Muscle Runners are not called Muscle Runners for nothing! Indeed some may find the Antepes’ name a little odd. However, these built-for-speed shoes are so-called because they are designed to activate the muscles which are key for sprinting and in particular the lower leg muscles. We take a further look at specific sports science which vindicates the specific benefits.

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Specific research
Researchers from the University of Calgary pitted Muscles Runners against conventional running shoes and the latest sprint spikes. The main test was a 30m sprint performed at 80% and 100% velocity.
The standout results were that the Antepes were very close to the sprint spikes in terms of speed capability and ground intact times. In fact there was 5 milliseconds of separation between the spikes and the Antepes on those tests.

​These results show just how great Muscle Runners are as a sprint shoe which can be used when you can’t wear sprint spikes or don’t want to.

The Canadian research also analysed lower leg muscle activation as measured by electromyography (EMG) - specifically, the soleus and gastrocnemius calf muscles

The EMG findings showed that soleus activation was much superior to that achieved in the conventional running shoes and not much behind the sprint spikes.
The soleus is the smaller of the calf muscles whilst the gastrocnemius is the larger. The former performs a physically supportive role whilst the latter is more of a power producing muscle. However, despite its size and role, the soleus is crucial for sprinting and in particular acceleration.

The Chinese connection???
The sprinting social media world has been recently full of coverage of Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian. Su has a 100m best of 9.83sec but unofficially holds the 60m world record for a time he recorded during a 100m race. He achieved 6.29sec when running in the Tokyo Olympic semi-final when he set his 100m best.
This compares to his official 60m WR of 6.43sec. The current world record is held by The USA’s Christian Coleman and stands at 6.34sec.
But why the mention of Su? Well, he apparently had calf muscles that were very weak - in particular his soleus “strength” was identified as being similar to an adolescent females. So, his coaches embarked on a specific programme to enhance the power of his soleus. It’s stated that work done on the Chinese sprinter’s calf muscle were a very significant contributor to his improved sprinting and break-through to true world class.
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More on why the soleus is important for sprinting and in particular acceleration
​When leaving the blocks on starting, the sprinter needs very strong ankles - these need to support and produce propulsive force when creating optimum accelerative angles across the sprinter’s body whilst the knee is bent. And when the knee is bent it’s the soleus which does the majority of the mechanical work amongst the lower leg muscle groups.

So, the fact our built-for-speed Muscle Runners, as identified by the Canadian research - stimulated increased EMG soleus activity over and above conventional running shoes, for example, is a great indicator as to how these specific speed shoes are doing the”right” job.
The right job that will specifically strengthen key muscles in a very sprint specific way. Ergo Muscle Runners!

This is a blog post I wrote for Antepes. Some of my jumpers have been using them and have found the sprint spikes for the road to be a great adjunct to their training.
MORE ON THE THESE DYNAMIC SPRINT TRAINERS IN THIS YOUTUBE REVIEW BELOW

I show you how you can construct a triple jump session with the emphasis on hop and step exits and the movement of the contact leg.

The eight drills in this video will stimulate the neural and physical systems to potentiate heightened power and speed output. 
We do these in particular in peak season prior to a sprint workout or jumping session from  medium to long run-ups.

Sprint speed is the product of stride length and leg speed (cadence). How you train to improve these qualities is vital for increasing your speed. So, what’s better? Training for stride length or leg speed when it comes to maximising sprint speed? Oh, and how did a certain Mr Bolt do it?

This post was adapted from one I wrote for Antepes - their Muscle Runners are sprint spikes for the road - having a carbon plate and sprint spike design.
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Video here And see below.

STRIDE LENGTH
The “perfect sprint” stride is neither too long (coaches call this over striding”) nor too short (“under-striding”). The optimum stride length is dependent on your sprint technique, how much power you can put into the ground, and physical qualities – such as the amount of speed producing fast twitch muscle fibre you have and something known as leg stiffness, of which more later.

LEG SPEED
Most elite sprinters can move their legs 4-5 times every second – that’s to say complete 4-5 strides. If you focus on an elite, you’ll see the blur that this rapid leg cycle creates and the distance covered.

Interestingly at sub-elite level turnover is not much different (nor is it with increasing age - here it's stride length which suffers. It’s the force which is put into the ground which is reduced and which thus shortens stride length in master athletes.

Work too much on leg speed and there’s potential that stride length will decrease – this can be good if you were previously over striding or had a slower than average cadence. However, it’s not so good if you had an optimum stride length. Consider that you will cover more ground with an optimised stride length compared to one which is too short.
This is what made Usain Bolt so great. He had a huge stride length with more or less the same turnover at maximum velocity as his rivals. So, Bolt would be eating up the ground.

Research (1) indicates that Bolt took 41 steps to run his 100m world record which was around 4 less than his rivals. Bolt’s longest stride length was 2.872m between 60m-70m in the race.
For reference the average of his leg speed was 4.47 stride per second (sports scientists measure this in Hz).
For reference leg speed capabilities of men and women hardly vary. Men run faster as they have more power.

In the research which looked at Bolt’s world record run there is a very telling reference – it being reported that:
“… 90% of a runner’s velocity is attributed to stride length, and anything after that increases through frequency.”

So, improving stride length should be your priority.
As indicated, this is dependent on many factors. However, the great news is that with the right training you can optimise stride length.
In this post l will look further into increasing leg stiffness - one such method. Do look out for other posts and the follow-up to this one which look more into this and will considers other relevant factors such as fast twitch muscle fibre.

Stiffness improves stride length
Another piece of research (2) looked at how well-trained male athletes improved their sprint speed over 6 months of specific training. Cutting to the chase it was discovered that maximum sprint speed was developed through:

“…. longer step length accompanied by increases in vertical and ankle joint stiffness…”

In short, the specific training of joint stiffness meant that more power could be extracted from the running surface. If the soft tissue of the legs (muscles, ligaments and tendons and even fascia) can create a "harder" and quicker block and subsequently enhanced return of force on ground contact then sprint speed will be increased.

Stride length increasing drills
1: Speed bounds
From a standing start leap forward by swinging one thigh away from you. When the thigh is near parallel to the ground, drive its foot back into the ground to strike it on the forefoot of your Muscle Runners. Immediately swing the other thigh forward and strike powerfully down into the ground again. Use a powerful arm drive to support the leg movements. At the start as you accelerate you can incline your body forwards as you would when sprint accelerating. The length of the bounds will increase as you beat inertia.
As you move away from the start get your torso more upright. Basically it’s a succession of:
“Swing thigh to parallel very fast”
“Stamp down (drive) into ground from an elevated thigh position back under hips”
The idea is to drive/push your body forwards. Think of speed bounds as "stiff legged sprinting". There is little cyclical inclusion.
Do: 3-4 x 20m

See video below for more

2: Drop jumps
Drop jumps are great for developing leg stiffness. Use a sturdy platform. Its hight can vary between 30cm-90cm. Step off and minimise knee bend when landing on two feet. Contact the ground on the forefoot of your shoes.
Focus on this minimal knee bend as you react to the contact as fast as you can as you jump up. Don't focus on height as this will slow your reaction.
Try to triple extend through the ankles, knees and hips. To reiterate get off the ground as fast as you can. Swing your arms to assist you.
Do: 3-4 x 6 from varied heights
Consider the speed of your reaction against the height of the drop, if you feel it is too slow then use a lower drop.
Another way to consider this is to monitor how much you bend your knees on ground contact, if it is more than a few degrees and you are lowering (yielding too much to the force) then this indicates the drop is too great.

In part 2 of this post, we will look more into how you can improve stride length and leg speed as well as considering leg stiffness some more and fast twitch muscle fibre.

References
1: Multicomponent Velocity Measurement for Linear Sprinting: Usain Bolt’s 100 m World-Record Analysis
Bioengineering (Basel). 2023 Nov; 10(11): 1254. 
Published online 2023 Oct 26. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering10111254
2: Development of maximal speed sprinting performance with changes in vertical, leg and joint stiffness
J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2017 Dec;57(12):1572-1578.doi: 10.23736/S0022-4707.16.06622-6. Epub 2016 Jul 13.

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How do you coach the triple jump hop?
How do you plan training in-season?
And how do you periodise double foot drop jumps?
These are the topics covered in this video. You'll see clips from my Coach-Athlete Member videos. These videos deep-dive into subject matter such as these but many more.
There are over 40 Coach-Athlete member videos at the time of this post and they cover other topics such as:
How to plan training
Undulating periodisation and block methods
Block potentiation
How to coach the long jump take-off and hitch-kick
And how to specifically plan training phases...
And much more.
If you want to take your coaching knowledge to the next level then become a
Coach-Athlete Channel Member.

There were over 35 responses to the video uploaded last week at time of writing this post. See previous post for the video.
There was a huge amount of support more or less for the limited transfer of weights to jumping and sprinting. And recall it's direct transfer that I am talking about.
In the video I argued that there were far better ways to achieve this transfer. And again to reiterate I do argue that weights are important in less direct transfer ways (and also that some jumpers may respond better to them than others). 
Particularly with young jumpers 16-20 years I believe that you will get far more benefits from developing speed and power (via drills and plyos) and by technical mastery.  

Most argue that in any case to really gain the benefits of weights for improving let's say base power you need to lift heavy weights fast for fast twitch muscle fibre motor unit recruitment

Most argue that in any case to really gain the benefits of weights for improving let's say base power you need to lift heavy weights fast for fast twitch muscle fibre motor unit recruitment. This is something that perhaps is not advisable with young athletes maturing. It could of course be argued that too much intense work is equally bad. 
That's why you need to make sure you have a balanced training programme and one that incorporates lots of pre-conditioning - injury beating drills and other work of which weight training is a part.
The main reason why I made the video was because of a well argued criticism of two exercises I use - the power step up and the step back lunge. Of course the transfer of these is limited but I would argue they have more merits than some other weights exercises.
If you put anything under the microscope when it comes to jumping transfer you can find fault.
The only 100% transfer achieved "drill" for the long jump would be competitive full approach jumps... as I say the "first generational" activity. Then we lose that direct connection as we move through short approaches, plyos and drills to weights. 
Coaches need to stay close to what the event they coach requires and implement training ingredients (the generational activities) in a well reasoned training programme which will produce results. Often less will be more and very specific work will get very specific results.