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ISOMETRIC TRAINING - The quickest way to run faster !

“What is the single most effective way to increase the speed of muscular contraction?”

When you mention the word isometrics, many athletic trainers will shrug their shoulders and say something like, "Yes, I am aware of this type of training; but, for what we do, it's too limiting".


Well, in all fairness to them, they are both right and wrong. They are right in the fact that isometric training, when applied to weightlifting, is limited because the muscle is only trained or strengthened at one set position. This means that when performing repetitions as on a bench press, its not much value other then helping you get past a sticking point.

But when you mention to them that it is the single most effective means of increasing the speed of muscular contraction, they are usually at a loss as to why. The good ones, however, will ask, "How?".


“Strength and endurance programs have little to do with increasing fast twitch response.”

Consider this: Whenever you lift weights for 45 minutes or more, how do you feel afterwards? Do you feel quicker? More responsive? Faster? Or, do you feel tired, heavy and sluggish? Most people would say the latter. The reason why is that most training programs, even when they say they are for increasing speed, are usually strength and endurance programs.

And, strength and endurance programs have little to do with increasing fast twitch response. So, if your current "speed training program" lasts more than 30 minutes, and leaves you tired, heavy and sluggish, then you are not training for speed but rather for strength and endurance.

So, how do you train for speed?

Isometrics alone won't help you much, especially if you are locked into a weightlifting mentality. However, if you will just allow yourself to follow along with an incredibly simple yet effective speed training strategy, you will perhaps for the first time be able to recruit, isolate, strengthen and quicken those hard-to-get-at fast twitch fibers.

Imagine instead of using weights or dumbbells, that you could use those resistance bands you see lying around your local gym. Imagine for a moment what happens when you stretch a small little rubber band, the kind that most postmen use to hold your mail together. Imagine stretching it apart about 12 inches and then releasing one end of it. What happens? Basically the other end of the rubber band snaps back at you with amazing speed.

“You are training your muscles to respond with amazing speed just like an elastic band.”

Now imagine grabbing a hold on one of those larger resistance bands at the gym and stretching it. And, instead of releasing one end of it, you hold the band apart for about 10 seconds. Now what is happening? Basically, the elastic properties that exist within that large rubber band are now being downloaded or transferred directly into the muscles that are opposing it.

So, in effect you are training your muscles to respond just like an elastic band -- to contract with amazing speed.

The reason why your muscles will do this is because your muscles have memory and can be programmed to contract very quickly to a contracted position.

“Unleash a huge reservoir of untapped muscular energy just waiting to be set loose.”

Imagine if you knew how to precisely isolate all of the muscle groups within a specific athletic skill and trained them this way. What do you think would happen? You would become quicker than you have ever been before.

The best part is that it doesn't take weeks and weeks of 45 minute training sessions to accomplish. Speed training, as the name implies, should be fast. All of the speed training programs offered at AthleticQuickness.com take only 10 minutes or less per day to perform.

So, unless you have applied isometric training with the resistance band to specific muscle groups in your body, you still have a huge reservoir of untapped muscular energy just waiting to be released.

In the next article, we will be talking about a few of the less known muscles that are responsible for increasing running speed, such as the iliacus and psoas muscles, et al.

See you at the finish line!

Dr. Larry Van Such