Yep and you are talking about non-sprinters, completely different issue!
First, I have never advocated that most lifts should be in excess of 85%. I do believe that if you’re not including >85% lifts, you are not optimally training for strength. Second, the majority of most sprinters track work milage is performed at less than 75% as well, but that doesn’t make their sprint training low intensity. First, the fact that you, and a few others, believe that lifting in the 70-80% range and only rarely, if ever, venturing above 85%, is a very effective way of building strength, doesn’t make it so. And, not everyone on this board is a sprinter. And some of the younger sprinters are considering hypertrophy or max strength phases, and their training, during those periods, may look more like a footballer’s instead of a sprinters. I simply think it would be more effecient to use optimal strength and mass work during those phases so gains can be more substantial and come quicker. Why do things less effeciently?
I am not talking just about the number of lifts, but the number of sessions. Few sessions hit intensities of greater than 85% for my uppers lifts and that of most other sprint programs. I am not just counting warm-ups and stuff like that, but full workouts. You are trying to tag along the fact you do warm-ups are lower weights to the fact the majority of the sessions you have posted before have training intensities well in excess of 85%, not common among most athletes in this sport.
Again, lifting lower weights for the majority of training has been proven. Even Charlie’s “max strength phase” on squats doesn’t include workouts in excess of a 6RM with most being significantly below. Outside of the short max strength phases (when you’re talking significantly less than 1/2 the year being in max strength, it is short), lifts are substantially lower intensity wise than that. Your methods have yet to be proven or utilized in highly effective programs for sprinters. Saying they are not efficient or not optimal is from a different perspective and likely not one of trying to maximize sprint performance, but lifting performance.
I have never said either of those things, and I say again to you specifically for at least the third time, most of our reps are UNDER 85%, and I’m not talking about warmups. Even on the Max Effort day, only the last 3-4 sets are >85-90%. What I am saying, and what I have said in this and the other thread where we butted heads, is that AT LEAST SOME of your reps need to be in the >85% range, and preferably in the >90% range. I’m not setting a specific number or percentage, but a rough estimate would be that at least 10%, and as much as 20%, of reps should be in the >85% range if optimizing strength development is a primary goal. Lifting in the 70-80% range without EVER going into the >85% is not the optimum method for improving max strength…which is what some have implied, and you seem to be defending.
In my experience I have found that when trying to emphasize speed and power, continually using loads in the 90% range is not nearly as effective as working in the 70-80% range. I have found that both speed and strength can rise harmoniously if you reduce the load in the weight room to a supplementary status, ie something like 2-3x5-6 75% on squats. Also I have found that doing upper weights on tempo/low intensity days allows for a better distribution of work throughout the training week.
What is the peak intensity you hit in most of your sessions? Do you hit 85% and above for most of the year?
What I am saying, and what I have said in this and the other thread where we butted heads, is that AT LEAST SOME of your reps need to be in the >85% range, and preferably in the >90% range. I’m not setting a specific number or percentage, but a rough estimate would be that at least 10%, and as much as 20%, of reps should be in the >85% range if optimizing strength development is a primary goal. Lifting in the 70-80% range without EVER going into the >85% is not the optimum method for improving max strength…which is what some have implied, and you seem to be defending.
I am defending it because I have had success doing it and many others will continue to have success doing minimal work @ 85% and above for a 1rm. Perhaps it is done, perhaps it is not. But beyond simply the majority of reps, but the majority of entire sessions never hit an intensity of 85% or greater (meaning entire workouts, not just reps leading up to the top sets like you keep trying to wiggle in).