What if you strengthen or increase the elasticity of the rebound?
I don’t know how people on here define maximum power?. I thought it too be limb speed?. If you want incredible limb speed, you need incredible core strength.
If I could have my time again back in HS, with the knowledge I have gained, personally I would spend 8 months-year developing great core strength, doing sprints & become good at jump rope, before even touching a weight & see where my speed was at first.
Ben Johnson, Maurice Greene, Linford Christie I hear all had big squats. I want too know what Bolts doing in the squat?, which I want too see with my own eyes not some web article. His leg development doesn’t suggest he even squats. Some world class sprinters don’t even squat I read?.
Adding 50lbs to a non-elite athletes squat would be beneficial, but as you progress, I have found 50lbs does nothing. So I went back to concentrating on power (core) & not so much strength & got faster.
Check these guys out… I know I’m running quick when I can eventually do this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_woKEA9kcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNw_6DnFJ90
Also, if you ever wanted an alternative to leg weights, you could try weighted flutter kicks maybe?. I think there better, probably mess with mechanics, but better than leg weights IMO.
those are some crazy videos. So, from what you’ve decided- do everything you can to develop a freak core while keeping up with your speed training.
This should be done regardless of strength? Or should the squat max be built up prior?
Do bolt, gay, powell all have big squats? hell no. though im sure they can put up some fairly decent weight, they definitely cannot approach some of the 1RMs that some people on these online forums can do. They do however, run 9.5-9.7.
Now we’re talking about freak core strength? lol… do you honestly think bolt does those things? i’d be more inclined to believe bolt spends his time doing squats vs. heavy weighted ab work. Honestly… it’s all the same sh*t in the end.
what’s the job of the core? to stabilize you. I’ve done my high amount of core work vs. low amounts of core work, and made huge progress on squats vs. my squat going down. I’ve also seen others go through the same process/es.
In the end, getting stronger in general will help you in the LONG term, however in a single season, I highly doubt a higher 1RM or super freak core strength will do you much.
As for which is more valuable, you can all have your own opinions, but there’s more guys squatting 400-500 and running fast vs. guys hanging off poles sideways and running fast, so I think i’ll stick with the former being better and that is squats.
to be fast you must run fast, and then run some more.
I guess a summary of what Im gathering here would go something like this:
It would be foolish to spend large amounts of time strongly focusing on one just training tool. Spend the majority of your time training on the track running high quality sprints of various distances. And use things like squats, sit-ups, core, stability, mobility, coordination, conditioning as supplements toward your speed training.
Thus, have your entire program revolve around speed. The squats can help me get faster, as can the core exercises… but really, the vast majority of my time and energy should be spent running.
With or without the use of leg weights
on the topic of this, i dont see how ankle weights would have any benefit, aside from perhaps doing some walking A’s for the hip flexors?
I see what your dad said about “feeling lighter” but that will not = faster running speeds.
Instead, you can do some resisted sprints (sleds), 2-4x 20-40m with about 10-15% weight of your body weight. This would cause the same effect, however you will need to follow that with a regular speed (with tailwind) which will allow higher intensities, thus higher benefits from the speed work.
Exactly. My point entirely.
But thats speculation, Yeah? Bolt doing squats & heavy weighted ab work. Or is that fact?.
The core/hip flexors are the powerhouse to limb speeds (IMO). Not glute, quad & ham strength (Squats etc).
If your running sub 10’s, your qualified to say that.
For the general, yeah squatting 400-500 will probably make them run faster. But from what I’ve witnessed this isn’t the case.
No doubt!.
Just too conclude. I was doing weighted ab work for almost 2 years straight & I was in denial all along believing I was strong there.
I know some guys that can squat 400+ pounds. But honestly, they were much more naturally inclined to do so. As in, it wasn’t like they were consistant squatters 3x week, 5 straight years— or whatever-- and they didn’t drop in weight drastically if they skipped workouts for a week or two like I would.
Which is why i wondered if improving your squat was essential. I don’t think everyone has to improve in the same sense. Some athletes have big squats by default IMO. Sure they squat- and go hard and all that, but I think you know what Im getting at.
I wanna know if increasing squat strength makes you faster. Or is it arbitrary?
Can athletes A & B both be very fast… if athlete A has a very weak squat and athlete B has a strong squat? Will athlete A’s speed surpass athlete B if his squat improved significantly? Will B pass A if his squat improves significantly?
Im asking all of this because I have a weak squat, but I only have 3 months to develop my speed. I don’t want to be spending the time it takes to bump my squat up 50 pounds if it isn’t necessary. But obviously I would, if proven to be effective.
It takes years to develop speed & strength, forget 3 months.
I can’t advise you.
Like I said, I personally would spend 8 months-year developing great core strength, doing sprints & become good at jump rope, before even touching a weight & see where my speed was at first.
ok. i want to drop my 40 yard dash from 4.8x to 4.6x. I think its very possible to do in 3 months. I have made great gains in the past without hardly any speed training knowledge whatsoever. Now that I am getting a grasp of what Im doing, I believe the gains will come a lot more smoothly.
yes u can achieve that by running and plyro.elasticity comes with training and speciific training…certainly not by weighted runs.!
“Thus, have your entire program revolve around speed. The squats can help me get faster, as can the core exercises… but really, the vast majority of my time and energy should be spent running.”
I can not believe how many people lose sight of this. Almost all time spent “training” should be spent on speed exercises. In my opinion in this order:
- Sprints
- Sprint variations (sprints/plyo hybrids, fly’s, hills, speed bounds)
- Multi Rep plyos (bounds, hops, multijumps)
- Single rep jumps (rocket jumps, depth jumps, vertical jumps, hortizonal jumps)
- Weight Training
Granted, this exact order should not be used for everyone. Beginners especially should probably be hesitant about the plyos until a good strength base is built.
However, I think weight training has a limited role in sprinting. In my opinion, weight training should be used only as a means to an end for one of these purposes:
- To decrease risk of injury for more high impact exercises.
- To build exercise volume without stressing the cns from main sprint related exercises, i.e everything higher in the order above. This can be used for tapering purposes to peak for major meets and also to avoid plateauing.
- To spend additional low cns time working on very specific event weaknesses, and this should be a rareity due to lack of carryover.
How leg weights are worse than squats for speed training is beyond me. Especially the amount of emphasis on double legged supposed ass to the ground squats on this site. I know the discussion would go round and round so this will be my only comment on it at this time. But 90 degree or lower two legged squat is as beneficial to sprinting as bench press (ok that is a bit of an exaggeration (only a small one), but I bet if you take a large enough sample the correlation between sprint speed and either of those two exercises would be about the same) Yes, yes correlation is not causation, I know.
I can’t help but wonder if this bloke used leg weights
It was relating to the isometric abdominal strength.
I think Vee hit the nail on the head.
Sprints
Sprint variations
Plyos
Medball throws
Weights
And for those looking for an additional stimulus Strength Endurance exercises.
That is the spectrum of the f-t curve. As Charlie has said, an increase on one part of the curve has effects everywhere on the curve. I interpret this as meaning that Stre End. will not necessarily improve you’re max strength, but it will affect the dynamics of the max strength training effect (say you can produce near maximal force for longer, this will intensify a lift without having to be stronger). In that respect, we train weights not for their ability to make us faster but to intensify the dynamics of training. It is a competition between adaptation resources to intensify or to adapt specifically. For some the intensification is necessary for others it only takes away from the specific adaptation.
lol you honestly think bolt does some hardcore ab work? and really heavy weighted abs?
The core/hip flexors are the powerhouse to limb speeds (IMO). Not glute, quad & ham strength (Squats etc).
The core’s primary job is stabilizing you
If your running sub 10’s, your qualified to say that.
The CFTS involves tons of high rep ab work, not heavy abs. From what I’ve read about Powell’s training, it’s been some of the basic ab stuff + some med ball ab work. Bolt’s training has had a quick mention of core work. John Smith did not use heavy abs (at least not primarily) in his program.
How many sub 10 guys do you know, that are doing tons of heavy ab work/hardcore core exercises? and… they have made improvements in their speed only due to that?
For the general, yeah squatting 400-500 will probably make them run faster. But from what I’ve witnessed this isn’t the case.
It’ll make the muscles involved in sprinting, stronger. Just over a long term, it will help in speed.
Just too conclude. I was doing weighted ab work for almost 2 years straight & I was in denial all along believing I was strong there.
how much did your time drop before and after? I’ve done heavy abs too, and saw no noticably more improvements than I did doing no abs lol. Same goes for squats basically.
but hey… if it works for you, keep doing it.
Getting stronger over a long period of time will make you faster.
As for the athlete A/B, the answer can all depend. Three things can happen (I’ve actually seen all 3 happen, and that’s just in my high school alone)
- the weaker athlete gets slower after improving their squat a lot
-the weaker athlete gets faster after improving their squat - the weaker athlete’s speed is unaffected by improving their squat
It can vary, and how much of which option ends up happening, varies as well.
I’ve talked to someone who swore by heavy ATG squats, and talked to someone who said he’ll never squat again as long as he does track.
As for your 3 months, stick to the running and plyos.
So if increasing strength helps a sprinter with horizontal propulsion down the track & where led to believe Bolt, Gay & Powell don’t supplement there training with big lifts, Where in there training is this horizontal propulsion being developed???.. Plyo’s? Genetics?. Greater core strength?.