Sprinting While Sore

Expert Discussion Planning and Periodization
1

Hello everybody

Squats always make my adductor magnus sore. I squat on Tuesdays. This soreness makes sprinting on Thursday unpleasant. It affects my ability to relax while sprinting. The deadlift and bench press don’t make me that sore, or at least they don’t make me sore in a manner which affects my ability to relax while sprinting. Should I drop squats altogether? Or should I simply move them to Thursday, which is my last high intensity day of the week (my first high intensity day is on Sunday, the next on Tuesday)? Maybe that way my adductor magnus won’t be sore when I sprint. Thoughts and recommendations?

2

I would try squatting more often.

3

Try squatting on sunday and thursday. Might need to squat more so the body can adjust. after a month or two if your still sore Id drop them. I have a issue with lunges, every time I do em I end up getting a groin strain. I had stayed away from lunges for a few years, went back to em this year, now my groin jacked up.

4

I agree with Chris that squatting, at least, earlier in the week-Sunday- when your training week begins is probably best. I also agree that if you are going to squat twice/week after a Sunday of squatting, etc. that Thursday is probably the next best day and is in keeping the with the high-low model. Also consider if the intensities and volumes you are training at are manageable/compatible with the track training you are doing. It could be any number of issues such as the progression that you chose was too steep-intensifies too quickly or the volume is too much to recover from-athletes can get develop strength only occasionally hitting near max levels so most effective strength training is primarily, largely sub-maximal. While it is okay to accept that some training will occasionally leave some residual soreness, don’t accept that as a desired outcome-there does NOT need to be soreness present after a workout to indicate a productive workout. Yes it will happen but keep those occasions to a minimum for it if you get to level too often you won’t make the same gains, overall fatigue/training management won’t be that great and everything will be negatively impacted.

I assume you are in a prep. phase but if not, should you even be squatting in a comp. phase? If it’s problematic over time even with some careful adjustments just drop them out for a while and don’t forget the primary goal-if it is?!-is the sprinting itself and everything else is supplementary (not unimportant just less important).
Note that your strength levels at the end of the week are not as high as they are at the end of the week (due to the accumulation of fatigue that takes place during each week) so if you repeat an exercise later in a week drop the intensity in most cases by at least 10% and if at the end of a training block-most intensive week which is usually week 3 or 4 of a four week block-there should be a larger drop in the intensity later in the week.

5

I gave a very general answer earlier, to give you a specific answer I would like to have the answers to the following questions.
1: What events do you compete in, what are your times, and age?
2: What type of volume and intensity are you using with your once a week squat session? 1rm on the squat?
3: Any lower body injuries in the past?
4: What does your other high intensity elements look like on your squat days?

Also, I wouldn’t move the squat to Thursday because they could impact your Sunday session which is probably your fastest session of the week.

6

I think you could look at the risk/reward of doing the squat. Is the reward of doing the squat worth the risk of being sore when sprinting. If squatting is your priority then keep it up, if sprinting is your priority then you could think about dropping it and replace it with an exercise that doesn’t leave you sore to sprint.

7

Adductor Magnus kicks in when the squat is fairly deep. You don’t need to squat that deep for sprinting. Quarter squats and half squats actually help your speed more than full squats.

8

Hello

Thank you all for the replies!

To set some context, here is some of my history and personal information.

I have been squatting once a week since June 2018. So, I have been squatting once a week for over a year. I have also been benching and deadlifting once a week for a year. The squats always leave my adductor magnus sore. I do change the reps and sets. I do 10x10 for two weeks. 4x8 for two weeks. 3x6 for two seeks. 3x3 for two weeks. I take long rests even when I do 10x10’s. On the other weeks, i.e. 4x8, 3x6 etc. I do warm up sets of course. The squat always leaves my adductor magnus sore irrespective of the weight and sets. I have been doing this for more than year, and it has stayed that way. The deadlift and bench may leave me a bit sore when I do 10x10’s but even then itisn’t nearly as bad as compared to squatting. I squat below parallel like powerlifters. I don’t strain my adductors. They just get sore to the point where it feels unpleasant to jog, run and sprint.

I have been doing sprinting since June 2019. My top priority is sprinting. I am soon going to be 30. I plan on competing this winter for the first time in my life. I don’t have any times. I plan on competing in the 60m, and 100 m and 200m next year in the summer

My volume on the squat really changes. But for example, this week I did 2x10 70 kg, 2x10 80 kg, 2x10 85 kg, 2x10 90 kg, 2x10 105 kg. I have long rests so this is not a traditional german volume training. When I did my 3x3 on the squat two weeks ago, I did 125 kg for 3, 130 kg for 3, 135 kg for 3. These are not maximal weights. For example, I probably could safely and easily do 135 kg for 5. Even the 10x10’s, I could do the last set for more than 10 reps. I don’t know what my 1RM is. I don’t really care anyway. Plus I don’t want to take any chances with the squat. I go conservative on the squat. But as I said, squatting always leaves my adductor magnus sore, no matter what the weight and sets are.

Maybe doing two squat sessions a week is the answer. However, I have a feeling since I have been squatting for over a year, I would still get sore but only this time it would affect my sprinting even more if go sore for longer. Actually, since sprinting fast is my only priority, this thought of being sore for longer is terrifying. I think even if 2 sessions a week were to work, there probably would be an adaptive period where I would be sore for longer. This is not worth it for me since I consider speed my only priority. Don’t get me wrong I like the squat. I have been doing it for more than year - more than sprinting which I have been doing for 2 months. But the reason for that is because I weighed 100 kg at a height of 5’ 10.5 in 2018. So, I only focused on losing fat while maintaining muscle through powerlifting. I didn’t want to sprint when I was that big. Now I am 82-83 kg and more suited for sprints. Still have fat to lose but I am getting there.

This week for sprinting I did 4x30m hill sprints. 4x30m on flat surface. 4x e-f-e 20 m drills, and for bench, squat and deadlift I did 10x10’s. The week before that I did 6x60 m hills and 3x3 for bench, squat and deadlift. When the volume of strength lifts go down, the sprinting volume goes up. So, for example when I will do 4x8 for the strength lifts, I plan on doing 2x4x30 m on flat surface and 4x e-f-e 20m drills. The affect of the squat soreness is not that noticeable on hills. It doesn’t really affect the relaxation on the hills.

I haven’t had any recent injuries. My two real injuries were last year in August when I played soccer. I strained my hamstring twice. I used to play soccer. I was trying to play like I used to in my younger and fitter days forgetting I was 92 kg and overweight. Apart from that, I had a cramp in my groin doing squats last November. It happened when I was doing 10x10’s but was short on time so the rest periods were quite short. But beside that, I haven’t had anything. I learned from the soccer and squat injuries. In soccer, I decided that I was only going to play defender and not run along the length of the field back and forth. With the squats, I learned the importance of rest time (although I had employed long rest times before the squat injury, I really learnt never to rush my training even if I was short on time).

The Sunday and Tuesday speed sessions were very pleasant and smooth. It is only the adductor soreness which made Thursday’s speed session unpleasant.

Actually, I am thinking of squatting on Thursday hoping that the soreness will be gone on Sunday since there will be a tempo session on Friday and complete rest on Saturday. I always squat after speed. That is why I am hoping I would get three full, pleasant speed sessions and still get to keep the squats around. However, I am also terrified of ruining my Sunday session. The reason I used strong words like “terrified” is because speed is my main concern, but I wouldn’t want to drop squats since I have been doing them for a year.

Any thoughts? Much appreciated. Sorry I couldn’t answer everybody. Ran short on time.

9

Well, I think the volume may be one of the issues you are having. I would probably squat twice a week, while using 2-3 sets with 4 being the most, keep the squat no higher than 6 reps, and keep the intensity between 50-80% with 85% being the most. For my athletes I usually give ranges - you can see the first block of training below.

Day 1: 4x5x50-70%, 4x4x55-75%, 4x3x60-80%, reload - 2-3x3x50-70%

Day 2: 4x4x50-70%, 4x3x55-75%, 4x2x60-80%, 2-3x2x50-70%

Do not feel the need to work at the top end of the given percentage range because you think you need to lift heavier. Your lower body weights are a facilitator and enhancer of your performance on the track. After 4 weeks if this doesn’t work, then you can consider dropping the squat for deadlifts.

Also remember the means utilized in lower body training sessions isn’t critical, just choose something that you can execute with a high level of proficiency and produce a solid output on.

10

IMO Your volumes are way too high. There are times during the year when a foundation of strength endurance/hypertrophy can lead to later strength then power gains BUT doing weeks of 10x10 for two weeks (then 4x8 for two) then again after the 8th weeks you are back to 10x10 (or so it seems) is so high I don’t think you can every truly develop or demonstrate the maximal velocity that yo might be capable of. You have MORE than enough body mass in fact you would do well do drop some body weight but one of the ways to do that is to significantly reduce your weights volume. 10x10 is way in excess of anything that’s going to contribute to even acceleration development let alone speed development (max vel.). One must get away from volumes as high as you have indicated for a number of weeks to create enough of an unload to likely hit the type of speeds you are probably capable of.

11

Hello,

I think you are right. The volume is too high. I will be dropping the 10x10’s after this week. I think I will be doing mostly 3x6’s.

12

Agree. Works way better doing this for me. Almost have to think half ass it for Type A people.

13

[b]Thank you Pioneer. I believe you have hit many nails on the head regarding why this volume and method of lifting makes little sense if one wishes to prioritize his or her speed development.

If you wish to follow up on these ideas you can look at some of the most comprehensive products on the site which talk about Weights for Speed. [/b]

14

Performing squats more often to avoid soreness will help you avoid soreness for repeating squats.

If you wish to sprint, practice sprinting with full breaks, preceded with a full warm up which for most is 45 to 60 minutes of general conditioning as shown in GPP for all sports.

If you wish to become an elite sprinter, studying the content in this store, including WEIGHTS for Speed, will help you understand why more squatting works against you on the track not for you.