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Powerlifting & Sprinting: Optimal Exercises

1) Strength training with heavy loads on anteroposterior exercises like hip thrusts and reverse hypers can drastically improve performance for powerlifters and sprinters, even if the specific exercises are not sport-specific. 2) For transfer of strength to occur from resistance exercises to powerlifting or sprinting performance, the loads must be heavy enough to mimic the high forces produced during the respective sports. 3) Exercises like glute ham raises and single-leg glute bridges may not provide much transfer of strength when performed with only bodyweight, but could improve powerlifting performance significantly if the load is increased and the exercises are done explosively.

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80 views1 page

Powerlifting & Sprinting: Optimal Exercises

1) Strength training with heavy loads on anteroposterior exercises like hip thrusts and reverse hypers can drastically improve performance for powerlifters and sprinters, even if the specific exercises are not sport-specific. 2) For transfer of strength to occur from resistance exercises to powerlifting or sprinting performance, the loads must be heavy enough to mimic the high forces produced during the respective sports. 3) Exercises like glute ham raises and single-leg glute bridges may not provide much transfer of strength when performed with only bodyweight, but could improve powerlifting performance significantly if the load is increased and the exercises are done explosively.

Uploaded by

Alexandra CROITORU
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shown to improve sprinting performance and vice versa, even though the load vectors,

onset patterning, and proportions of muscular activity are different. Take an exceptional
athlete with great power capabilities and introduce him or her to strength training and the
athlete’s performance will drastically improve, even if the exercise selection is lousy (leg
extensions, leg curls, leg press, smith machine squats, etc.).
Often individuals don’t see much transfer of training with certain exercises and they
immediately dismiss them as being ineffective. But many times this is due to the fact that
the individual didn’t use a large enough load or perform the activity with sufficient speed
to mimic the force requirements of the task they want to improve.
For instance, in powerlifting, often the best way to improve a weak point is to hit it with
an anteroposterior exercise but in order to transfer, it must be heavy enough, since
powerlifting is a series of 1RM activities. This is why there is limited transfer of strength
when individuals perform back extensions, reverse hypers, and pull throughs; they don’t
go heavy enough. They usually find a transfer with glute ham raise because if they are
performed correctly, just doing a few reps is hard as hell!
Many times in powerlifting an individual performs anteroposterior exercises with very
high rep ranges to induce hypertrophy which improves leverages and helps in a roundabout
way. If the load is increased and the athlete focuses on explosion, the transfer of
strength might be very pronounced and the athlete may notice much better hip drive and
glute activation. For this reason, a set of 20 bodyweight single leg glute bridges might not
improve a powerlifter’s strength, but a set of five hip thrusts with 495 lbs in the lap might
drastically improve a powerlifter’s strength.
In sprinting, the force production is created when the foot touches the ground and
propels the body forward. The movement is an explosive, anteroposterior-loaded, closedchain,
semi-straight leg movement. Therefore, the most specific resistance exercises to
sprinting are heavy or explosive straight leg anteroposterior exercises and bent leg
anteroposterior exercises. Actually, one could say that heavy or explosive semi-straight
leg anteroposterior exercises are the most specific to sprinting (exercises where the
resistance comes from front-to-back or back-to-front and with the knees are slightly bent
throughout the movement). I believe that the two best sprinting exercises are the hip
thrust and the reverse hyper (both of these can be performed unilaterally or bilaterally).
Around twenty years ago Charlie Francis had Olympic sprinter Angella Issajenko
performing 2-4 rep reverse leg presses (donkey kick movement) with 330 lbs on a
Universal Gym at a bodyweight of 140 lbs.567 The reverse leg press is an anteroposterior
extension exercise but Charlie was definitely on the right track (and years ahead of his
time) by prescribing anteroposterior loading rather than solely axial loading like his
peers.

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