How to Increase Speed?

How to Increase Speed — For Athletes and Sports Players

Speed improves by working short distances at maximum intensity with long rest periods. In practice, this means you should sprint distances of 30–150 m at maximum speed, with 3–5 minutes of rest between sprints. But speed has other subcategories too, such as speed endurance.

How can we define speed endurance?

First, we need to define what speed is.

Speed is the distance covered from point A to B in the shortest possible time.
Speed endurance is your ability to maintain your maximum speed for as long as possible.

But what do we mean by maximum speed? If you sprint 100 m in a straight line, your speed gradually rises to a peak and then drops again.

Maximum speed is the highest peak speed you can reach. If you have speed endurance, you can maintain that peak longer and keep it more consistent.

If you want to train speed endurance, you should run distances of 100–300 m at sub-maximal intensity, with 2–4 minutes of rest.

The three types of muscle fibers: the source of speed and endurance

Your muscles are built from very thin muscle fibers—smaller than a strand of hair. These fibers bundle together to form muscle bundles, and bundles form larger bundles until they become the muscles you can see with your eyes, wrapped by the skin.

Of course, under the skin there are nerves, veins, arteries, and capillaries. But if we focus on muscle fibers, we notice three distinct characteristics. These characteristics give the fibers their names: fast fibers, endurance fibers, and neutral fibers. From the names, you can already understand their function.

One clear difference between these fibers is their color.
Fast fibers are white, endurance fibers are red, and neutral fibers are “standby” fibers that can convert to either white or red depending on the body’s needs.

White fibers work quickly, produce a lot of power, but fatigue fast. Red fibers are the opposite: they work more slowly, produce less power, but don’t fatigue quickly.

Athletes adapt to their sport by developing the fibers they need. Sprinters develop more white fibers, while marathon runners develop more red fibers. Over time, your body decides what to do with the neutral fibers—should it convert them into fast fibers or endurance fibers?

How to build more muscle mass based on muscle-fiber characteristics

You can use muscle-fiber knowledge to create a better stimulus for muscle growth. We know that to develop muscle, you need different methods to continuously give the muscles different stimuli so they adapt and grow. If you want more mass, develop both fiber types.

We said muscles are formed in bundles—try to train all fiber types within those bundles so every fiber “swells” and contributes to greater muscle size.

How can you do this in practice?

To develop white (fast) fibers, try plyometric training. This training is explosive and fast. For example, you can develop fast chest fibers with clap push-ups. You can also train your back on a pull-up bar with explosive pull-ups (pull-ups or chin-ups) — if you’re advanced enough.

For legs, you can use different types of jumps, such as jump squats. We’ll add some YouTube videos.

If you want to train red (endurance) fibers, you can do exercises with a slow tempo.
For example: a bench press where the lowering phase takes 5 seconds and the lifting phase takes 5 seconds.

If you need help

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