To get faster, focus on powerful, explosive muscles like your Glutes, Hamstrings, Quadriceps, Calves (especially the soleus), and strong Core for stability, plus Hip Flexors for lifting the leg; these build the propulsion and force needed for speed, while strength training develops the fast-twitch fibers for explosive power.
Your quads play a significant role in your body for speed training. The stronger your quads, the faster you will run.
Which muscle grows the fastest? Your legs build muscle faster than any other body part. The quadriceps and glutes respond quickest to training because they are the largest muscle groups in your body. These muscles can grow noticeably within 6 to 8 weeks of proper training.
Your fast twitch muscle fibers are necessary for speed and power. They are the muscles you use for high-intensity activities like sprinting, jumping, powerlifting and soccer. They provide more muscle mass and definition.
A Loughborough University study examining the muscle size of elite sprinters has revealed a large gluteus maximus (the muscle that forms the backside) is key to achieving top speeds on the track.
Some individuals are born with more fast-twitch muscle fibers, aiding in sprints, while others have more slow-twitch fibers, beneficial for long-distance running. The size and shape of other body parts, such as the heart, lungs, and legs, also play a role in running speed.
8 Expert Tips To Increase Running Speed
Stronger muscles can help you run faster and farther by increasing your power and endurance. During running, your muscles, particularly in your legs and core, are subjected to a lot of impact and stress.
The abdomen (Abs) are muscles all the same to the rest of your body. They are derived from both slow twitch muscle fibers, which stimulate better to low weight high reps, and fast twitch muscle fibers, which stimulate better to heavy weight and low reps. You can think of it in an effort standpoint.
The hardest muscles to grow for most people are the calves, due to their high percentage of endurance-focused Type I muscle fibers and constant use in daily activities, making them resistant to growth. Other notoriously stubborn areas include the forearms, upper chest, and rear deltoids, often because they're frequently used or neglected in workouts, requiring specific, high-intensity, and varied training to stimulate growth.
Overtraining symptoms include persistent fatigue, prolonged muscle soreness, declining performance, mood changes (irritability, depression), sleep disturbances, increased resting heart rate, frequent illnesses, and loss of appetite, signaling your body isn't recovering from intense training, often requiring reduced activity and rest for recovery.
The eye: the fastest muscle in the human body.
The 80/20 rule in running is a training principle suggesting you should spend 80% of your training time at an easy, conversational pace (low intensity) and only 20% at a harder, more intense effort (high intensity), like tempo runs or intervals, to build aerobic fitness, improve performance, and prevent burnout. Developed by exercise physiologist Stephen Seiler, it combats the common mistake of running too many days in a moderate "gray zone," which hinders adaptation, and helps runners build a stronger aerobic base to support faster speeds.
The gluteus maximus, hamstrings (especially biceps femoris), calves, and core muscles all contribute significantly to speed. How can I prevent muscle imbalances from running? Strength train two to three times weekly. Prioritize hamstrings, glutes, calves, and core.
In this blog, I'll cover five methods you can easily integrate into your training to improve your top speed.
What kills muscle gains most are poor recovery (lack of sleep, overtraining, high stress/cortisol), insufficient or poor-quality nutrition (not enough protein/carbs, excessive processed foods/sugar/alcohol), and inefficient training (too much cardio, bad form, focusing on isolation over compound lifts). Chronic stress elevates cortisol, which breaks down muscle, while inadequate protein, calories, and sleep directly impede repair and growth, making recovery paramount.
Weightlifters arguably have the strongest legs of any strength athlete because they spend the most time training their legs with heavy loads.
The 10-20-30 running method is an interval training technique where you alternate between 30 seconds of jogging (slow), 20 seconds of moderate running, and 10 seconds of sprinting (fast) within a one-minute cycle, repeated in blocks (like five times) for a total of 5-10 minutes, followed by recovery, designed to boost fitness and performance with less overall running volume. Developed from research at the University of Copenhagen, it improves cardiovascular health, blood pressure, and fitness levels, making running more efficient and potentially more fun, with benefits even if the sprint isn't 100% max effort, though full sprints build more endurance.
Add sprints into your long runs
By actively adding sprints into your training runs, your body will get used to adding these bursts of energy in, and you'll improve stamina too. This is an effective form of speed endurance training which will start showing results in your race times fast.
One of my favorite tips to share with folks is what I call “The 10-Minute Rule.” When they are feeling de-energized or unmotivated, I encourage them to try some form of movement for 10 minutes. If they are feeling terrible at the end of that 10 minutes, then they can stop and give it a rest for the day.
For some, running comes naturally, but for others, every small gain in speed or distance can feel like a battle. Either way, you might be wondering, "Am I born to run?" The answer could be in your genes. Just the rush of wind, a dirt track and my own pounding footsteps.
Have you heard coaches (or parents) say, "Running is 90 percent mental." That's a silly idea. If that were true, there would be tens of thousands of aspiring high school athletes lying on their backs in bed visualizing their way to PRs (though there is a ton of value in visualization, which I'll get to in a moment).
Yes, it's true that a very small percentage of people run a marathon, with estimates suggesting less than 1% of the world's population has ever completed one, and some sources place the annual participation even lower, around 0.01% to 0.1% of the global population. While millions finish marathons yearly, the total number of individuals who have ever completed the 26.2-mile (42.195 km) distance is a small fraction of the total world population.