Free Weight Training For Sprinters

Free weight training for sprinters can help boost your speed and power on the track, particularly when training with heavy weights and fewer repetitions. Sprinters may also train with lighter weights and more repetitions to avoid overuse injuries. Free weight training involves exercises with barbells and dumbbells. Training with free weights is particularly beneficial for sprinters, because free weights build functional strength that helps stabilize your muscles as you drive your body forward during a sprint.

Quadriceps

Quadriceps exercises are an essential component of free weight training for sprinters. Sprinting movements, which include extending your knees and flexing at the hip, require strong quadriceps. According to electromyography data published by in an April 2010 article by Bret Contreras, the full squat may be the best free weight exercise for activating your quadriceps. The full squat involves holding a barbell across the back of your shoulder, and squatting down until your knees and hips are completely bent.

Hamstrings

Sprinters must have strong hamstrings for optimal sprint speed. Your hamstrings flex your knees, which pulls your lower legs back and up toward your thighs while sprinting. Extending your hips, which involves moving your thigh and the top of your hip bone backward, also requires hamstring strength. Free weight training for sprinters may include exercises such as the rack pull, a top hamstring activator. The rack pull is a partial deadlift, which involves pulling a barbell from knee height over your thighs until your knees and hips lock out.

Gluteus Maximus

Free weight training for sprinters includes exercises that target the gluteus maximus, because this muscle is essential for extending and hyperextending your hips while sprinting. In his September 2009 article, Bret Contreras reports that sprinting activates 234 percent more glute muscle than vertical jumping. The glute bridge may be the best free weight glute exercise for sprinters. Glute bridges involve laying on the floor with a barbell over your hips and bent knees, then extending your hips vertically to lift the bar. Your upper back and feet stay flat on the floor throughout the movement.

Calves

Sprinters need powerful calf muscles for extending the ankles. Strong calves allow you to move the front of your foot down quickly after your heel hits the ground during a sprint. Ideal exercises for your calf muscle include heavy calf raises and parallel squats. Heavy calf raises involve resting the front of your feet on an elevated surface and raising the heels, while holding heavy dumbbells or a barbell. Parallel squats involve holding a barbell across the back of your shoulder and squatting down until your knees and hips are parallel with the floor. Parallel squats are also a top quadricep exercise.

Core

Core training is an important component of free weight training for sprinters, and free weights allow you to add resistance to core exercises. Greater core strength helps stabilize your pelvis and spine, which improves your control and balance while sprinting. Your core includes the muscles of your abdominals and lower back. Chin-ups are a top abdominal exercise, which activate your rectus abdominus muscles over five times more than crunching your abs against 100 lbs. of resistance. Reverse hyper-extensions target your lower back by extending your hips as high as possible while laying face down and grasping a dumbbell between your ankles.