The Birthplace of Speed

By Duston Morris, Ph.D., ABD, M.S., ACE, USAT

 
There is a plethora of information that indicates we are born with muscles that either help us go fast or make us go slow. To a certain degree, this is true. Some people are born with more fast-twitch fibers (fast) and others are born with more slow-twitch fibers (slow). But the truth is that everyone can get faster, and speed is often helpful to success and achieving goals in many sports. Don't believe the hype…people who are slow can get faster and those that are faster can lose some of their speed.

We inherit a muscle composition that will help or hinder our speed. As previously mentioned, slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers impact speed and endurance. Despite this, speed is a trainable attribute and with the proper training program everyone can get faster.

The two most important areas to address which will help build speed are strength and flexibility. This is important because when you ask your body to be ready to move faster, the speed places more physical stress speed puts on your body. Greater strength and flexibility helps your body adapt to these demands. In addition to strength and flexibility speed development takes time. You have to apply the right training and increase volume of that training in a progressive fashion. Don’t expect to see large changes in speed over distance in less than six months of consistent, proper training.

Just trying harder to be faster is not enough. Speed must be trained and developed through plyometrics and speed development drills, which emphasize proper biomechanics. Be sure you continue to work on your overall strength (emphasizing your mid-section or core) and flexibility, because without them speed won't be possible. Remember, we can all get faster!

I can personally attest to “thinking” I was slow and then through proper training got faster. In my opinion, there are three significant outcomes of becoming faster. 1) Amazement of your own potential. What I find with most people I train is that as they become faster and stronger they are amazed with how their body adapts and thus they work harder to become even faster. 2) Its fun to set new PRs (personal records). Being faster means new PRs in races or events. I am not saying that it is not fun to just go out and participate in a race, but I have never trained a single person who eventually did not talk about beating their old time. 3) Faster mean fitter. Becoming faster requires a higher level of fitness. Most people who I have worked with to help develop speed tend to lose more weight, become stronger, leaner, have higher levels of endurance, and generally display overall better levels of fitness. This is not to say that people who do not emphasize speed can not be fit and healthy. Speed work and developing speed just requires a higher level of physiological performance and this usually results in greater physiological gains. Again, becoming faster is not something everyone desires, but for some it provides new goals and keeps them motivated. So remember the bottom line is EVERYONE can become faster. It just depends on their goals.