Does sprinting work your traps?

most do lots of sumo deadlift because it works the hip hinge position which carries over to top end acceleration.

sprinters are strong AF. You can not be fast without being strong relative to bodyweight.

Full body workouts, RDL’s, deads, farmers walk, and weighted lunges are just some that hit legs but will ignite your traps.

Sprinting is probably the most effective exercise ever. Not sure if it does anything for traps lol but you can bet that anyone that sprints that much also takes care of everything else in their body.

Mark Sisson, one of my favorite fitness people ever, says all the time that sprinting is the single best activity to promote body fat loss and fittness breakthroughs and I totally believe it.

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most do lots of sumo deadlift because it works the hip hinge position which carries over to top end acceleration.


Makes sense, don’t think of that as the most traps-focused lift, though

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They for sure work the traps hard.

Explosive Olympic lifts that sprinters perform also hit the traps like crazy

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I'd guess they're also doing lots of power or hang cleans.

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some do but since velocity meters have really become affordable and mainstream we have come to realize that for the most part olympic lifts are useless for dynamic power work

they tend to fall in that velocity spectrum that is too fast for maximum motor recruitment(to light for max effort) and too slow for rate of force development training(dynamic effort) and dont really help sprinting or vertical after the first 3-6 months of training

so most good coaches are doing 2 things when it comes to lifting for sprinters and field athletes

1) acceleration- using paused box squats to work the static-dynamic method. combining this with weighted vertical jumps. usually in the form of DB jumps. all jumps are monitored and all lifts are monitored using VBT. depending on the training age, they are sticking to breif max tension method or more traditional max effort/dynamic effort work here.

2) some are then combining olympic lifts here but using vbt to monitor speed and follow the velocities laid out by bondarchuuck, mann, stiff, verkhoshansky etc which for most puts them working in that 30%-40% range

3) using resisted sprints, weather its heavy arse sled drags and pushes with the prowler or with the 1080 sprint or run rocket to work the shin angle positions and horizontal force production

this is on top of extensive plyometrics they are doing. but everything is monitored and everything is done at full blow so very long rest periods between sprints. complete recovery

for top end work

1) getting strong at hip hinge movements, but really focus is on sumo deadlift as it has the most carryover. same type protocol as box squat. will even use box deadlifting and deficits also with me/de work

2) huge focus on broad jump. using resisted broads and bounding jumps to push horizontal force production

3) on top of the resisted sprints there is also a huge emphasis on getting the amount of strides taken in a race down. they use wickets to slowly increase stride length. Every session is videoed and they will incresae stride length and then also set up multiple laser gate timers, and even multiple lasers that can measure ground contact time as they run/bound through locations

then athletes is velocity profiled with the vbt and 1080 sprint and they attack the weaknesses

its all building on first the work the russians/louie simmons did but then also building on what charlie francis did and then what dereck hanson has done along with a few others who have really really pushed the envelope.

the 1080 sprint especially the new version is really pushing things

this is not to mention all the upper body work they do in the weight room to be able to punch with the arms. they are tracking arm turnover rate too which is predictive of leg turnover rate.

hell some of the cutting edge places even have force plates built into the track throughout a race distance and then they combine the laser gate timers, the 1080 sprint and they can id a weakness quickly in the top level sprinters. its crazy what tech has done.

these places can tell you your velocity, time, force production, ground contact time on top of other things for any 10 yard split in the race. its nuts. then they use that to design the sprint protocol.

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All true and great observations. As a former sprinter and jumper will say its less of an emphasis on Olympic lifts and lots of deadlifts like you said. And jumping all day, every day, building explosiveness. Resistance training is definitely a big part of this, and using the sled is a must.

Also combined with building explosive power, tons of mobility work. Not necessarily the same as gymnast, but more building flexibility and maintaining form under maximum effort. At the highest level a small break in form (like arms crossing in front instead of horizontal or a small variance in knee high or stride length during a sprint) will kill you.

Last, while sprinters are yoked, most actually race at a much lighter weight that people would assume. At 6.2 my best jumping weight was probably 160, and best sprinting weight 165. That was 20 years ago, maybe with modern training those might be 165 and 170. I was more of a 200/400 guy, 100m guys are usually a little thicker, but always. Noah Lyles in peak shape at 5.11 probably runs at 160-165. Usain Bolt was definitely an outlier at 190-200 at 6.5.

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yep

many people think they train turnover rate too but that isnt true because cant really improve that much after puberty

focus is on ground force acceleration drills and then top end. and huge focus on number of strides it takes to finish the race. prolly 95% of the time, he who takes the least amount of steps to cover the distance, wins the race.