When most people go to the gym, they have goals in mind like improving strength, burning fat, or building muscle. But what about speed? If you are an athlete or even if you are an everyday individual, improving your speed should be a goal no matter what gym routine you follow or what sport you play.
What do you need to do to be faster? What type of speed training should you do? Let us give you the best exercises to use if this is your goal.
1. Tempo Leg Press. The tempo leg press is an excellent exercise for increasing speed and power in the lower body. What you will be doing here is performing a regular standard leg press instead of using 3 seconds to lift, a 1 second pause, and 3 seconds to slow down. You will press down on the weight as fast as you can, and you will find that this is what will increase your power and speed.
Then slowly lower the weight, so that you still get strength gains on the eccentric.
2. Sprints at intervals. Interval sprints are next on the list of things to consider adding to your exercise routine. You will want to have tremendous cardiovascular conditioning to be as fast as possible, and this will get you there.
Interval sprints are all about speed, so it’s training for your goal. Always opt for interval sprints over steady-state cardio training.
3. Medicine ball throw. Another interesting exercise to include in your exercise routine is the medicine ball toss. Throw a heavy medicine ball against a wall as hard as you can. Doing this is helpful in building upper body speed because you will have to accelerate quite fast with the ball to move it around the room.
Just notice that you don’t use a medicine ball so heavy that it becomes impossible to throw it to the other side. It should be heavy, but reasonable.
4. Burpees. Finally, add some burpees to your training routine. This plyometric exercise will be great to help stimulate the fast-twitch muscle fibers in your body, which will then be used to help you overcome whatever weights you are lifting or movement patterns you may be using.
If you focus on incorporating at least one, if not all of these four exercises into your exercise routine, you are on your way to seeing noticeable changes in your speed capabilities.
