I have a few basic CFTS questions if u dont mind !
When high 10’s, low 11s athletes get in the weightroom with charlie, what are they doing ? powercleans and some 6 rep squats and call it a day ?
If the athlete can produce alot of force both in the weightroom and in vertical jumps and throws, but is slow on the track, what does that mean? that he cant fire his nerves quick enough for something as quick as sprinting ?should this athlete try to further increase his strength or just focus on high speed plyos and sprints and just maintain his strength ?
is 2x6 on a compound movement once or twice a week enough to maintain strength ?
Are powercleans done year round or off season only with CF ?
There isn’t a formula for everyone. If you cannot do powercleans (BJ), you must do something else to make up for it (more squats). If you are really strong and potentially risking injury with higher weights, you can use higher reps instead.
Charlie has said before 2-3x3 @ 80% or so can be enough to maintain strength.
If you look at his graphs in various materials, he keeps most exercises from day 1. If you are going to squat and powerclean, you squat and do powerclean in fashion from day one. You may be altering frequencies/volumes/loads depending on the goal and time of season, but in CFTS, you generally do all lifts for most of the season.
If you’re powerful (good explosive jumps and weightroom), but slow, I’m not sure doing more of the same is going to help you get faster.
If you run 7.5, I think working on your fitness will help you quite a bit as you’re a big guy and according to you dying off early.
Thanks D !
Me and Roger worked on something that looks pretty nice for my goals, tell me what you think:
Sunday: Tempo
Monday: Acceleration
Restorative Warmup
Block 10m
30m Block
30m Bounds
Tuesday: Tempo
Wednesday: Top Speed
Restorative Warmup
Prime Times Fly 30
Fly 30m
ADA Drops (Split\Stiff) 3 reps
Reflexive Firing Jumps
Thursday: Tempo
Friday: Top Speed Maintenance
23 Sec timer sprints X N
For weights, just 3x3 80% compound and maybe some powercleans… twice a week… plus 2 upper body bodybuilding stuff… 3 reps short of failure.
Basically it will do a few things:
give me fitness (tempo)
improve my high velocity movement
maintain strength
As for weight numbers, I lift approx 220 kilos squats on a box 1rm, powercleans are at 120kg, deadlift PR is 220kg but i havent done this in a while now, bench is 140kg
is this “strong enough” for a 220lb guy ?so much that i should keep the focus away from increasin those numbers and increasing fitness and plyos intensity ?
about the 7.5… i didnt warm up and i kicked my legs back like a girl not to mention it was my first meet and next to me was a 6.69 guy so… my real level is 7.1- 7.2… is it still all fitness ? i agree with u that it sicks though… i almost get a heart attack from 8x100m 60%.
It could work–I have seen nothing of what you have been doing on the track or weightroom nor have I seen any video of your training–I cannot comment on those specifics, just answering the CFTS questions. That is quite some improvement in the weights though because I remember a couple years ago you were just squatting 100kg–whatever you’re doing there keep doing it if you can squat 220kg now!
about the 7.5… i didnt warm up and i kicked my legs back like a girl not to mention it was my first meet and next to me was a 6.69 guy so… my real level is 7.1- 7.2… is it still all fitness ? i agree with u that it sicks though… i almost get a heart attack from 8x100m 60%.
Run more meets and get more experience then–you’ll need it to maximize your results. You can’t predict times you haven’t run. Maybe you’re in 6.8 shape if you had bad conditions–who knows. Hard to give you accurate/useful advice without more info.
I know it sounds wierd, but i hit my teeth on a 10ft rim. all that jump and i sprint like a girl.
that tells me a few things:
shit technique
slow nervous system… it can fire well for a long 2 legged jump, but for a top speed sprint or even accel, it sucks.
thats why the speed focus on the above program.
Also for the past few months ive been winging it at the gym and barely hitting 170kg squat, i was there for 20 mintues twice a week… this is when i hit this major VJ PR… when i laid off weights… so maybe all that strength isnt all that important for speed ? I never really had a pure power cycle, should I just lay off my WSB routine and ME\DE type work (to 1-3rm) for the above ?
It’s a fact that all those skinny 5’6" white kids run 10.7 nowdays and they dont even know what a squat is…
BTW 2 years ago i could also jump about 30" off the run, now its 45+ and i will get a vid of that next saturday ! it felt amazing
Congrats on the strength increases–your program must’ve been very good. Let’s say strength is fine; you need to work on getting in better sprint shape and actually sprinting. The program you posted might work, I have no idea. Since you only had one meet and it wasn’t under optimal conditions, maybe just getting more races under your belt will let you achieve good results because experience does play a role.
thanks !
What i was doing is WSB weights + CFTS track work… just like the above post of mine.
Question to you:
Do you think its optimal to try and build power and speed while increasing weightroom numbers ? what do I need more, weightroom numbers or plyos volume ?
Also, is building a good powerclean (trying to PR on them regularly) while working to increase CNS firing going to hurt each other ?
Yeah, there are a bunch of high school meets, but they’re not open to other runners. We’ve got a lot of 5k’s and other things like that, but there are only 4 sprint meets per year that are open to the public.
Once I break my university’s record this summer (10.96, yes, we suck), I might join the team. But I’ll only do that if he lets me keep training on my own. With my lack of volume tolerance I would die doing the team’s workout.
If I do that, I’ll have plenty of meets to hit down in the lower 48.
As WRCortese briefly mentioned, by laying off the weights a little bit you allowed a better expression of that strength you have. Sort of like you inadvertantly tapered. Not that the strength isn’t important, just in the middle of heavy lifting phases you aren’t going to jump/sprint to your max potential.
As far as everything else, you seem to have a good grasp of your body and what you need in your training, as you said I’d just shift the focus to sprint work. Only possible suggestion is if sprinting is a major focus of your’s, 220lbs is a lot of weight to be hauling.
