Resistance Bands For Sprinting

Resistance bands can be a useful tool to use in your sprinting workouts. Resistance bands for sprinting can be used to increase resistance on movements such as hip flexion and hip extension, as well as for overspeed movements such as band assisted jumps and band acceleration knee drives.

Here we will discuss the best types of resistance bands for sprinting and how you can benefit from using them in your speed training.

Long Resistance Bands For Sprinting

Long resistance bands, such as those used for banded squats and other exercises in the gym, can be useful for sprinters.

With these types of bands, you can perform exercises such as hip extension to work on triple extension, hip flexion to work on your knee drive, as well as for resistance sprinting such as a partner resisted sprint.

These bands come in a variety of strength levels, ranging from very light to very heavy. This is how I use the different resistance band strengths for various exercises:

• Extra Light Bands: Resisted arm swings.
• 2 to 6 pounds of resistance.
• Light Bands: Knee drives, leg swings, hip extension from a high knee position, adduction, hamstring curls.
• 5 to 25 pounds of resistance.
• Medium Bands: Backside hip extension, assisted knee drives, band assisted vertical jumps.
• 10 to 35 pounds of resistance.
• Heavy Bands: Partner resisted acceleration, band resisted squats, band assisted jumps, standing hip thrusts.
• 30 to 50 pounds of resistance.
• Extra Heavy Bands: Partner resisted acceleration, band resisted squats, band assisted jumps.
• 65 to 85 pounds of resistance.

The bands are the most versatile in what they can be used for, making them a great investment for your speed training tool box.

 You can check out these bands at the links above.

Resistance Bands For Assisted & Overspeed Sprinting

Another way to use resistance bands for sprinting is to perform assisted sprinting or even overspeed sprinting. To do this, you need either bungee cord style resistance bands or shock cord. Bungee cords will typically be stronger, but shock cord can be customized for whatever length and resistance level you need.

Shock cord is something I personally use for assisted sprinting, either to pull myself faster out of the start or to perform more fast sprints with less fatigue. By assisting acceleration, you can save energy and perform more speed training within a session.

With shock cord or paracord, you can tie each end to a carabiner and attach it to a belt worn by the runner. The other end would be anchored to something such as light pole or sprint sled

Whether you use a bungee cord or shock cord, assisted sprinting would be performed similarly. Here are some options for how you can use resistance bands for sprinting in the form of assisted sprinting:

• Contrast between assisted and unassisted sprints, such as a 30m assisted sprint paired with a 30m non-assisted sprint.
• Using a quick release belt, run 20 meters assisted and 20 meters unassisted within the same sprint.
• Perform flying sprints where you detach the cord just before entering the maximal velocity zone.

Other Resistance Bands For Sprinting

The last category of resistance bands for sprinting includes small bands such as those worn around the thighs for glute circuits or something like KBands.

These each have their purposes, such as for use in your warm up to activate your hip flexors and hip extensors. These bands can also be used for prehab work, strengthening the hips and other smaller muscles using a variety of simple exercises.

I have used these types of bands before, and feel like they are best used during your warm up or for some specific exercise where you want to strengthen a particular movement. These bands are not useful to use while sprinting, but they can be helpful to prepare for sprinting.