Charlie,
During the season, how far did your athletes get away from heavy squatting, or even just squatting for that matter?
If an athlete had a 5 or 6 week stretch of important meets (1 meet per week), would it be wise to do any heavy squats at all during this period? Or, would dropping squats completely result in too much strength loss?
Thanks.
P.S. When I say during the season, I am talking about the outdoor season.
The farther to the “Left” on the strength to endurance continuum you go, the faster it is to gain and the faster it is to loose the quality you’re working on. Therefore we lift (including squats) all through the season- going into a maintenance phase at the time of the big meets. Ben’s last squat session was 6 days before Seoul, with the bench 4 days before.
They were only quarters though, right?
They were in 1988 as he’d been injured during the early spring, but they were 1/2 squats in other years.
Oh ok, thanks a lot.
Thanks for your reply, Charlie. What intensity level were the squats that Ben did 6 days before Seoul? When you say you moved into a maintenance phase at the time of big meets, what intensity level did you drop down to? 80%?
Thanks.
Neospeed,
I believe Ben lifted quite heavy, to keep strength, but not too many reps to deplete his CNS stores. Just before Seoul he benched 407 lbs 8 times if my memory serves me correct. I’m sure he squatted relatively as heavy with few reps too. As well, he ran 200 in practice (PB ? 20 flat hand) in Japan a week before Seoul and 80 (pb too). Correct me if I’m wrong Charlie…