The girls are typical all-purpose HS sprinters – 100, 200, 400, LJ, relays, hurdles. None has had any significant or consistent strength training experience. I would like to put a weight program into place. They could start mid-November and first track meet is not until mid-March. I am looking for something simple and basic that they can do on their own most of the time. I was thinking of the Starting Strength 5X5 program. Any comments on this? Or better ideas? Thanks.
I would probably spend 6-8 weeks working with bw movements and med ball work while teaching the primary lifts towards mid-end of the cycle. The next stage I would begin strength work but keeping the reps high 2-3x6-10.
Mon:
clean pull
back squat
bench press
Wed:
snatch pull
lunges
db incline press
Fri:
clean pull
back squat
pullups
I suggest not doing OH press since they will be doing much of the lifting on their own and you may not be able to teach enough technique in the time you have with them to get them to do it safely. Otherwise the SS program has been done with lots o’ trainees with good results.
tamfb – Thanks. I was hoping you would reply, your ideas always make sense and you appreciate the context of non-elite, non-12 month athletes.
Thanks, Juggler. Good point about OH press.
I wouldnt even let them touch a weight until they were able to hit these numbers:
20min intensive dym warmup:
Push-ups 50
sit ups 100
parallel dips 25
strict pull ups 10
1000 med ball throws
you find OH press harder to teach in a shorter time than squats and cleans ?
I use as a guide 20 push ups, Front Hold for 90 seconds.
I would use bodyweight as the main strength area until they are comfortable with controling the body and hitting x reps, I would include some lifts as technical lifts and keep reps at 5 with light weight. My technical lifts are squat and deadlift and snatch. Start light and be strict with technique and build from there.
Use progressive overload as they don’t really need a periodisation style early on, or changes in set x reps.
Some coaches like to use higher reps 8-10 for teaching ex: Vince Anderson others perfer 5’s for teaching. I perfer to use 8-10 but if the athlete cant hold form for 10 I drop the reps, if the athletes cant hold form for 5 then I drop to 3’s etc point is nothing is set in stone.
I guess, it would make sense to start the other way round. 
DMA – By “front hold” do you mean front hold dumbell step-ups?
Im sure hes talking about front plank holds for the core.
Okay, thanks.
Tamfb, 16 year old girls??? You sure? :).
On the mark TAMFB
You are right about the rep range, I like the number 5 so it is a starting point (as I also tend to use 3 or 4 for OL). The other reason is during my career as an athlete and coach I noticed a lot of coaches uses higher reps and towards the end of the exercise the form went out the window.
Vedette, nothing beats the good old bodyweight programme.
Yes even girls, it may take them two years to reach those numbers but I think this is the best way for long term development. Most athletes in this age bracket usually lack general fitness and relative body strength. In very rare cases I have change those standards but most of my athlete’s male/female has always hit those numbers. If you have a girl who can only do 10 pushup then you may use the density method and have her do 25x2 every 10-15sec and within no time she will be pumping out 50 pushups. Also if I have a athlete who can’t do 10 pull-ups then I am not going to feel comfortable telling them to bench press 300lbs or squat 400lbs.
Great points made here!
Agreed, but who was that typing, with capitals and commas and all that?
Possibly a bit high, but I agree conceptually.
I would probably spend the first 20min teaching a different Olympic movement on each day and then move to a general strength program that would be more along the lines of 2x8-12 reps of 4-5 exercises. Emphasis on posture and execution.