A change in mentality?

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

I think athletes’ generally believe weight training is performed to increase the strength of the muscles. What I have come to believe is that primarily it should be considered as training for the central nervous system.

Anyone who has seen footage of 69kg Galaban Boevski clean and jerking over 190kg or casually squatting 250kg without any obvious muscle mass could be left in any doubt of the power of the nervous system. Knowledgeable athletes might appreciate that strength increases were possible without an increase in body mass but I doubt they realised to what extent!

So how does the nervous system increase strength? It primarily does so by increasing central drive. Or in lay mans terms increases the number of impulses per unit time that are transmitted to the muscles. This causes recruitment of the largest motor units and therefore results in higher force outputs. Other adaptations include:

• Decreased Golgi tendon inhibition
• Decreased antagonist inhibition
• Increased inter muscular coordination
• Increased intra muscular coordination

In recent years I have advocated no more than three reps per set on any core exercise. Certainly this is what the UK’s best sprint group (including Jeanette Kwakye, Dwain Grant, James Ellington, Leon Baptiste, Daniel Plummer and Mark Findlay) are doing on my recommendation. As the athlete becomes more experienced I would tend to limit reps to doubles and primarily employ singles. ‘Only singles’ I hear you cry! Yes, but remember singles don’t necessarily mean maximum poundages. I generally recommend between 85 and 90% concentrating on the quality of movement.

You should have the confidence to leave an exercise even though you feel you haven’t stressed yourself. I have seen athletes increase their maximum by more than 10% in a month whilst performing only one single above 90% per session! For limit strength movements like squats I generally advocate three single repetitions above 85% whilst for lifts with a speed component (i.e. cleans) I might perform up to 6 singles.

This type of training primarily induces myofibrillar (or functional) hypertrophy and limits sarcoplasmic (or non functional) hypertrophy. This ensures an optimal benefit to power to weight ratio, but unfortunately might not be the best for pulling the ladies! Additionally, this type of training causes the greatest increase in testosterone and for the clean athlete this is obviously advantageous to improve recovery.

I see a lot of sprinters at Crystal Palace and as well as having rough assed lifting form they always seem to be injured. Could it be that these athletes’ work capacity is insufficient to tolerate three weight sessions per week and this is increasing predisposition to injury? When one considers the high demand of sprinting, plyos and high intensity medicine ball work, is it such a surprise that they don’t improve? And what do they do if they don’t get results? Increase the work! A change of approach is definitely required.

I believe that the following program is optimal for all non elite (non full time) athletes:

Monday: Speed
Tuesday: Weights
Wednesday tempo
Thursday: Speed
Friday: Weights
Saturday: Tempo
Sunday: Rest

So to summarise forget about your muscles and start training your nervous system.

2

This type of training is almost exactly how I raised my deadlift max by 60 lbs. in six months and how I was routinely doing overhead presses with 190 lbs. (at my bodyweight of 175 lbs). Back when I was 160 lbs. bodyweight, I squatted over 400 lbs. using a program of very low reps. Even today, I train weights four days per week using 3 sets of 3 reps between 80-95% of max. The idea is to train as heavy as possible, while staying as fresh as possible. I never take a set to failure.

Many athletes, however, insist on useless isolation exercises following bodybuilding protocols that don’t do very much, if anything, for athletic development. I agree, quit wasting time of bicep preacher curls, triceps kickbacks, leg extension machines, and heaven forbid, the leg curl machine and things like “arm day” or “today is leg day” training and train the whole body. Squats, deadlifts, cleans, RDL, snatches, overhead squats, overhead presses–STANDING–not sitting down. Athletes need to train ON THEIR FEET!

3

I def. hear where you guys are coming from. In the past few months when I was lifting 3x per week with fairly high volume I was ending up sore and feeling flat for my track sessions. This past week however I decided to skip the monday weight session so I would go into wednesdays track workout fresh. And it worked. I then lifted on wed. and friday and felt much better.

Here is what was done a few weeks ago when I was feeling shitty…

MONDAY

Depth Jumps-4 x 3 (24" box)
Powercleans- 135x5 155x3 175x3 185x3(2)Bench-135x10 225x5 275x3 285x3(3)
Close Grip Pulldowns-180x8(3)
Back Ext-27x3x10
Weighted SB Crunches-60x12(3)

WEDNESDAY

1 Arm Snatch-65x 5e 70x5e(2)
Close Grip Chins- 70x7 75x5 80x3 bwt.30
Single Leg DB Squats-50x8e(3)
GHR-x6 w miniband x10 bwt. X10 W/10lbs
BB Russian Twists-55 x 20(3)

FRIDAY

Hangclean-135x3 155x3 175x3 (3) 155x3(2)
Flat DB-90x8 95x8 100x8
Wide Grip Pulldowns-180x8(3)
Cable Pullthrus-120x16(3)
GHR-2 x 10mini band

And here is what was done this week…

WEDNESDAY

1 Arm Snatch-60x3e 70x3e 70x3e
Single Leg Squats- 40x10e (2)
Cable Pullthrus- 120x16(2)
Bench-135x6 225x5 275x3(4)
Seated Rows-170x8 180x8(2)
Russian Barbell Twists-55x20(3)

FRIDAY

Reverse BB Lunges-45x10e(4)
Flat DB Press-80x8 100x5 105x5 110x5(2)
*3 clap pushups after each set
DD Pulldowns-190x8(3)
Seated DB Cleans-20x12(3)
GHR- 3 x 10
Kneeling Ab Pulldown-150x20(3)

In addition to both setups I was having 3 high intensity days on the track.
Another thing I have found is that with alot of assistrance work 2 sets leaves me feeling much better than 3 sets.

thoughts about the setup?

4

Excuse am gonna start training like this, but during competition, season.

For now am gonna do 6rep, maybe 5sets for every exercisors. Up until april.

How much rest do you have inbetween the sets, when you do this training that Davd W talks about.

How many minutes, seconds whatever.

5

Mr. Cool, usually when training with low reps, heavy weight, the rest intervals are usually full recovery between sets if I’m not mistaken. At least 5-7 minutes. Anyone concur with this?

6

Mr. Cool,

One thing to remember when training in this manner is to “aviod the pump” or the burn as some call it. Bodybuilders love to get all swolled up like this, but it really isn’t the best way for real athletes because it can lead to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Have you ever seen those big bodybuilders who look sooo huge, but aren’t really all that strong? Then you see some of the 69kg olympic lifters who look fairly normal with no huge muscles–but yet they throw up some huge weights that those big, vanity consumed bodybuilders could never even hope to come close to? This is called myofibrillar hypertrophy.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy= bloated, soft, useless muscles like the big bodybuilders who prance around.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy= denser, stronger muscles like track athletes and olympic weight lifters have.

How to get myofibrillar hypertrophy?
Train heavy, but keep the volume, or total number of reps per workout, low. Take plenty of rest between sets, three to five minutes. Avoid the pump and your muscles will be ready for more of a heavier effort. Don’t allow that lactic acid to build up. Frequent, heavy, low volume workouts. Train with as heavy weights as possible, while staying as fresh as possible. Don’t take sets to failure, leave a rep in reserve. Plenty of rest between sets.

7

[QUOTE=QUIKAZHELL]I def. hear where you guys are coming from. In the past few months when I was lifting 3x per week with fairly high volume I was ending up sore and feeling flat for my track sessions. This past week however I decided to skip the monday weight session so I would go into wednesdays track workout fresh. And it worked. I then lifted on wed. and friday and felt much better.

Here is what was done a few weeks ago when I was feeling shitty…

MONDAY

Depth Jumps-4 x 3 (24" box)
Powercleans- 135x5 155x3 175x3 185x3(2)Bench-135x10 225x5 275x3 285x3(3)
Close Grip Pulldowns-180x8(3)
Back Ext-27x3x10
Weighted SB Crunches-60x12(3)

WEDNESDAY

1 Arm Snatch-65x 5e 70x5e(2)
Close Grip Chins- 70x7 75x5 80x3 bwt.30
Single Leg DB Squats-50x8e(3)
GHR-x6 w miniband x10 bwt. X10 W/10lbs
BB Russian Twists-55 x 20(3)

FRIDAY

Hangclean-135x3 155x3 175x3 (3) 155x3(2)
Flat DB-90x8 95x8 100x8
Wide Grip Pulldowns-180x8(3)
Cable Pullthrus-120x16(3)
GHR-2 x 10mini band

And here is what was done this week…

WEDNESDAY

1 Arm Snatch-60x3e 70x3e 70x3e
Single Leg Squats- 40x10e (2)
Cable Pullthrus- 120x16(2)
Bench-135x6 225x5 275x3(4)
Seated Rows-170x8 180x8(2)
Russian Barbell Twists-55x20(3)

FRIDAY

Reverse BB Lunges-45x10e(4)
Flat DB Press-80x8 100x5 105x5 110x5(2)
*3 clap pushups after each set
DD Pulldowns-190x8(3)
Seated DB Cleans-20x12(3)
GHR- 3 x 10
Kneeling Ab Pulldown-150x20(3)

In addition to both setups I was having 3 high intensity days on the track.
Another thing I have found is that with alot of assistrance work 2 sets leaves me feeling much better than 3 sets.

thoughts about the setup?

Quik
What part of the season are you in now? I have been using a tier structue, lifting 3x per week for about 3 months and have had great success with it. If you would like the format for this structure, i’ll post it.

8

Gotta love the low reps/heavy weight lifting. I am only about 179 lbs., but most people think I look bigger than that. I hardly ever train for aesthetic purposes (bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg extensions, etc) but the byproduct of the lifting I have done has given me that dense look. This is the case with most if not all sprinters who you think may look huge, but really they only weigh about 165-180 lbs at the most. If I do train with higher reps, I stop at 8 with the core lifts, just because I have been doing low reps for a while and it was my GPP. But once I start up into the next phase, I will utilize reps of 5 and lower.

9

I feel the most interesting part is the track schedule,ina spp, how would the 2 speed sessions look like for a 100 meter specialist?

10

I believe that the following program is optimal for all non elite (non full time) athletes:

Monday: Speed
Tuesday: Weights
Wednesday tempo
Thursday: Speed
Friday: Weights
Saturday: Tempo
Sunday: Rest

Ive used this type of approach & it works ok for jumping too. It also suite those who work part/full time.

11

Hey Andy,
I am in week # 15. This is precomp for me. I had my first meet 2 weeks ago and my next meet is next week.

If you can post a sample of the tier system that would be cool. In the past I have seen the aticle about it but it was way to long to read. I read some of it and lost interest.

12

Galaban Boevski lifts are impressive yet the question does remain, how does 1rM for C&J correlate with the strength demands for sprinters? I don’t think the type of strength qualities required for (1-3) reps is specific for the 100m, since sprinters require greater levels muscular endurance then weightlifters.

My personal background is in Olympic lifting and track, when I was combining the two sports I frequently felt too fatigued to run fast. Since I have totally dropped Olympic lifting and now use a very general hypertrophy approach, my times on the track have started to improve again.

It does seem contrary to logic that a generic approach to strength yields greater results then specific power training. The answer my lay in the fact that 1-3s in the weight room tend to pre-fatigue motor units and results in neuromuscular fatigue when combined with sprint training, or low reps don’t sufficiently develop SE capacities for sprinters. Another factor to consider is neuromuscular adaptations from Olympic lifting may have a minimal cross over effect onto sprinting mechanics.

The approach that you’re suggesting in my experience did not elicit any better performance and when compared to higher reps protocols were clearly inferior.

13

Sharmer,
Interesting comments. Also good to see you posting again.

You mentioned “I don’t think the type of strength qualities required for (1-3) reps is specific for the 100m, since sprinters require greater levels muscular endurance then weightlifters”.

While that may be true we both know that strength training for a sprinter is a general is a general trainig means. You even said it yourself when you stated “neuromuscular adaptations from Olympic lifting may have a minimal cross over effect onto sprinting mechanics”.
However as well we both know maximum strength will improve muscular endurance and is a one way road as Charlie has said before. Increasing maximum strength alows you to lift a lighter weight for more reps. But if you train to lift a lighter weight for more more your max strength may not have necessarily improved. Thoughts on how that may relate to sprinting?
Also I’d be curious to see how you set up your weekly lifting. Exercises reps and sets.

14

Higher reps lower the weight used and, most likely, the absolute CNS fatigue. I don’t think it hurt Ben or Angella too much. Not to be a lemming, but Charlie has previously stated that the higher reps can facilitate the endurance requirements in sprinting, along with it also being safer.

15

Without starting a new thread I would also like to pose this question.

Is there any merrit in using timed sets for lifting?
Ex. 10 second sets in certain exercises for 100 meter sprinters.

I remeber Louie Simmons talking about this for when he trained Butch Renyolds. I also heard other strength coaches talk about this including Martin Rooney when Training Joe Mendel.

In my opinion this would lead to uneeded hypertrophy but it may improve general muscular endurance which in my opinion should be avioded in the weight room and trained specifically on the track.
Thoughts?

16

I would like to hear from some others on their experience with heavy lifting (olympic or power) and carryover to sprints. I may be doing some things wrong, but I have noticed a very minimal carryover. I’ve squatted and deadlifted well over 400 lbs (at 170-175 lbs bodyweight), cleaned 115 kg, full snatch 92.5 kg, had my vertical peak out at 36" and I was and am STILL just plain mediocre in the sprints. I have not seen any major improvement. On the other hand, the lifting did improve—big surprise here—my lifting and that’s about it. So, what about this carryover? My problems may be in my actual sprinting protocol and not in my lifting.

17

David W: i’m pretty interested in your training protocol for sprinters (lifting twice a week-and focusing primarily in developing raw strength) but i’d like to ask some questions before i attempt this program on my own…which i’m very tempted too!

  1. do you recommend for this protocol (80-95% of max, triples/doubles/singles without fatigue) to be followed for long periods of time…say forever…or should i alternate between power lifting with more hypertrophy-based training? essentially, will i ever burn out from all this powerlifting???

  2. assuming i can follow this protocol as long as i want,with maintanence weeks at appropriate times to prevent overtraining, will this be safe for my joints?

  3. what do you think of the three-one-three approach for this protocol…with two weeks maintenance following it?

I hope these “begginner questions” aren’t an annoyance to you! i’m trying to learn as much as possible before i test it out. :slight_smile:

18

Heatwave,

Your numbers on the weights are very, very good. Question is though, how often are you training on the track? It could be that you are prioritizing your work with weights above the speed work, which should be your #1 priority if that is what you are after. Could be that the lifting is taking away too much from your sprinting… I read about your knee problem though, so I know that does hold you back a bit when sprinting. What kind of running are you doing now?

19

Im kind of with you man.
I never lifted lower body until the past year or two and havent really gotten any improvement in any of my sprints since doing so. My 55 dash has not improved a single hundreth. However my long jump has improved. Not sure if its from the lifting. I do however feel stronger during sprint workouts and not as sore the next day. My lower body has gotten much stronger and I added 1.5 inches to my before skinny legs. But no significant improvement in the sprints.

20

I need to decide which area to place more emphasis–weights vs. track stuff. I’ve been trying to do both to the max and it just isn’t working. What could be happening with me is that, since I lift very heavy most of the time, my body may not be fresh enough for the demands of sprint training as well. Too much CNS work involved in both disciplines. If I’m going to pursue sprint/long jump type of training, the weights that I do should just be a supplemental to this–not take over the training as it has at times. I’ve lifted for years and years and competed in power lifting and olympic lifting meets, so it’s so hard for me to let go of the iron.

Yes, my knee hurts like a bastard at times but I think I can work through it as long as I take the time to warm up properly. I’ve mostly been doing tempo reps at 120m mixed in with some days where I’ll do some reps of 60m. Nothing is really over 75% effort though. Two or three days per week, while lifting heavy three or four days per week.

It’s tough trying to make progress in both while doing justice to both. You know what I’m saying?