Faster

When I was a kid I really wanted to be the Flash. He was the fastest man on Earth! He ran through walls and up the sides of buildings, dodged bullets and could probably run fast enough to go back in time. Unfortunately as a kid I never really ran much, not like I do now. Once I started running as an adult I realized I would spend the rest of my life trying to be faster. As a result I've spent a lot of time researching how to become faster. Let me tell you what I've found - there are all kinds of ways to be faster!

You can have faster fast twitch muscle response and therefore more explosive movement. This comes in handy for jumping such as the types you do in basketball or volleyball. You can be faster on your feet. You can run faster for distance, sprint faster, or a combination of both. You can also cycle faster, perform other sport or exercise movements faster or just increase from a slow walk to a faster walk.
All of those things are ways to be faster and there are a lot of ways to train for each depending on which type of speed you are interested in.

One way to increase speed is to shave off bodyfat. Luckily one of the best ways to shave off bodyfat is also a great way to increase speed - sprinting. Sprinting will make you run faster because it uses a different type of muscle fiber than the type you primarily use while running for distance. You will still use some of the same fibers and those fibers will become stronger and more efficient and increase your speed. Sprinting also doesn't last long enough to put your body into a catabolic (muscle-burning) state the way that endurance running can, so it's better for your body composition overall. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn at rest. Therefore if you sprint you not only burn lots of calories but you make yourself stronger and you really put your body in the perfect state hormonally and metabolically to torch your fat without burning away any muscle.

Another great way to make yourself faster and to really train your fast twitch muscle response is Olympic weightlifting. Olympic lifting is comprised of a number of explosive pulling movements and catches using a heavy weight. Many of these are also utilizing hip hinge movements, heavy weights and explosive power and as a result they also torch bodyfat and make you strong as an ox. You'll sprint faster, jump faster, and move faster in lots of other ways.

Increasing muscle mass and burning fat are the keys here! Working both fast twitch and slow twitch systems will make you better, stronger and faster overall. It's all about recognizing the goal and programming appropriately to get you there.