hammer throw training

Hey, I’m new to the site. I’m curious to get anybody’s opinions on a training schedule for a collegiate hammer thrower, particularly in weight lifting. I am currently lifting twice a week, on a max effort and a dynamic effort day like Westside barbell, only leg and core work. I do minimal upper body lifting. I’ve read some interesting posts on here recently about training athletes with more frequent sessions and less volume in each workout. Would anybody mind taking a look at my schedule? Also, where might I include Olympic lifting? Any and all suggestions appreciated:

Sunday: AM-throw, PM-max effort lift
Monday: throw and conditioning
Tuesday: easy swim for recovery
Wednesday: AM-throw, PM-dynamic effort lift
Thursday: swim
Friday: throw and condition
Saturday: off day.

lifting workouts look like:
warm-up, main lift, posterior supplemental, 2 ab exercises.

Thanks, Colin

Colin,

What sort of “conditioning” work do you do?

Good to see a hammer thrower. How long have you been training. As Herb said what is your conditioning sessions.

I might consider moving weight sessions around. With exercises in gym I would do upper body work. That is one of the things I neglected and I am paying the price.

Also what might be handy is your size and other things like that. Because what we might consider easy might be hard for you and vica a versa

Hey fellas, my conditioning right now consists of some bodyweight jumping, some easy weight or med ball throws, and some tempo (just started using tempo recently). I’m a senior in college, fourth year with the hammer. I’m actually a pretty light thrower, 6’0" 180lbs+, pretty good technique, pr 56m+. My goal is to improve hammer performances, currently I think gaining size and strength will be a big part of that. I’m starting to question my use of max effort lifts, though, if they may be too taxing in addition to throwing. It doesn’t feel like it, but most sources I look at seem to discourage max lifting for throws training. I guess there are a lot of questions in there, but any help is appreciated. Thanks, Colin

You are a light thrower and could therefore get away with doing a hyperthrophy work.

Technique is the key.

Out of the throwers, except Javelin, Hammer throwers tend to be the smaller of the 3. If you are 6’ and weigh 100kg that is a good starting point.

Yes I would look at improving your strength levels both general and specific.

Olympic lifting is good for throwers and I would consider snatches and especially narrow grip ones to be important exercise.

Do not neglect speed however.

And use under and over weights hammers. I preferred to spend most of my time doing under and normal weight.

It seems that you have a fairly good specific strength.

I have included below a couple of articles that my be of interest.

Just some thoughts

Regards

Darren

STRENGTH TRAINING OF THROWERS

By Dr. Klaus Bartonietz

In strength training we are faced with three different areas:

General strength training in which the movement structure of an exercise has only a very limited relationship to the actual competition exercise. The aim is to develop assisting muscle groups, to improve load tolerance and to eliminate muscular imbalances.
Maximal strength training in which the movement structure has limited relation to the competition exercise but includes the main involved muscle groups. The aim is to improve and stabilize the work capacity of the main muscle groups to establish a base for specific strength development.
Specific strength training in which the aim is to improve the work capacity of decisive performance parameters, using a load structure that corresponds to the actual competition exercise.
In throwing events it is important to pay attention in the selection of exercises for the development of lower extremities. The biomechanical components of the training effect of the chosen exercises are determined by the movement structure and characteristics of the external resistance. In addition, the actually achieved adaptations are also influenced by the temporal arrangement and sequence of the exercises.

It should be noted that certain exercises (squats, snatches, jumps, reactive jumps) have more than twice the value when executed on a single leg. This “bilateral” difference between single- and double-legged exercises is apparently created by neural mechanisms. Hypothetically, an unsatisfactory specific strength development can occur when single- leg test performances reach only half of the double-leg test values.

There is a possibility that bilateral strength training is inefficient for throwing exponents and single- leg exercises should after an appropriate preparation be systematically employed in the strength training of throwers to improve the specificity of the training load.

Die Lehre der Leichtathletik- (Germany 1996)

DIFFERENT MASS IMPLEMENTS IN THROWING TRAINING

By Anatoliy Bondarchuk

A positive training effect in throwing different weight implements requires a correct choice of optimal masses for the lighter-than-normal and heavier-than-normal implements and to combine and alternate them efficiently with competition-size implements.

Clearly, heavier-than-normal implements should be used to in- crease strength, while lighter-than- normal implements assist in improving speed. However, as speed strength improves, better performances with lighter and heavier implements fail to translate into better competition performances. This indicates the need for an optimal combination of masses and sequences to achieve a positive transfer.

There are several variations available for the use of different size implements in training. In the first variation, throwing lighter and heavier implements is used during the preparatory and competitive periods. In the second variation, training sessions start with heavier implements, followed by competition- sized, and finally, lighter implements.

The third variation is to throw different-weight implements on different days of the week and the fourth variant employs a variable, or combined, use of different masses of implements. In the last, for example, the athlete can combine one heavier throw with two competition implement throws when strength is emphasized. In emphasizing speed, the alternative could be one lighter implement throw followed by one competition implement throw.

Whatever method is chosen, an elimination of competition-size implements from training in favor of heavier and lighter implements is not the best solution.

Fitness and Sports Review (USA 1997) (Translated from Legkoathlichesie Mekaniya)

Say word?
Dems all good poinets, buts I throws dat ting, and I coaches it like da reallness. You needs to do legs 4 times a week to git da efects, you vizualize. I like to do Sedyk twists, followed by Romaninan twistas, and glute hammas, afta doin dem cleans 5x5

Charles Poliquin mentioned a hammerthrower being able to out powerclean the super heavyweight Olympic lifter who accompanied him to the olympics. Even though the hammerthrower only did cleans for 3 weaks of the training year.
It is interesting to me how certain movements can have a crossover effect into others and how some people r more suited to some things than others.
By the way, could you list the weights exercises u do as a hammer thrower, just out of interest?

My weights were pretty basic.

Power cleans & snatches
Pulls
Squats

Generally heavy.

Specifc work with over weight hammer, kettlebell work - specific throwing movements.

I wasn’t strong but I power snatched 85% of Power Clean.

I feel clean was my strength builder (as such) and feel that the snatch movements relate more to hammer, especially close grip.

Hey Goose, I do a variety of weight exercises in addition to throws and jumps…
cleans, snatches, box squats, glute hams, hypers, good mornings, deadlifts, and weighted ab work forward/side/rotational.
Variety and variations of each.
Colin