question about allan wells training

[nycjay01]

@Youngy

I just noticed that this thread had been reactivated.

ncyjay01 is 100% correct.

The purpose of the 6 x 3 min rounds is to build a fitness base. It helps develop a strong muscular shoulder girdle and cardio-vascular system that can carry you through the season.

Jim Bradley spent several years in the 1960’s trying different regimes such as 1min, 5min or even a continuous 15 min sessions and after refining it and working it through, he found the 6 x 3min rounds with a 1min rest derived the best conditioning results to allow the athletes to transfer it to the track.

The upper body muscles in the shoulders & back are specifically worked on the speedball to strengthen them to the extent one can drive the shoulders in the running action and not swing the arms.

About 10 years ago, I was reading a chapter on UBE (Upper Body Exercise) in the ISSA manual and it recommended the use of a cranking machine or arm bike for an upper body cardio workout. AND it recommended 3 min rounds/1 min rest as offering the best results.

It occurred to me that Bradley had discovered the same thing with his speedball workouts, 30 years before…

I’ve done that routine. It was on a Cybex Upper Body Ergrometer (UBE) I forget the settings but you have to set it to something like 90-120 RPM and “bury the needle” a few times. It was so tough that I had to lay down for 20 min after. I felt as if I had just ran a 400m. I’ve been thinking to use this when the weather is bad for the Special endurance days. It’s different work but it made me feel like crap just the same.