My 16 year old son is training to be a decathlete. I read the forum almost everyday in the hope of learning a better way to train. In April he started weight training about 10-12 excercises doing 3 sets of ten with very light weight. After a cuple of months he went to 8’s and dropped a few excercises. In Sept he learned the clean at which point he went to
clean 3’s and bench and squats 5’s using weight that he could always do at least 2 more reps. So most of the time he’s doing a total of 20-25 bench and squats and 15 cleans in a session. So my confusion is his throwing coach thinks he should be doing 8’s his speed and power coach only believes in very light circuit traing. A coach that I respect very much says to 8’s. I see in Charlies book I see some of his guys doing 10’s
Dan Obrien say he does 10’s. Reading in Christians post I think maybe he should be training in level 3.
My plan was to continue at what he was doing for 2 more cycles. Then drop weight and up speed for 2 cycles then go on maintence through season. Could you guys help clarify what he should be doing? I very much appreciate all the info on this site.
Joe
Focus supplementary training on what his specific (decathalon) training does not provide AND what will give him the greatest benefit based on his chronological and training age. That would be increasing force production/strength.
Chances are he’s doing a great deal of track work (speed) and technical work already. Attempting to do more will most likely be overkill.
10 RM sets will certainly provide plenty of hypertrophy but not useful hypertrophy. As you stated in your post, Christian’s “level 3” should be where he spends most of his time in supplementary training.
I believe David W had a great post on lifts to focus on for track athletes. That would be a great place to start.
Bill Hartman