When I am sprinting a 100m I come out fine and after 60m I started leaning back and that’s when I start slowing down dramatically.
Why do I start leaning back when I get past 60m?
Ironically, I had the same issue when I was younger. Don’t really know why, I assumed then and now that it was b/c I didn’t develop my abs muscles to keep me upright. I don’t do it anymore, so there might be something to it (re: abs).
What are some good pointers for the final 40? There are alot of suggestions for reaching a high maximum in the first sixty, what is the best way to maintain your speed efficiently?
When you say “leaning back”, do you mean “arching back”, like exsessive spinal curvature, or do you mean your whole body bolt upright, even more so than Michael Johnson?
If you mean arching back then I agree with Vito that it’s mainly a mid section strength issue. Also, are your hip flexors tight?
If you are arching it is becuase your foot travelling behind you on the ground
is trying to pull/rotate your hip back (which you need to avoid), and your body is trying to compensate by arching back. Strong abs and rest of mid section will prevent the legs pulling and over rotating the hip. Good idea to have supple hip flexors aswell though.
Relax and maintain your composer, fighting “it” will only cause biomechanical breakdown.
Leaning back is often caused by tight Quads. When you are unable to step over above the knee of the support leg, you tend to drag the leg through a long lever, causing overwork of the hip flexors, eventually leading to a loss of knee lifting ability, compensated for by leaning back.
Always check quad flexibility before you do any supplementary hip flexor work. The hip flexors shouldn’t have to do much with perfect technique, and more work in an already overworked area will cause MORE tightness, which lengthens the lever, which causes more work, which… well, you get the idea.
Charlie,
You are a genius plain and simple. It makes perfect sense.
Thanks
My Quads are extremely tight…I’m an extremely tight person from day 1. Hopefully with all the help I’ve gotten off the board I can have another good year.
Now it’s time to stretch!