Leg Speed Workouts

Legs or lower body is something which is mostly overlooked. So, many people will have a well-built upper body and less built legs. However, one should balance both so that they look proportionate.

Especially, if you are a runner (athlete or a workout person) then you have to pay attention to lower body conditioning.

But, the conditioning should not be just aimed at making the legs bulky, but also speedier. By regular leg workouts, you will build massive strength, stamina and speed in your legs that will enable you to run faster and longer without completely exhausting yourself.

Doing sprints will help a lot. This will actually test how much faster you can run. So, every week note down the speed you are running. Throughout, the week keep following the mentioned below workouts and again check your running speed. You can do sprints on the track or on treadmill. Both will help.

So, follow a straight posture, and leap longer when performing sprints. Following stretching, cardio and strength training will help you improve your speed and strength, and will make your leaps longer.

Strength training is important when it comes to building stamina for long runs and improves strength required while short or long runs. So, regular strength training is necessary. At least twice a week, do strength training. For strength training squats are the best exercises for legs.

You can do normal squats, squats with weights and Bulgarian split squats. Apart from these you can also do simple lunges. You can also add some stepping workout to your strength training. Use a stepper or climb stairs.

To improve your agility add some jump rope workout to your routine. Do speed jump rope workouts. Jump rope workout offer many benefits. They will boost your stamina and increase your strength too. Most of all, it will give you the agility to perform sprints.

So, do exaggerated skipping workout. To keep your workout interesting, do one leg jumps, cross jumps, speed jumps, back jumps, etc.

Interval training matters. It matters because it improves your aerobic and anaerobic capacity both. Interval running offers more benefits than regular normal running workouts. It increases your adaptation response, which will make the body deliver more oxygen to the working muscles, and thus the muscles will be more tolerant to lactic acid build up.

It will also improve your cardiovascular system. It will build more strength and stamina, and you can keep doing interval running for a long time without having to get bored. 

Interval running involves warm up, then medium impact jogging, then high impact running, then medium impact jogging, and so on... Finally there is a cool down session. So, do interval training on treadmill and sometimes outdoors.

Stretching is an important part of leg speed workout and should be done almost everyday. Learn as many leg stretches you can. Hold each stretch for around 30 seconds. You can do many yoga stretches for legs like flowing chair pose, the three-legged downward facing dog, double leg raise, etc.

So, why does stretching benefit? Stretching will keep you flexible, give you better bounce and bigger leaps. This will naturally improve your leg speed. Also, it will prevent your muscles from becoming stiff.

Apart from the above top workout you can also time yourself when you are doing sprints. You can get a massage done once in a while, to improve blood circulation and reduce stiffness of muscles. For a change you can run on a hill, or run on an incline or decline.

Also, not to forget eat a healthy diet and include more lean protein and less carbs in it. To keep yourself healthy make sure you get adequate sleep too. Good luck!