of Speed-Strength Training2:
1. Plyometrics – Involves the rapid stretching followed by shortening of a muscle (or group of muscles) to improve power. Use of this stretch-shortening cycle (time to transition between eccentric phase to concentric phase) allows for greater contraction force than you would normally be able to produce during a movement. The delay between the stretching and the shortening phases needs to be very short – no longer than about ¼ second. Just remember - The quicker the eccentric contraction, the greater force generated during the subsequent concentric contraction4. Examples of plyometric activities include hopping, skipping, bounding, jumping, throwing, and swinging.
2. Speed strength2,5 – Involves tailoring your strength movement to a speed focus, by scaling back weight and reps (similar modifications are made with our injured patient-athletes). Modifying weight and reps allows you to focus on maintaining maximal speed of movement across the entire set. Recommended volume is 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps @ 40-60% of your 1 rep maximum2. The following example is a deadlift, a hinging movement similar to the kettlebell swing.
3. Complex sets2 – Involves a strength exercise, immediately followed by a plyometric or speed-strength movement (ie deadlift followed by kb swing). The rationale behind this approach is that the strength exercise primes the nervous system for explosive movement through the recruitment of more muscle fibers. Recommended approach – go heavy for 3-5 reps – rest 10 seconds – move explosively 3-5 reps – rest long (3:00).
The Speed Movement Principles:
1. The Warm Up is not your workout. It should efficiently prepare you for your workout.
2. When training speed-strength, less is more. Keep the reps low and speed high.
3. Rest long after each speed set. You want to completely recover between each set, in order to maintain speed across each rep and each set.
The
Take Home:
Amelie has the world at her finger
tips and plans to explore every nook and cranny, as quickly as possible. After taking
a minute to admire her speed-based curiosity, I intend to do the same.
Addendum:
Please check out the References section for a list of the incredible books that have influenced my speed practice and this blog post. If you would like to learn more about how to incorporate speed training into your movement practice come hop, skip, and jump with me: https://thejacksonclinics.com/request-appointment/
1. Gibala M. The One-Minute Workout. 2017.
2. Greenfield B. Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health, and Life. 2014.
3. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/warm-up-cool-down
4. Wilk KE, Reinold MM, Andrews JR. The Athlete’s Shoulder – Second Edition. 2009 - Pg 751
5. Tsatsouline P. The Quick and the Dead. 2019.
