How to Improve your Sprint | 4 Exercises from H24 Cycling
Becoming a better sprinter takes practice. In order to improve your cycling sprint, you have to consistently spend time training your body. Since sprinting is a neuromuscular activity, it requires athletes to train their muscles to fire in a specific pattern and practice often if they want to improve their performance. Matt Chatlaong from H24 Cycling shares some exercises that can help you improve your sprint game.
4 Exercises to Improve your Sprint
1. Start Here– If you’re new to sprint training, start with this exercise. Try doing a 10 second sprint as hard as you can about 5-6 times throughout your ride. Practice doing this during every ride. It won’t be too taxing, but you can still reap a lot of benefits.
2. Improve Sprint Mechanics– Form sprints, or exercises that are completed at a lower effort so you can focus on the mechanics of sprinting, are another good movement to practice. Find a white line on the road and spin up a gear in your small ring. Make sure you get out of the saddle, keep your hands in the drops, and get up to about 120 RPMs. Once you get there, hold it for a second. Try to stay as straight as you can along the white line and continue to sprint smoothly.
3. Lengthen Your Sprint– There are a few things you can do to lengthen your sprint effort. Throughout each training ride, spend time combining short sprints together with short periods of rest. Try sprinting as fast as you can for 7 seconds and then rest for 2 seconds. Repeat this cycle 3 times. After a couple weeks, combine them all into one long sprint. This exercise can be very beneficial, especially for cyclists who are just starting out with sprint training.
4. Enhance Sprint Power– Put your bike into a relatively big gear, large chain ring, halfway down the cassette. Slow down to 5-10 MPH. Stand up and jump as hard as you can for 10-15 seconds or until you spin the gear out. Hold that spinning cadence at 100-120 RPMS for 15 seconds after that. You will need a lot of rest in between these efforts. You may only be able to do 5 or 6 of them in an hour long workout. This exercise will be hard but it will improve your sprint power.
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