Help with my 40yd prog. Just read CFTS.

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

Okay I bought cfts and read through most of it(skipped the foreward and the chiropractic section). It wasn’t as informative as I thought it would be in putting together a program but maybe I just didn’t understand some parts. Anyhow, how does this look for 40yd dash sprint training. i work 8 hours a day which is why i have to spread out sprint and strength training… probobly works better that way anyways… ill be taking calcium/magnesium/zinc, vitamin c, ALA, multi vitamin, glucosamine, taking in 4000 calories/daily with around 310 grams of protein (still building up muscle but im an ecto so the calories will help me keep my muscle). How does this look?

-Monday
–Morning
—warmup, 40 yd sprints 2 sets of 4 reps (4 minutes rest between reps), box jumps 2 sets of 2 reps (24" box, minimal ground contact time with foot and 30 second reps)
–Evening
—low volume, high intensity strength training (chest/tris/shoulders)

-Tuesday
OFF (recovery)

-Wednesday
–morning
—warmup, 40 yd sprints (hip weights, only slight weight, 5-10 lbs) 2 sets of 4 reps (same rest as above), running up stairs 2 sets 2 reps (30-45 second reps)
–Evening
—low volume, high intensity strength training (lats/bi’s/abs)

-Thursday
OFF (recovery)

-Friday
–morning
—warmup, 40 yd sprints 2 sets of 4 reps (same as above), box jumps 2 sets of 2 reps (24" box, minimal ground contact time with foot and 30 second reps)
–evening
—low volume, high intensity training legs/lower back

-Saturday
OFF (recovery)

-Sunday
Tempo work- including some softball practice (with a company team), plus 75% intensity 100m sprints 3 sets x 2 reps

2

Recommendation:

  • Take 4/5 min between sprint repetitions
  • Keep to compond strength exercises e.g. squat, bench, pull downs(forget single articulation ‘isolation’ exercises)
  • You might include some sledge tragging and, technique permitting, Olympic lifts
3

sledge tragging? what is that?

all my lifts are compound… the only really non compound movements i do are like bi curls and a set of goodmornings… i hate iso movements and so does my trainer…

4

Typo… DDDragging

Don’t split you’re strength sessions: one pressing and one pulling exercise is sufficient stimulus.

Squat, Bench, Pull downs… good night.

5

i dont wan tto do it that way becuase i still need mroe size… remember im going out for a division 1a football team and i need to maintain size not JUST strength… i only do a total of like 6-7 sets per workout (that includes ALL exercises and muslce groups) anyways so i mean shouldnt be bad…

and dragging? charlie said not to do that cause it messes up form… only to add weight that slows you down by 10% which is why i was going to use the hip weights (not ankle weights) on wednesdays… any thoughts?

6

Charlie is not against dragging but is, I believe, against weighted vests…

So you believe that one strength session per week on each body part will maintain size better than three whole body sessions? :confused:

7

yes… your not giving your body enough time to recover… as you know charlie is all about recovery and regeneration and also low volume work… your telling me that training legs three times per week as well as sprinting 3 times per week is going to build mass more than sprinting 3 times a week and training legs once per week? you grow out of the gym not in it…

thanks for the info on the rest between reps tho…

how long should i wait between sets?

8

:smiley: resign yourself to slow times then.

The stimulus should coincide with compensation from the previous session. 2 sessions per week is the minimum for maintaining strength.

9

If you can’t train Tuesday or Thursday do tempo or light circuits Wednesday. If you need circuit ideas I could help you out with that. Building work capacity/general fitness is very important for you, I would really try to train five days a week if I were you.

I feel a little weird saying this since he’s a very knowledgeable person and I’m a seventeen year old typing in my house, but just so you know someone else feels the same way I agree with David about doing all body parts on weight days and the rest times.

I’d also vary up the sprint training a bit, as much for enjoyment as anything else.

10

enjoyment doesnt bother me… what bothers me is being the best on a division 1 team… so im not really worried bout switching it up… no matter what im not going to do the same muslce groups on mon,wed, fri, itst just not going to happen, ive trained too well to start overtraining in the gym now…

as for tempo work… again im not too conerned witht he endurance side of things. im ONLY training for the 40 yd dash (for tryouts)… im not going to be runnign 100m so i don tneed any speed enduracne… i know it can help recovery but honestly im trying to burn as few calories as possible so i can continue to gain lean muscle mass…

im curious waht xlr8 and charlie have to say about this…

also i edited the first post to say 4 minutes rest between reps.

11

Tempo and circuits aren’t meant to build endurance, but rather to indirectly build your ability to do high intensity work. If you don’t care about enjoyment and are dedicated to playing for a D1 school then stop being lazy. If you do whole body lifting three times a week and have the recovery in place it’s doubtful you’ll overtrain, but rather will improve.

12

laziness is hardly the issue… i get up at 8 am to do sprints… go to work from 12-8… then lift in the gym…

i just dont see how it is even close to possibly unless you are a genetic freak to be able to recover from a leg workout without ANY rest days!!! when i used to do high volume lifting (before i knwe anything) and only lifted each muscle group once per week i STILL overtrained…

i mean heck im borderline overtraining (as are most people) when if i do more than 5-6 sets of chest per week…

13

Ahh, I think here’s the confusion. Nobody’s suggesting sprint training one day and then leg weight training the next day, but sprinting followed by weight training.

14

no i understand what you mean… i just CANT do it that way… i have to continue to add mass… and i assure you there is no way to continue to get bigger (at a decent rate) training the same muscle three times a week. trust me i have done bodybuilding and taken myself from 140-180 in a year with many mistakes that i had to learn on…

what im trying to ask you guys about is the actual volume and quality of the sprint training that i am doing… as well as how much rest i need between actualy reps AND sets

i dont mean to come off sounding like a dick… i dont mean it to be like that… its just i know i have a solid strength and size routine and i need to keep that intact while adding this sprint training. plus i have till february 6th to get as fast as i can so im trying to hurry so i can start this wednesday :slight_smile:

15

See but this is the problem and why everyone’s having a hard time helping you. We train sprinting and add weight training to promote variation, not the other way around. Are you trying to get as strong as possible or fast and strong? There’s nothing wrong with doing the first, but it probably isn’t the most conducive to your goals because you will need speed to play at a D1 school. You can set whatever priorities you want but you have to make your priorities clear before anyone on the site can help you.

BTW, adding 40 pounds of mostly muscle is very impressive and I would be interested in seeing your diet plan at some point.

16

here is my diet… its actually more like 4100 calories now but this is roughly what its like… im good with diets…

i didnt start eating this much until this summer which is when most of my muscle gain came…

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/inbox/view.html?id=4208472788&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imagestation.com%2Fpicture%2Fsraid83%2Fp6c600fc19f2b55a261cd2fe29302cb04%2Ffad832d4.jpg&caption=9-17

17

That’s a lot of olive oil!

18

sure is :)… 120 calories per tablespoon… 5/6 of it is unsaturated. your body burns 66% fat at rest so its no biggie… my b/f never goes above 10%…

19

OK Lake, you’re not going to like this, but David W is pretty much dead-on as far as training for speed. I think there are two issues here. The first is training for size and the second is training for speed. You are trying to do both at the same time and this is causing all of the confusion. Some of the principles of training for size will directly conflict with the prinicples of training for speed.

Let’s take training for size first…not my specialty but that’s ok because it sounds like you have a program that is packing on mass for you and is working. This is great if that is your goal. Keep at it. The problem is that trying to focus on speed at the same time will necessarily compromise your size program. I would recommend cycling your program. That is, focus on hypertrophy training until you have the muscle mass you feel is necessary for your goals. Then put that on a shelf (don’t try to get any bigger) and start to concentrate on speed. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to keep your speed and sprint during that time, but it does mean that you won’t have optimal speed results and Charlie’s principals may not be able to be applied as effectively.

OK, so let’s assume that you have the muscle mass you think you need for football. Now we will change your program and focus on speed. You may lose a little muscle mass during this stage, but you will get dramatically faster. A lighter weight is simply your body’s response to the specific demands of speed. Don’t fret about it because you won’t come all the way back down and you can do another mass cycle next season.

For speed training, you will be sprinting, lifting (full body) and doing plyos 2 or 3 times a week. The general layout will be:

M: Sprint/plyo/lift
Tu: Tempo
W: Sprint/plyo/lift
Th: Tempo
Fri: Sprint/plyo/lift
Sat: tempo or off
Sun: Tempo or off

Since you are focused on football, you probably don’t have to worry about any speed endurance workouts and even top speed is less important. I would recommend doing one short speed workout (<40yd), one top speed workout (flying 10’s and 20’s) and one in-and-out workout per week. Full recovery between each sprint (4 - 5 minutes and up to 10 minutes between sets) Keep the volume managable. I like to time each sprint and if I start to slow down, then stop running and head to the gym. We do not want to practice slow movement patterns.

Yes, you will lift your whole body three times a week after you sprint. Stick with 3 or 4 big lifts. Squat, bench, pulldown (like David W says) are good choices although I personally prefer rows. You will do 3 - 6 working sets of 2 - 6 reps. Full recovery between sets. Reps are accelerative and explosive.

As far as tempo, it is not primarily endurance work (although it does have that aspect) it is actually used as a recovery modality to get the blood flowing in your muscles so that you will be able to complete the sprint workout the next day. It should not feel hard and you should use it as a relaxation session and do some good stretching afterwards.

Anyway, that’s the basics…hope it helps!

20

I believe neural adaptations should have priority over structural adaptations in strength training. If a high volume, low intensity program is followed the athlete never learns to activate (recruit and bring to tetanus) the larger fast twitch fibres and therefore never trains them.

Strength increases (mature) occur only when intensity is greater than 75%. Due to fatigue, intensity cannot be maintained above that threshold when a single body part is trained with numerous different exercises. Effectively, this type of training induces predominantly none functional, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy that will decrease power to weight ratio and may also move intermediate fibres in the wrong direction. Additionally, this type of training induces significant muscular fatigue that may have a negative effect on training later in the week.

Finally, squatting and heavy pulling movements cause an acute T response that improves general ‘trainability’ therefore it is obviously beneficial to include them in each workout. You might argue that high volume weights sessions cause greater lactate and therefore a greater acute GH response… GH Vs T? No contest.