Abdominal Strength for Sprinters

You can be king of the crunch or master of the hanging leg raise but if you’re engaging your mid-section in the correct manner, you will find your lumbar spine collapsing under your ground reaction force. This can result in poor displacement whilst running, low balance or worse injury. Don’t slip a disk and work those abdominals correctly with icankeepup.com’s  reactive drills.

These highly influential exercises are put in place to help athletes absorb ground reaction force whilst running. This is an important factor as 5 times your body weight will be projected through each leg on multiple occasions whilst sprinting.

Drill #1. Reverse Plank Leg Drop:

This exercise works the reactive properties of your abdominals in the sagittal plane. Therefore it is a fantastic drill for people who’s spine rounds forwards whilst they run. You’ll need are partner with decent arm strength. Hold two handles of a suspension trainer such as gymnastics rings or a TRX as if you are about to perform an inverted row. From there, ask your partner to lift your heals off the ground. There should be a straight line between the base of your skull and your heals. At random points throughout the drill, your partner will drop one of your legs. Your job is to keep your foot from touching the ground by using your abdominal strength to support your leg. This is not for the faint hearted!

Drill #2. Plyometric Medicine Ball Twist:

A popular exercise on the gym floor mats but unfortunately, these are often practiced incorrectly for a spine twisting variation. To do these correctly, sit tall with a neutral posture and elevate your feet off the floor. Have a partner throw a ball over your body. Do not let that ball hit the ground! Catch it and throw it back immediately and avoid as much spine rotation as possible. This one if for those over rotators among you.

Other Considerations:

So you don’t have a partner? Well the Medicine Ball Twist may be performed against a solid wall with an air filled medicine ball or wall ball but the Reverse Plank with Leg Drop is another story. It’s difficult to emulate the same sagittal plane reactive strength element without a partner but it’s not impossible. Get use to those gym ball plank variations. With your forearms on a gym ball you can roll your hands in various directions to challenge your abdomen.