How to Build Muscle for Track Training

Track athletes come in a variety of sizes with different muscle mass requirements. A long distance runner is looking for lean muscle, while a sprinter needs powerful and explosive quads to help propel him to the finish. A discus thrower is often larger with strong mass through the upper torso. Building muscle as a track athlete requires understanding of the requirements of your event(s) and building a balance between stamina, speed and power.

Things You'll Need

  • Training parachute
  • Ankle weights
  • Free weights or machines
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Instructions

  1. Sprinting

    • 1

      Attach a training parachute to your back. Run the length of the field at a full sprint with the parachute opened behind you creating drag.

    • 2

      Run knee ups with ankle weights. A knee up is a jogging movement where you work on the form of running with deliberate movements of bringing your knee to your chest. The added weight will improve the strength of target muscles.

    • 3

      Hit the gym. As a sprinter, you may forget to work on your upper torso. This is a mistake because your stride is greatly helped by strong upper body arm swings.
      Do three sets of 10 repetitions of the following: deltoid raises, biceps curls, bench presses and lateral pulls at moderate weights. You aren't trying to build large muscles, just strong lean muscles.
      Do three sets of 10 repetitions for your legs as well: squats, calf raises and lunges. Use heavier weights for your lower legs to help build powerful leg muscles that explode off the mark.

    • 4

      Keep your core strong by doing crunches and sit ups. Use a weight plate to increase the resistance to further increase your core. This helps upper body rotation and improves your stride.

    Endurance

    • 5

      Do interval training. This is taking a long, moderate paced workout and mixing in sprints with it. So your half hour on the track jogging will be more like a 30 second sprint followed by a two minute slow jog going right into another sprint. You repeat this for the duration of the workout.

    • 6

      Do sit-ups and crunches with weight added. Just as sprinters are helped by a strong core, endurance athletes need to keep their stride form over the duration of long periods.

    • 7

      Use weight training to build strength. Keep weight levels low to prevent building bulk.