Lower Body Mobility Movements to Sprint Faster

It’s no secret. Lower crossed syndrome is running rampant among young athletes. If you don’t know what lower crossed syndrome is, it’s characterized by tightness in the hip flexors, low back, and other areas. The tightness creates inhibition in the glutes, which play a pivotal role in the performance of an athlete.

I’ve already wrote about how this syndrome can affect your jump, but it can also affect your ability (or inability) to sprint faster.

This is because speed relies on two factors. The first is stride frequency. The second is stride length, which lower crossed syndrome directly effects.

Think about it… Tight hips limit your range of motion, which would limit the distance of your strides. If your stride isn’t as long as possible, you’re not being the most effective, efficient athlete possible.

And you won’t be able to sprint faster.

What I want to do today is return range of motion to your lower body by showing you some mobility movements you can do every day before sprinting. These will help you increase your stride length and subsequently, allow you to sprint faster.

Mobility Movements

The first movement you’ll do is a hip stretch. The hip flexors are tonic on 90% of athletes, and when we relieve that tightness, the benefits are crazy.

To stretch the hips, you’ll perform a sprinter stretch.

To perform this, you’ll get into a lunge pose and drive your hips forward until you feel a good stretch.

The next two movements are foam rolling moves.

First is for the piriformis, which can really mess with your stride efficiency. What you’ll do to perform this is sit one butt cheek on the foam roller. Then, you’ll cross that ankle over your opposite knee. You’ll feel a very sensitive muscle. Roll it until the tightness subsides.

gifs website

The next is for the IT band/Vastus Lateralis. These muscles cause the knees to cave in, which again, affects your stride efficiency.

To loosen these muscles up, you’ll place the foam roller on the side of your upper leg and roll up and down until the tightness subsides.

gifs website

More Speed Tips

While stretching can play a big role in your ability to sprint faster, it’s only a small piece of the large pie. There are other factors such as mastering each phase of speed, speed mechanics, and even how to use strength training movements to get faster.

If you’re a serious athlete, all of the above are important to you.

That’s why I created a FREE Advanced Speed Series, that goes over most of this stuff.

If you want to learn these lessons, hit the link below:

Click Here to Join the FREE Advanced Speed Series


overtimeathletes
overtimeathletes

The best sports performance training on the internet. We help underdogs become elite level athletes.