if your strength didnt increase, adding mass will not help you. its just likely that if you put on 10 lbs of muscle the raise in your strength levels would overcome the disadvantage of the extra weight
yea if i were you, i would beef up those legs with heavy weight lifting. That will definitely increase your acceleration. Adding leg mass/(strength) helps you accelerate faster, but can hurt your overall time if your speed endurance does not keep up. That extra weight can bog you down in a 200. Even in a 100.
Edit: Only adding strength will increase your speed (not mass) but its tough to just add strength w/o mass, … and that mass is worth the strength you need to gain. Although, you might be able to use maximal effort reps (1-3) and not add much if any mass.
How would you train an athlete who already has relatively too big upper body compared to legs?
I would put him on a road bike for 2-3 months, before any sprint training or weights.
My upperbody/arms shrink on the bike.
strengthen his legs. A lot. And run him. A lot.
strength = good acceleration
Strength + speed endurance = half way there
I wouldn’t recommend cycling for weight loss of a sprinter as it promotes slow twitch muscle growth, can stagnate the fast twitch, and will decrease the elasticity of the athlete.
Cut back on the upperbody weights, if he/she is doing them.
Do you think it is detrimental to performance?
Why not focus on pure strength/power work when upper body work is done, and bulk up the legs?
Hence, I would put him on a road bike for 2-3 months, before any sprint training or weights, once the weight’s gone, continue as you left off or just began.
Just to point out, cycling I have found is one, if not, one of the best ways to increase stride rate, turnover & developing power in the hip flexors.
It sure didn’t promote slow twitch muscle growth for me, I just kept hitting the weights.