Are they all from Australia? Where all the sprinters are hiding.
Instead of bully boy tactics try explaining why I am wrong.
Have a look at the attached site, Ron Laura was the strongest man in the world at powerlifting a while back. I have had athletes win Aust age titles and one disabled athlete won a World title using his progs. They all went to Aussie coaches who called me a clown just like you and guess what? they didn’t get any faster.
I exchanged a few PMs with PJ a few years back and he mentioned that some of his best sprinters on his crew are not doing crazy numbers either. NOT to discount lifting but it seems that not everyone needs to lift crazy numbers to run fast. I know PLENTY of 11 sec guys that can bench 315+ and squat 405+ and run the same thing year in year out.
Seems like the norm…they will have really good strength but not freaky unachievable for most levels.
Agreed and this was discussed recently in another thread-the lack of need of huge numbers to be very successful. Now, unfortunately, someone will interpret that as meaning the lifting serves no purpose in a developmental sense either which is exactly the wrong take home message. Just because the weight maxes are not as high for sprinter A vs. sprinter B or relative to athletes in other sports does NOT mean sprinter A did not derive some benefit from such training.
If they improved THEIR numbers to the point where their strength/power ouputs were higher and could be manifested in the sprinting itself then it did play a role. Naturally, like most general methods, there is a point of diminishing returns but even in that case a maintenance of such qualities can often allow for other abilities to improve.
Maybe read all the posts on this forum and you might know why!
The nature of the coaching and hierachy beast in Aust is to acquire the best athletes to justify their jobs. I myself have coached national jnr champs in sprints/jumps and hurdles, coached snr national winners and coached a masters world champion in varied events. And true the good athletes were acquired from me (all went backwards). Some were offered OAP funding to leave.
The 22 rep theory is like saying a 110mH guy should do the same principle but add a jump squat or fwd lunge every 4th rep.
Either that or for lower body strength make more use of the track.
Is that the rep range found to work best for strength gains? @ 70-85% 1RM, which would be light enough to avoid significant CNS stress and burnout.
So 22 reps total volume @ 70-85% 1RM? the way forward?. I’m usually in the 20-40 rep bracket.
Ha so true…
It’s all relative. Lifting is a part of training. One part of the puzzle. I think at the developmental level you can keep lifting as long as speed keeps improving also at the developmental level it’s prob a good idea to develop lagging body parts… Remember CF’s mantra “if it looks right it flies right”
Just a side note: by developmental I was referring to not just developmental level athletes but the role the weights serve to help develop any sprinter at even the highest levels.
If you were to throw all the sub-9.8 guys (meaning Ben, Mo, Powell, Gay, and Bolt) into a multiple correlation analysis, you’d probably come to the conclusion that there’s no correlation at all for weights.
Mike Young has made the point that while increasing weight numbers initially improve sprint performance, beyond a certain point, continued emphasis on increasing weight numbers has a negative effect on sprint performance, since increasing the weights gradually takes CNS resources away from track. So, one seems to need weight numbers that are “good enough,” but not more than that.
What is good enough?? What if Bolt could squat 600lbs, would he be faster - guess we never know…
Fuck and no.
It there’s a correlation it’s you dont need mythical strength to be fast
If Ben Johnson couldn’t squat anywhere near 600lbs, Would he be slower?. I reckon so. But don’t forget all the other defining & differing qualities of strength needed at all phases of a race to be successful.
People seem to be talking like Usain is weak. At the core?. The achilles tendons?. Hip flexors?.
lol.
A guy that produces that much power?. Take a walk.
You guys need to take extra looks at the EMG analysis for the squat in terms of glute, core, achilles, hip flexor activity. OVERRATED. Period. I’ve seen the data.
Although it’s intriguing to review and discuss the weight programs for the best of the best I feel you have to be carefull of what you take away from it. If you’re fortunate to be coaching a sub 10.1 or 10.0 athlete then maybe there’s a lot to be derived from this material. But I would believe there are very few of those coaches here (no disrespect intended).
I worry when these VERY special athletes who’s body’s are rich with FT muscles and very efficient circuitry become the model or point of reference for how strength training program should be constructed…BJ, Carl, Burrell, MO, TM, AP, UB, DC, TG, all giants of the sport but SO incredibly different. So what we’re seeing here is more of the same…another way of doing things. 
Some get so caught up with the numbers and MxS etc., and then try to compare one athlete to another as if to come to a definition as to how one should lift. We’re only seeing a piece of the puzzle. I would love for someone to post the training programs that these athletes do to develop leg stiffness and elastic qualities! This is where I would like to see more time devoted and more discussion.
Now just a thought as it relates to training (this may seem silly on the surface)…How about we JUST look at training as high intensity (sprint, jump, throw, lift) or low intensity and nothing more? It’s my belief that this would impact how we view and utilize individual components and focus more on the outcome and far less on the individual components. Now you’re just doing whatever you need and whenever you need to do it in training to be the best. So now who cares if you lift or not or throw or not or jump or not…I hope that makes sense :o …Thoughts?
Oh and real quick…Mr. Lemaitre looks like he barely finished puberty as his singlet looks to be barely stay on his body. 
Wonder what he’s doing for weight training. 
Randy Gillon
Keep the CF spirit alive.
Well said Randy.
Those who think otherwise would be well served to re-review Charlie’s work.
Weights follow speed and thus focusing any substantial time on looking into what the fastest of the fast do for weight training is synonymous with scrutinizing the cart instead of the horse.
My only interest in the weight aspect of the elite sprinter population is one of curiosity as I enjoy seeing all aspects of the sprinters preparation; however, I learned some time ago that this aspect of the preparation is the afterthought in relation to the speed work because it is the speed work that serves a more influential role towards the weights and not the other way around.
Charlie more than expounded upon this on numerous occasions.
I see this over and over again with my skill players. Looking at the weight program alone, in our case, one couldn’t possibly make sense of where some of the numbers come from (Dion Lewis squatted 535 the other day and hasn’t worked out with more than 365 in 4-6 weeks).
One must see the entire program before any reasonable conclusions are drawn.
Weights follow speed. Thanks Charlie.
I’m with you Randy, it’s the track work first and everything else second that I’m interested in seeing.
The more coaches I speak with, I’m starting to not buy into this submax shit. If you want to develop the raw strength that most D1 football coaches want, you must lift heavy loads in the 1-5 zone. Yes, submax loads may develop enough strength to perform the sport task, but that’s not what D1 football coaches want - at least 99.999%…
What’s the secret to lower leg stiffness, stop your kids from playing playstation3 and get back to old school games (tag, jumping from monkey bars, jump rope, hopscotch etc)…
Thanks for the kind words James…Your post makes me think. Looking at workouts posted earlier in the thread (I too have them on my CPU :D) and the loads lifted and your athlete’s PR having only trained with 365 only shows how everything may and/or can help everything else. Xman lifted relatively light weights in training but I’m certain he could probably squat a large amount if that’s all he had to do. Think about how much horse power he was putting out in training to run 19.6 at the time, or how much he was putting into those explosive medball/shot throws. So remember one leg extension exercise may and/or develop another (work all along the curve…hmmmm where have we heard that before).
So again don’t get hung up on the numbers. If I had the capacity to run sub 9.9 or faster I may never step in a weight to develop MxS or power as I’m doing much more of that on the track :D… Thanks CF for the wisdom
Randy Gillon
Keep the CF spirit alive.
Coach Shaver does a lot of other high intensity activities during the training year so that may be the reason for the lighter loads (spreading the work around). Also, LSU gets the best of the best high school athletes so there may be less of a need to develop the qualities that weight lifting may offer.
Just a thought.
RG
Keep the CF spirit alive.
To each his own. I, however, strongly disagree with the idea that the bulk, or any appreciable volume, of the primary general strength work must be in the heavier ranges.
In my own experience as a weight training enthusiast, dating back to 87-88, coupled with my coaching experience, there’s absolutely no question that sub-max weights are the way to go regarding the bulk of the weight training volume. Regarding what most D1 coaches may or may not think…you know where I stand on that topic.