I wish I could get that power/weight ratio to carry over to my sprints. The explosiveness, stength, and high vertical jump are not manifesting themselves on the track–at least not yet. Most of my training ideas were learned when I competed in olympic lifting with a very good coach who has trained with some of our olympians and top collegiate football programs.
I lift in much the same way as in that weight training thread we just posted in. Very heavy weights, low reps, just a few sets, plenty of rest between sets, and a few basic total body exercises. I usually lift four days per week, but, sometimes, when I’m in the garage working on something, I’ll walk on over to the bar, thrown on some plates, and put up a couple of reps with overhead squats, overhead press, etc. just to get the blood flowing.
On most normal days, I’ll do 3 sets of 3 reps with deadlifts, overhead presses, overhead squats, cleans, and snatch. Sometimes, I’ll go on a six week binge and switch out squats in place of deadlifts.
–heavy–minimum of 80% max. Usually 80-90% max.
–No more than 3 or 4 sets
–Low reps. Always 5 reps or less
–Plenty of rest between sets --up to 5 minutes
–Avoid getting pumped up with lactic acid. It works much the same way as when you run a hard 100m sprint, then you try to run another with only 1 minute rest–it’s hard isn’t it? You feel the burn of lactic acid and the quality suffers. But, when you wait 5 minutes, THEN, run another one, you’ll have a more quality sprint, won’t you?
–Sometimes, I’ll spread the training through out the day, if I’m home. For example, saturday will be “power clean” day. I’ll set a goal to do several sets of three throughout the day. When ever I’m near my weights, I’ll go over and do three reps, then go about my business–watching my boys, watching the ball game on tv, doing laundry, whatever. Then, when I get a break, I’ll go out to the garage and knock off another set or two. My body gets in the habit of putting up heavy weights without getting tired.
I also train my grip very hard and I can close the Captains of Crush #2 gripper (200 pounds of pressure). I’m working on the #3 right now.
Too bad so many athletes waste time with bodybuilding and “body shaping” moves that don’t do crap for their performance. Please, avoid these isolation exercises with baby weights and focus instead on the big lifts that work lots more muscle. Tricep kickbacks, multiple kinds of bicep movements, leg extension machine, leg curl machine—forget it. If you want to get your hamstrings strong do some deadlifts, power cleans, or RDL’s. Trust me, do plenty of heavy squats and deadlifts and you will get strong all over.
—Finally, one more important principle. The hyperirradiation principle. Bring more muscles into play. Squeeze the barbell very hard on all exercises and flex your abs and glutes on all lifts!! Keep your body tight during the entire movement. Try this simple test–shake hands with someone, ask them to squeeze hard. Now, ask them, while they’re squeezing your hand, to consciously flex their abs, flex their biceps. Did the squeeze intensify?
Congratulations Texas Longhorns–2005 NCAA champions.
