How to Improve 40 yard dash

How to Improve Your 40 Yard Dash

How to improve your 40 yard dash? It all starts with conditioning.

The reason this aspect of training is important, besides the fact that most speed and conditioning programs ignore it, is that to be the best athlete you can be, you must be a complete athlete. In order to improve your overall work capacity (the amount of work you can do and still be productive), you must improve your fitness level and general strength. When your work capacity is increased, you will be more efficient in your movement, have better coordination and increase muscle strength and endurance. In addition, your muscles will warm up faster, stay warm longer and you will increase your overall aerobic capacity. Above all else, work capacity workouts will help your body heal and recover from heavy CNS stressing workouts (such as speed/power days). By implementing these General Strength and Tempo Conditioning workouts into your athletes’ training programs you can expect to see serious improvement in their productivity from the opening kick off until the final seconds tick off the game clock.

General Strength
General Strength work normally consists of non-weight bearing (body-weight) exercises. This type of work, best done in the form of circuit training, improves soft tissue strength, increases aerobic capacity and improves upon all the elements discussed in the previous paragraph outlining work capacity development. It is an ideal type of general strength training for athletes looking to improve speed and power because of the overall increases in total body conditioning, aerobic development, as well as providing necessary recovery elements.

General Strength Circuit 1
Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, moving right to the next exercise without resting. After completing the circuit, rest for 3 minutes, then perform the sequence a second time. As a variation, perform a prescribed number of repetitions for each exercise then jog (at 50-60% intensity) 40 yards between each exercise.

Burpees aka Squat Thrusts x 15
Walking Lunges x 20
Rocket Jumps x 15
Pushups with clap x 12
Hi-Mountain Climbers x 30
Split Squat x 20

General Strength Circuit 2
In between each exercise, jog 50 meters. Rest 4 minutes and perform the circuit again.

Prisoner Squats x 20
V-Sits x 15
Lateral Lunges x 20 meters
Rotational Pushups x 8 each side
Side L-Raise x 10 each side
Single Leg SLDL x 10 each leg
Half Burpees x 10

Improving your 40 yard dash time depends on what kind of shape that you are in, so work hard and train hard.