How to Increase Your Speed, Mobility & Longevity with Plyometrics & Sprinting | Stuart McMillan

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Sprinting is the purest test of human performance

  McMillan, who has coached since 1984 and professionally since 1992, argues the fastest person on Earth really is the fastest. There's unlikely to be an undiscovered Usain Bolt, whereas the world's best linebacker may never have played. An NFL player might perform at about 80% of their best each game, but at less than 99.9% on a 100-meter start line, forget it. He prefers coaching the 200 for its tactics. Bolt's 9.58-second world record took about 40 steps.

• 02

  There are about five gaits, and speed dictates your foot strike

  Walking (usually heel-to-toe, up to roughly 2 to 2.3 meters per second), jogging, running, striding and sprinting each have an inverted-U of efficiency. You self-organize toward your most efficient speed and pattern within each one, then switch gaits when it breaks down. McMillan's cue is simply "flat-foot contact": at walking speed that produces a heel roll, and at sprint speed a slightly pointed foot landing more toward the toes. Don't consciously heel- or toe-strike unless a coach is fixing a specific problem.

• 03

  Most adults can no longer sprint safely

  Few people sprint past their 20s, and almost no one in their 30s. Our cardiovascular "engine" outlasts our tissues' and joints' ability to handle sprint forces. An all-out 50 meters after a short warm-up often ends in a pulled hamstring or calf. Most people can't go above about 75% of their capacity safely. McMillan's two substitutes are hill sprints, which stress tissue less, and above all skipping.

• 04

  Skipping trains what sprinting trains

  Skipping loads tissues and coordination patterns similarly to sprinting. It's plyometric, works the springiness of connective tissue, demands cross-body coordination, and drives "knee behind butt" hip extension, which commuting and sitting erode. McMillan skips 20 minutes every morning on the road and has skipped 10 miles. He urges skippers to be tall, expressive, rhythmic and stiff on the ground, the opposite of a closed, shuffling jog.

• 05

  Eccentric force capacity separates elite performers, and older adults lose it first

  From testing hundreds of athletes at the Canadian Sport Centre in Calgary starting in 1994, McMillan found concentric force measures didn't distinguish elite from sub-elite performers in almost any sport, while eccentric (braking) capacity did. Elite sprinting is essentially all braking forces. The same eccentric control is what keeps older people from falling off a curb, which Huberman connects to Peter Attia's point that falls often start a fatal decline.

• 06

  Sprinting is a two-mass system

  Jogging and striding work like a simple spring and mass. McMillan cites his friend Dr. Ken Clark's research showing that in true sprinting, the shank and foot act as a second mass, contributing up to about 8% of ground-contact force. Only athletes who can move their limbs fast enough get this. He says nearly every elite sprinter can, but only about a dozen NFL players.

• 07

  Three sprint non-negotiables: high knees, stiff springs, hip extension

  Elite sprinters' knees rise to about belly-button height, putting the action in front of the center of mass. On contact the foot and ankle must be rigid, like a boxer's fist on a heavy bag: both apply more than five times body weight in under three-hundredths of a second. McMillan judges a hip-extension pattern on five qualities: force, velocity, range of motion, control and repeatability.

• 08

  Let the torso lead the eyes

  In sprinting, lifting the eyes first raises the chin and throws the spine into hyperextension, so you push down the track instead of bouncing. McMillan's cue is to let the torso decide when the chin and eyes come up. Huberman says the same principle (chest and hips moving together, head last, and pushing your feet into the floor rather than pulling the bar) improved his squats and deadlifts.

• 09

  Don't copy Usain Bolt

  Movement is governed by what you're moving: limb ratios, tendon length, joints, fiber type and mobility. McMillan identifies an athlete's action capabilities, applies the known non-negotiables, and individualizes the rest instead of imitating a 6-foot-5, 215-pound outlier.