one size doesn’t fit all. I don’t think j-mee is well suited for intensive tempo/long SE. he’s frakin big. hard to say if his recurring ham problem was related to this or not.
edit: looked up j-mee’s 2005 indoor hs #'s and he ran 33.87 in the 300.
Why should weight room numbers increase? You really think that if Gay & Spearman benched 365pounds they would go 19.4?!? That has to be the most ridiculous logic ive ever hear! And Gay wouldnt be able to move his legs if he was squatting 505 pounds! C’mon… Gay is the smoothest bend runner there is (faster ever split over 100m around the bend) and you think by making HUGE gains in the gym are going to make him go 19.4 - you are kidding yourself.
Why do people think that increased muscle strength = increased speed??
prob if they went to 385lbs. and 525lbs. in the bench and the squat, perhaps similar whats J-Mee would probably progresss in 2007 march/april, they’d probably run 19.4-19.5 in a similar fashion as 2006 or 19.63-19.70 at the very least. Since J-Mee hasn’t run sub 20 yet, although he has 365/385 bench and 505/525 squat perhaps he’d progress to 20.00-9.95 from `10.08-20.32.
unless, of course he must train to run 10.00 and 20.00 first in race conditions.
But once again, what does that much of an increase in strength have to do with running a 19.4 for gay and spearman?
if tyson and wallace did go, from a 315 bench to a 365-385 bench as well as a 455 squat to a 505-525 squat (just a likelihood), they’d be able to run their respective 9.98 and 10.11 100m splits more efficiently, therefore being able to run their 160m, 15.7 and 15.8 160m splits more efficiently, therefore perhaps running 19.4-19.5. If I’m wrong according to the majority of this forum i accept that.
however, does anyone have any insights on how these cats and their programs progress from the start of Nov. until late May/early June. Based on the preceding information, perhaps they go from 75% in Nov.- 90-95% in late May/early June and from thereon 95-100% runs under 200m (160m, 120m, 60m).
Well at least he has improved in the weightroom I guess. He said (during his senior year when he ran 10.08) that his PRs in the weightroom were hang clean 275, squat 475, and bench 345 @ 167lbs. He also didn’t lift during the summer season, only during school. This comes straight from J-Mee himself as he used to (and still occasionally does) post on TrackShark.
I think the veterans here know that the carryover between the weight improvements and track improvements have little if any correlation. Consider that the current world record holders in the 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m never came close to those numbers in the weight room.
Those numbers are specific to J-mee’s limb lengths and I don’t think Spearman or Gay would ever come close to them, nor should they try. Another thing to note is that hearsay is not goodsay:)
If strength capabilities were a requirement for speed gains, you would be seeing lightweight OL’s making the jump from cleans to sprinting the world over.
Im not saying there haven’t been strong sprinters in the past. But that was the past. I won’t get deeper into it, but there is a such thing as energy conservation in the realm of dividing your efforts into too many training tools.
I’d just add to that, that increased numbers in the weight room MIGHT contribute to greater sprint performances but not necessarily so. I would consider it a possibility and a pretty good one but not necessarily a given(at least in the short term) of improving speed provided. Of course, if everything else is periodized correctly, the speed should improve.
Also, comparing one athletes improvements in strength output and THEIR sprint times don’t really create anything close to a formula for anyone else.
I remember Dave Lease telling me that when Jason Gardener’s cleans went up from something like 115kgx6 to 125kgx6, his sprint performance deteriorated. Just a point worth noting, that I felt was relevant to this. Dave doesn’t have his athletes lift much over 60-70% after March/April time.
SO…anyone dig up anything on those workouts? 
It would be interesting to see an example of them.
Thanks PJ
Maybe the extra CNS stress affected his sprint tarining.
Placing too great an emphasis on increasing weight numbers may be a detriment to their speed/endurance which is obviously not too bad at the moment!
How does he know that it was because the cleans went up? Did he do more weights, leaving him depleted? Did he do more speed, compromising recovery in combination with the weights? Or did he compromise his Special Endurance (and everything else) with inadequate recovery between runs, and possibly other issues?
In fact, if recovery is there and the progression is well planned, speed should rise and the lifting ability should rise also with little or no change in the program.
The MJ interview thread revealed problems with the program outside the weight room!
I deffinately think their is some sort of affliction with british sprinters and the weights room. The all time heavyweight relay squad would include Linford, John Regis and Dwain chambers. Malcolm Lewis Francis has puffed out like the michelin man and he runs like a bum. He’s no faster now than when he was 17 years old. They all think they have to look like Muarice Green. Come to think of it, the bigger maurice got (after a certain point) the slower he got and I noticed a distinct lack of muscle hardness in his later years compared to the glory years.
Not to say that size could not be a negative as it is likely so in some cases but, with MLF, it’s probably more important to consider the entirety of his training program and not just his physical size. I think(someone here can probably confirm) he has had a few coaching changes over the past few years. He claimed in an article that came out within the last few years to have gotten his bodyweight up to a certain point but that he has lost much of that additional weight in recent years.
I agree, though, some of these guys see a top guy and think they physically must model themselves after him.
Think of it the other way around. The slower he got the bigger and less hard he got.
This is the effect of losses in the highest intensity element in the training (speed work) due to wear and tear, even with the maintenance of the weight work at the same levels.
John Smith is far too smart to screw with Mo’s weights.
As far as I know Mark has only made one coaching change from Steve Platt to Tony Lester. Last I heard he was 93kg around August/September time. I know he did one or two sessions with Linford 2 years ago, but that’s it as far as I know
I’m not sure to be honest, I haven’t asked him, but will. I understand he met you Charlie?? At the Commonwealths I believe. I know Dave has mentioned ‘elastic strength’ to me before, implying that lifting heavy dampened this, and introducing a microcycle of lighter, quicker lifting helped to promote this quality. I’ll ask for more detail though.
I see no way that lighter faster weights are superior to heavy weights and fast weights carry a risk. T
This sounds very much like the conversion phase that we dropped from our program in the early 1980s with improvement all round.
It has certainly NOT been my experience that heavy weights dampen elasticity (which is well stimulated by componants away from the weight room).
Size is determined more by the balance between heavy weight reps and the Speed and Speed Endurance.