Speed and power Plan

Gym workouts to get faster: strength and power for sprinting

You have no 40 metres to sprint on, but you do have a gym, or a pair of dumbbells and a band. The plan builds the strength and power that transfer to sprinting, swaps the running session for power and jumps, and asks for one thing outside: a weekly 40 m outing outdoors.

Updated September 12, 2026

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What is gym-only speed and power training?

This is the version of the Speed and power plan for people with nowhere to run: you live in a city with no park nearby, you train at night, it is winter, or the only thing within reach is a gym, or dumbbells and a band at home. When you pick "gym only" as your place to run, the app changes the engine of the week without changing the goal: being faster and more explosive for your sport.

You can do more between four walls than it seems. Of the plan's four blocks, three fit entirely in the gym: leg strength (squat, hip thrust, Bulgarian split squat, Romanian deadlift, calves), which transfers to sprinting, above all to the first metres (Seitz, 2014: squat gains carry over to sprint times, more so with full rests between sets); progressive plyometrics, counted in contacts per session; and prevention for hamstrings and adductors with the Nordic ladder. The fourth block, sprint running, is replaced by a session the app calls Power and jumps: jump squats at 30-40% of 1RM, kettlebell swings, jump lunges, medicine ball throws and jumps, all maximal and with full rests. It is the closest thing to sprinting when there is nowhere to sprint.

What the gym cannot give you is max velocity, and the plan does not pretend otherwise: treadmill sprints are never prescribed. Instead, the instructions of every power session ask you to find 40 metres outdoors once a week, a park is fine, and do 4-6 sprints. That outing is the weekly max-velocity dose that protects your hamstrings (Malone, 2017), and the only way the strength you build indoors turns into speed outdoors.

The phases, the tests every five weeks and the daily biofeedback are the same as in the rest of the plan; further down you have the weeks as the app generates them with a full gym and in the strength phase.

How the plan works

Your AI-generated plan

Two demanding sessions a week and the rest easy. With two days, Strength and power and Power and jumps; with three, Prevention and mobility is added; with four or five, a second gym day and Running technique. The two hard ones never fall on consecutive days: 48 hours between them, the rule that separates two sprint sessions. And heavy leg work never goes the day before max velocity or a test.

Strength follows the plan's phases. In the base cycle, 6-8 reps at RPE 7 with 180 seconds of rest on the main lifts. In the strength cycle, 4-5 reps at RPE 8. In the sport-specific cycle, strength turns into power: 3-5 reps at RPE 6 with the bar moving fast. Week five of every cycle deloads to 60%. Never to failure on the main lifts.

Power and jumps is the session that replaces sprinting. It opens with a plyometric block counted in contacts: 40-60 per session if you are a beginner, 60-90 if you are intermediate, using extensive jumps (short lateral hops, pogos, low hurdles). Intensive plyometrics, the kind that improves sprinting with more than 80 jumps per session (Sáez de Villarreal, 2012), does not come in until you have accumulated 15 extensive sessions, or if you are advanced. Then three power exercises that rotate every week among jump squats (barbell or dumbbells, at 30-40% of 1RM), trap bar jumps, kettlebell swings, medicine ball throws and jump lunges: 4 sets of 5 reps (8 for the swing) with 150 seconds of rest, 3 sets if you are a beginner. Every jump and every throw maximal; if height or distance drop, the set is over. It closes with the Nordic on its rung and core.

Equipment decides the exercise, not the dose. Without a barbell, the squat becomes a goblet squat, the hip thrust a single-leg glute bridge, the Bulgarian split squat a dumbbell reverse lunge, the Romanian deadlift and the jump squat are done with dumbbells and the Pallof press with a band. Sets, reps and rests do not change. And the Nordic climbs its five-rung ladder (isometric bridge, sliding curl, band-assisted, partial, full) once you control the descent in two consecutive sessions.

The weekly outing is part of the plan, not an extra. 4-6 sprints over 40 metres of park or grass, with full rest and 48 hours from the gym. If a friend times you over 10 or 30 metres, the app records it as a mark.

Week five measures with what you have: broad jump with a tape measure, three attempts and the best one counts. The 10 m and 30 m stay as optional fields in case you time them on your outing.

When all you have is a gym

With nowhere to run 40 metres, the sprint session becomes power and jumps, and the plan asks for one outdoor outing a week so you do not lose exposure to top speed.

Mon
Power and jumps
65’
Tue
Rest
Wed
Base strength
63’
Thu
Rest
Fri
Power and jumps
65’
Sat
Rest (or the 40 m outing)
Sun
Rest

EntrenAI sessionClub or match

Jump squats at 30-40% of 1RM, swings and medicine-ball throws instead of sprints.
No treadmill sprints: they are never prescribed.
Plyometric contacts rise with accumulated sessions, not with enthusiasm.
The outdoor outing counts as the weekly speed dose that protects your hamstrings.

Who is this plan for?

You live in a city and have no 40 metres within reach. No park, no track, no grass: you train at the local gym or at home. The plan gives you strength, power and prevention during the week and asks for a single outdoor outing a week, which can be at the weekend in any park.
You train at night or in winter. When running outside is hard, loaded power and plyometrics keep the stimulus; the weekly outing is short, 4-6 sprints, and fits into a spell of daylight.
You come from the weight room and want the strength to show when you run. You already squat and deadlift. Here strength is organised by phases (6-8, 4-5, 3-5 reps) and gets what turns it into speed: loaded jumps at 30-40% of 1RM, swings, throws and counted contacts.
You only have dumbbells and a band at home. The plan swaps every exercise for its version with what you have: goblet squat, single-leg bridge, reverse lunge, dumbbell Romanian deadlift, banded Pallof press. The doses are the same.
You are in season, your club already runs and you can only get to the gym. Sessions are placed by distance to the match: gym four or three days before you play or two days after, never the day before or two days out. The minutes you played set the recovery.

If you have 40 metres near home even once a week, this variant works for you; if you have them every day, choose the plan's sprint version: real speed is only trained by running.

Measured with what you have: a friend, a tape measure and a phone

Every five weeks, in the deload week, the app walks you through a short test battery. No €300 GPS pods, no lab: three attempts, the best one counts, and the result is compared against yourself.

10 m
Acceleration: the start.
A friend with the phone stopwatch, or normal-speed video.
30 m
Acceleration plus transition; top speed is estimated from here.
Same. With a 10 m split if you have two watches or video.
20 m fly
Pure max velocity. Optional, for advanced players.
30 m build-up and 20 m timed: you need 50 m of clear ground.
Broad jump
Horizontal power, the one that drives acceleration.
A tape measure. Best of three.
Vertical jump (CMJ)
Vertical power and neuromuscular fatigue. Optional.
With My Jump or height estimated from video.
505
Change of direction and left-right asymmetry. Optional.
Two cones and a stopwatch, two attempts per leg.

The two numbers you see

Top speed (km/h)
The number people quote in the changing room. From the 20 m fly, or estimated from the 10→30 m split.
Speed-power index (0-100)
Percentile against players of your sex and level, weighted by what you said you wanted to improve. It places you; improvement is measured against yourself.

So that noise does not count as progress

Hand-held stopwatch: the app adds 0.24 s (Mann 2015) and notes it on the record.
With two or more tests, your own typical error sets the smallest change that matters: about 0.06 s over 30 m, about 6 cm on the jump. Below that, no improvement or loss is announced.
If you change timing method, the app warns that it is not comparable and starts a new series.
What already comes in from Strava or Garmin (top speed of each activity) counts as a trend, never as a test.

Sample plan

Your first weeks, in detail

Week 3

Cycle 1, full gym only: three days

Day	Session type	Detail	Duration
Monday	Power and jumps	Short lateral hops 5×10, Kettlebell swing 4×8, Dumbbell split jump 4×5, Barbell jump squat 4×5, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Pallof press 2×10 per side	65 min
Tuesday	Rest	Recovery	—
Wednesday	Base strength	Back squat 4×6-8, Barbell hip thrust 4×6-8, Bulgarian split squat 3×6-8 per leg, Romanian deadlift 3×6-8, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Standing calf raise 3×8-10, Pallof press 2×10 per side	63 min
Thursday	Rest	Recovery	—
Friday	Power and jumps	Short lateral hops 5×10, Kettlebell swing 4×8, Dumbbell split jump 4×5, Barbell jump squat 4×5, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Pallof press 2×10 per side	65 min
Saturday	Rest	Recovery	—
Sunday	Rest	Recovery	—

Week 8

Cycle 2 (strength and power), dumbbells and a band only

Day	Session type	Detail	Duration
Monday	Power and jumps	Wall drill (knee drive) 2×10, Short lateral hops 5×10, Alternating split jump 3×10, Dumbbell jump squat 4×5, Dumbbell split jump 4×5, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Band Pallof press 2×10 per side	59 min
Tuesday	Rest	Recovery	—
Wednesday	Max strength	Dumbbell jump squat 3×5, Goblet squat 3×4-5, Single-leg glute bridge 4×8-10, Dumbbell reverse lunge 3×6-8 per leg, Dumbbell Romanian deadlift 3×6-8, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Band Pallof press 2×10 per side	62 min
Thursday	Rest	Recovery	—
Friday	Power and jumps	Wall drill (knee drive) 2×10, Short lateral hops 5×10, Alternating split jump 3×10, Dumbbell jump squat 4×5, Dumbbell split jump 4×5, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Band Pallof press 2×10 per side	59 min
Saturday	Rest	Recovery	—
Sunday	Rest	Recovery	—

These examples are real extracts from the EntrenAI planning engine. Your personal plan adjusts to your level, equipment and availability.

Equipment needed

EntrenAI automatically substitutes any exercise if you don’t have the gear.

A gym with a barbell and rack for squats, hip thrusts and Romanian deadlifts; or a trap bar for loaded jumps
No barbell: dumbbells and a band are enough, the plan substitutes every exercise (goblet squat, single-leg bridge, reverse lunge, banded Pallof)
A kettlebell for swings and, if there is one, a medicine ball for throws
Optional: a box, mini hurdles or low hurdles for plyometrics
A tape measure for the broad jump, the week-five test
40 metres outdoors once a week: a park, a lawn, an empty path
Optional: a friend with the phone stopwatch on the outing, to record 10 m or 30 m

Common mistakes

What most people get wrong (and how to avoid it)

1
Sprinting on the treadmill to make up for it
The plan never prescribes treadmill sprints. Real speed is only trained by running, and that is what the weekly 40 m outdoor outing is for: 4-6 sprints with full rest. During the week, the Power and jumps session is the substitute, not the treadmill.
2
Turning the power session into a circuit
Jump squats, swings and throws are done to be fast, not to sweat. Every rep maximal, 150 seconds between sets, and if the height or distance of the jump drops, the set is over even if reps remain. With less rest you are training something else.
3
Doing more than 80 jumps in the first month
Plyometrics improves sprinting with more than 80 jumps per session at high intensity (Sáez de Villarreal, 2012), but that volume is for people with 15 sessions or more behind them. The plan starts at 40-60 extensive contacts, 60-90 if you are intermediate, and only moves to intensive once the tendon has built that base.
4
Skipping the weekly outing because the gym is tiring enough
Players who reach 95% of their max speed at least once a week get injured far less than those who stay at 85% (Malone, 2017). No barbell jump takes you to that 95%. Without the outing, weeks go by without touching max velocity, and the hamstring strain arrives the day you touch it in a match.
5
Heavy legs the day before the outing or the test
Heavy leg work in the gym never goes the day before max velocity or a test: you arrive with loaded legs and neither run at your best nor measure anything useful. Place the outing 48 hours from the strength session, the way the plan separates any two demanding sessions.
6
Loading the jump squat as if it were a squat
Jump squats and trap bar jumps are prescribed at 30-40% of 1RM. With more weight it stops being a power exercise and becomes a slow squat with a poor jump on the end. Heavy strength has its own day; on the power day, bar speed rules.

Other Speed and power plan variants

Back to the general Speed and power plan

Frequently asked questions

To a large extent, yes. Leg strength transfers to sprinting, above all to the first metres (Seitz, 2014), and plyometrics and loaded power improve sprint performance (Sáez de Villarreal, 2012). What the gym does not give you is exposure to max velocity, which is why the plan asks for a weekly 40 m outdoor outing with 4-6 sprints. The app does not promise you a percentage of improvement: it measures you every five weeks and only counts as improvement what exceeds your measurement error.

Because the plan never prescribes them. It is one of its equipment rules: if you only have a gym, the sprint session is replaced by power and jumps, and max velocity is sought outdoors once a week. A park, a lawn or any straight 40 metres will do; a friend with a stopwatch is optional.

The plan swaps every exercise for its version with your equipment and keeps the dose. In the base cycle's load week, for example, strength is goblet squat 4×6-8, single-leg glute bridge 4×8-10, dumbbell reverse lunge 3×6-8 per leg and dumbbell Romanian deadlift 3×6-8, with the isometric hamstring bridge, calves and banded Pallof press. Power is dumbbell jump squats and dumbbell jump lunges, 4×5 with 150 seconds, and plyometrics are short lateral hops and alternating jump lunges.

Find a straight 40 metres outdoors, warm up as on a speed day and do 4-6 sprints with full rest. Place it 48 hours from the heavy strength session and never the day after. If a friend times your 10 m or 30 m with a phone, the app adds 0.24 seconds for reaction time and saves it as a mark; if your watch or Strava brings the outing's top speed, the app keeps it as a trend.

Week five of every cycle is deload and testing. With nowhere to run, the test is the broad jump: three attempts measured with a tape from the toe line to the rearmost heel, and the best one counts. The 10 m and 30 m stay as optional fields in case you time them on your weekly outing. With two or more tests, the app calculates your typical error and only announces an improvement above it.

They are counted in contacts. In the base cycle plyometrics is extensive: 40-60 contacts per session if you are a beginner, 60-90 if intermediate and 80-120 if advanced, with low jumps and 60 seconds of rest. Intensive plyometrics (high jumps, drop jumps, bounds, 120 seconds of rest) comes in during the strength and power cycle only once you have 15 extensive sessions behind you, or if you are advanced, and goes from 30-40 contacts for beginners to 70-100 for advanced players.

You say which days you train with the team and when you play, and the app places the gym by distance to the match: four or three days before you play, or two days after; never the day before or two days out, and the day after only prevention or rest. The minutes you played set the recovery: 60 or more means two days without high load. It is one more EntrenAI sport, with a 7-day free trial and the same price as the rest: €7.99 a month or €23.99 a year, on iOS and Android.