Conversion Phase...(for my teamate)

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

Im posting this for a teamate of mine… however to osme extent id also like to hear everyone opinions since there has been a bit of talk about this in the past…

converting strength to power???

Here it is… (remember this is not me saying this)

ok, so today my coach changed our weight training completely. he wants or is trying to convert our strength to power.

the last few months my strength training has been going really well. my bench and squat have each went up about 30 pounds (245 now, i know its weird they are thes same max).

the last couple of months have looked like this…
(the percentages are the percent of my max that my coach assigns us)

monday- speed work
lifting-
power clean 5 sets (5 reps at 70%, 3 at 82%, 3 at 85%, 3 at 85%, 88% as many reps as possible)
squat (5 reps at 76%, 3 at 86%, 3 at 88%, as many reps as possible at 90%)
incline press 3x8 (135, 145, 155)

tues- tempo

wed- speed work
lifting-
hang snatch- actually haven’t been doing that lately
bench press 5 sets of 3 (78%, 84%, 88%, 88%, 92% as many reps as possible
pullups 3x8 bodyweight

thurs- tempo

fri- pre meet day

sat- meet

now today we did speed work and then lifted…

hang cleans (fast) 3 sets of 5 with weight at 70% of max
box squats (fast, upward push through heels) 5 sets of 3 at 55% of max
bench press 8 sets of 3 at 55% of max…fast explovsive movements when pushing bar up
arm running with weights 3x30 seconds

so our coach he is converting our strength to power. the weight is far less than we have been doing and i fear that i will not be able to maintain my strength that i have built up in the last couple months. he says I will maintain b/c of the fast, explovsive movements we are doing now b/c of the decrease in weight. my teammate heard we should be doing atleast 80% of our max to maintain our strength.
this does not leave my muscles tired or sore at all…but it is much more taxing on my nervous system!

so will this new system of training in the weight room make me more efficient on the track? if i’m more explosive b/c of this weight training, do i need my strength? will i maintain strength? will i actually be more explosive?
i don’t understand his philosophy on this yet…can you guys help?

he plans on using these tactics in the weight room through the end of the season.

what are your guys’ thoughts???

2

That’s the problem with linear periodization. Two steps forward, one step back. If you’re just doing “power conversion” but not maintaining your strength, then your coach needs to do some more reading.

I think it’d be fine to do what you are doing now 1x, then do what you were doing 1x.

But honestly, from what I’ve read it doesn’t seem like sprinters need to do much dynamic lifts since they do RFD work on the track. So that would mean you actually should be doing what you were doing previously.

3

Thats what i thought. I thought sprinting was enough stimulus to convert your strength gains to power. And i was also under the idea if you are not lifting at 80% not matter what the velocity of the lift is then max strength is going to suffer.

Id like to hear everyones thoughts.

4

-I personally think some Compensatory Acceleration work ought to be done in the weight room. some one mentioned earlier that your coach is taking a 2 steps forward, 1 step back approach - I agree, but…
-overall though, your coach has the protocols about right… the dynamic work looks good from what limited WSB knowledge I have… consider a short ME day in between two dynamic days, i.e.,
DE on Monday and Friday
ME on Wednesday
for ME work, be sure to get either 6 singles with 80%+ weight or 3x3 or 5 sets of 2 or 2 sets of 5 with both SQ and BP. that can be done very quickly and not interfere with DE work.