In a training progression,the intensity of the sprints gradually raises.In many wieght progressions i see also weight intensity raising.
For examples from a 3x5 to a 3x2 (off course using the same buffer).Now,since the sprint intensity raises,shouldn’t weight intensity decrease?
Or that shouldn’t be a problem,since if the athlete is tired after the training he should stop anyway?
Thoughts??
Remember that your work capacity should generally be increasing throughout most of the season and at the same time you should be adapting to your training so what you did 2 weeks ago is now easily within your ability. So long as you schedule lower intensity/recovery weeks in general you should be able to keep going up so long as the cycles arn’t too long. Of course you will hit plateaus but then as you start to taper down to the final run up to cometition the wave was so high to begin with that perforances you were achieving under the fatigue of many weeks of training now become “easy” and if all goes to plan the final compeition should yield the result you are looking for…
Charlie has said (somewhere on this forum) that the weight load has to go down to provide for speed endurance. That doesn’t necessarily mean that intensity has to go down. You could go from 4X3 or 2X6 down to 2X2 at the same weight. But volume at that intensity level goes down.
Just rereading your post. I think you want to look at the vertical integration graphs in the Forum Review 02 Ebook. It basically shows that you stagger the weights work to fit around what is going down on the track.
Thanks for yours answers.
Off course my question was " ingenuos"…
We have the track, where the intensity is raising(and the volume slowly falling or being the same).And after,we have the gym. How to move there? we try to increase the intensity also there? if so,what is the meaning of going from 3x3 @ 80% to 3x2 @85% ??
Isn’t the overall recruitment quite the same? Or we need more recruitment in less movement to have a more effective carryover with the athletic performance?
And, if so, have should we move between track and gym?
Sorry if that looks a little philosophical 
Not sure if you are referring to such a scenario, but perhaps the following helps:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=8483&page=1&pp=15
Ok. Thanks Nik.
But i didn’t yet found a complete answer to my doubts.
As a trainer can improve their force by as much as 300% his ability to recover will only improve 50%.
By sticking to this (understanding the relationship between intensity, duration and frequency ) I realised that plateaus are not inevitable. However not sticking to this will cause a plateau and eventually cessation.
I have argued on this board before that there is not enough adaptation energy for an intense track and weights session on the same day.
What could you hope to achieve from decreasing intensity ?
SeanJos
As you said: THE volume goes down.
If he says the intensit goes down, that also means that the intensity goes down
i m doing it this way:
i.e. TRACK: Warm-up, Sprints: 4x30m,60m,80m,120m
GYM/WEIGHTS: 3x3-6 for upper body and usually 2-3 sets for lower body(depending on the volume of sprints or special emdurance runs.
Would be interesting to hear about others: How do you manage weights after track IN DETAIL.
I think one important aspect is the stress on the CNS on the track;
special endurance or longer sprints(80-120m) causes more fatigue, so the weight-volume should be reduced dramatically
Could you explain this please…can’t really understand it.
Surely you don’t mean as volume goes down so does intensity ???
Thanks
What he means is as the weights go down, so does the intensity. You want to drop the load, but keep the intensity, and this means that you drop the volume but not drop the intensity much (Charlie has said this many times). If you were doing, say, 3X6 @ 275 on the bench and you go to maintenance, you could go to 3X6 @ 225 to drop the load, but this is dropping the intensity. What you really want to do is 3X3 or 2X2 but keep the weight at 275, or maybe even up it a bit.
Ok.
Good points.
I’ll try to explain a little better myself.
It seems (but i am no so stupid to build a rule from only a few observation) that a 2x3 @ 3RM - 5% is a little less harder than a 2x2 @2RM - 5% (after a track session).
So,if the intensity is gradually increasing with track,maybe rise the intensity on gym couldn’t be possible.
Yes,we can do like LKH was suggesting,that is maintain the intensity and drop a little the volume.
The question is:
*Max strengh phase
*the intensity in the track is raising (and even if you drop the volume the overall impact is bigger)
–is also important to try to increase the intensity in the gym ?
(maybe reducing quite the gym volume so that the total gym “impact” is less than than the previous one,considering that the track load is bigger and the work capacity is the same).
Thoughts?
intensity and volume are first of all different things. But in a good program you pay attention to the relation.
You split your training up into sections. During Max Strength Phase lasting a maximum of 7 weeks with 3 weeks intensification 1 week recovery 3 weeks intensification your priority is gym work.
Now to allow max strength you decrease other high intensity elements (plyos/jumps/explosive throws). You also decrease the RATE OF increase in volume on the track. The volume can still increase a little due to increasing work capacity but not as fast as it could while doing less strenuous gym work.
During the recovery week you push up the speed work and the plyos to maintain the increase in work capacity you are getting.
Then you drop out these things again and go back to the focus on max strength. Towards the end of the 2nd max strength phase the fatigue may be so high that you need to severely decrease the volume of speed work and hopping if you want to PB in the gym.
Having got as strong as you can without compromising track work you then maintain your new found strength by using low reps of about 90-95% of your new PB. The hight of the CNS stress is still high but because the exposure is small (2 sets of 2 lets say) the TOTAL impact on the CNS is lower than before allowing a final push for intensification on the track both in terms of volume and intensity. This all occurs before the final taper down to competition.
I don’t know if I have answered your question but i tried! 
Perfect.You are giving the priority to the gym work
Good approach in the unloading week.
Personally i cut very very little also the intensity work on the track…but this depends on how tired i see the athlete.
Tc your post is “perfect”:very clear so i can compare what i usually do.The logic is very very similar. The only thing wich is different is the priority i give also to the track in a Max Sternght phase.But, that depends on the athlete off course.If you think he would improve with more track work (tecnique,relaxation and so on) or gym work(strength is what can improve track performance).
Thanks for your post.
Cool, glad it was of help. I guess the main point i draw from this is what element you hold constant (highest priority) and adjust other components around. During accumulation phase weights Track is held, during max strength weights are held and then again during maintainance everything reverts back to being adjusted relative to track work.
I’d like to hear Charlie’s opinion on this but thats what i am thinking at the moment…
[QUOTE=]You split your training up into sections. During Max Strength Phase lasting a maximum of 7 weeks with 3 weeks intensification 1 week recovery 3 weeks intensification your priority is gym work.
Now to allow max strength you decrease other high intensity elements (plyos/jumps/explosive throws). You also decrease the RATE OF increase in volume on the track. The volume can still increase a little due to increasing work capacity but not as fast as it could while doing less strenuous gym work.
During the recovery week you push up the speed work and the plyos to maintain the increase in work capacity you are getting.
Then you drop out these things again and go back to the focus on max strength. Towards the end of the 2nd max strength phase the fatigue may be so high that you need to severely decrease the volume of speed work and hopping if you want to PB in the gym.
Having got as strong as you can without compromising track work you then maintain your new found strength by using low reps of about 90-95% of your new PB. The hight of the CNS stress is still high but because the exposure is small (2 sets of 2 lets say) the TOTAL impact on the CNS is lower than before allowing a final push for intensification on the track both in terms of volume and intensity. This all occurs before the final taper down to competition.
I don’t know if I have answered your question but i tried! :D[/QUOTE]
Hey TC what if the athlete hit a pr in the weights week 7 of ms should the first week of maintenance be 3x3x75% then work back up to 80-90%? Myself I found if i hit a pr the last week of ms then the following week i usually need to stay in 75% range.
I’m not sure what to expect but I think you could stay higher if the numbers are very low, possibly spreading the lifts out more through the weeek
kool, this is what i have plan for tue:
345 385 420 460 505 525 535+
i just dont see myself been able to come back that next week and hit 90-95%. i was thinking something like this:
wk 1: 3x3x75
wk 2: 2x2x80
wk 3: 2x2x85
enter inseason plan.