Is it possible to lift on tempo days without being detrimental to performance. If so what volumes intensity and exercises would anyone reccommend.
Id say no higher then 80 % max intensity if you have a scheduled speed session the next day
That said, I have done a pb 3 rep on bench press the night before doing a pb for 20 meter sprint.
I would try my best to keep high intensity days separate to low intensity and tempo days, but in GPP you can mix and match without too much probs
I would avoid doing lower body squats/ lifts after tempo if a scheduled speed/sprint session is planed for the next day otherwise I don’t think their is a problem doing lifts after tempo, as you are fresher compared with after speed and well warmed up
Ordinarily I would not do it but on occasion, I have had to move some things around schedule wise and have athletes lift on tempo days-just upper body-it seemed to work fine. When doing so, we have always lifted prior to doing the the tempo work.
I see no problem with during a bb circuit or heavy upper body work on tempo days.
I have done it and do it and really haven’t had problems with it. It’s just that their is so much less mass, motor unit recruitment etc. with the upper body as compared to the lower. It is just a lot easier to recover from systemically in a 24 hour period or so than doing squats or deadlifts. But I would also err on the side of caution and stay below the 80-85% range at first. See if that affects your recovery. Who knows, maybe you’ll be fine and can go to even higher weights. Or maybe you’ll need to go lower. Just mix and match and find what works best for you.
You should do ur normal upper body program and if you cant get into the 85-95% range did you should keep the upper stuff on ur speed days to get max recovery.
In your opinion would this hold true with lower body work preceding tempo?
Check out the GPP download to see how this can work at certain times in the program.
CF i have the gpp and understand what you are talking about, but i think upper body work can done much of the year on tempo days without a problem even during the spp.
Are you referring to in-season? I think it’s possible with upper body workouts, so as to spread the load after H.I. days or to give the chance to insist more on a certain aspect/exercise development. But I would also keep in mind individual characteristics (e.g., upper body workouts and tightness in shoulders).
What level athlete are we talking? A stronger person may not tolerate it as much as someone weaker.
i squat 500+ bp mid 365+ and seem to tolerated it well.
depends on the speed vol- that’s why I preferred to keep the weights on the speed day throughout the majority of the SPP, though I sometimes spread the upper body lifts to the tempo day during pre-comp when the overall vols of BOTH lifts and speed were lower.
I used the spp graphs and half of the recommended volume you have on the graphs. I had two speed days with vol ranging from 390-450m.
I had the HS kids sometimes do a upper only on tempo days. I’d never squat or DL on tempo with speed or SE the next day. We did once or twice on tempo with a day off the next day however.
Great answers many thanks guys. I normally get my sprinters to lift straight after speed work, but an over 40 guy I coach (11.8) had a race last Monday and isn’t scheduled to run high intensity until today. As he hadn’t lifted since last week he asked if he could fit in a weights unit on Tuesday after tempo. We settled for a bit of low intensity upper body work (Bench and Pull Downs’), so I reckon we have done the right thing. We have used this in the GPP in order to fit weights into the programme along with general bodyweight conditioning but was not 100% certain on its use in the competition season. His next race is not till wednesday next week so I will see how he goes. 
I’m still interested in people’s thoughts on this subject so keep em coming.
What are the drawbacks for combining tempo and lifting? I can understand not lifting prior to a speed day of course. However, if you have an active recovery day planned following that or even a day off, I don’t understand how it can hurt performance? I am too pressed for time to fit my speed and lifting days into one day really, and although I have been trying to do it, I feel my sessions have been rushed and I am not getting the best out of them. However, I feel if I were to lift, I could easily go outside afterwards and trot out 10x100m tempo or whatever. This way I could have a training structure such as:
Monday: Speed/SE
Tuesday: Lift and Tempo
Wednesday: Tempo
Thursday: Speed/Acc
Friday: Lift
Saturday: Tempo
Is there anything wrong with that structure. Iam trying to take what I have learned from here and elsewhere and implement it as best as possible into my lifestyle.
spread it out even more:
mon sp
tue lift
wed tempo
thur sp
fri lift
sat tempo
sun rest
Using that structure, would it be more beneficial to do low/moderate intensity plyometrics on the lifting or the speed days? I’m talking hops and skips on grass more than anything else. I would probably guess after speed as there will be less residual fatigue, but open to comments as always!
good question, during my strength phase i did plyo on strength days as complex training and power phase during speed days.