Max strength Cycles- whats their TRUE role?

Charlie_Francis · May 3, 2009, 6:28pm

This is essentially the premise of Verkhoshansky’s block approach when applied to sprint training.

What initially began out of necessity, due to weather conditions and inaccessibility to facilities and so on, is what lead to the discovery of efficacy of concentrated strength/power loading.

During the course of such blocks the speed-strength is diminished; as a result of the overload presented by the strength/power work; however, what was found was that any temporary loss in speed would eventually rebound and surpass previous levels following the appropriate sequential introduction of speed work following the concentrated strength/power stage.

Additionally important to note is that the overload presented by the strength/power work demands a great reduction of the actual sprint work due to the increased potential for injury (eg hamstrings) as a result of the fatigue generated by the strength/power work.

Important to remember, if one were to chose to train this way, is that the nature of the strength/power work must transfer positively to the sprints; which is why it would be a grave mistake to simply concentrate on powerlifting or weightlifting training.

I suspect that a concentrated block would not run 10 weeks.