A few questions about weight training for a 400m sprinter…
Are there any good substitute lifts for the Olympic Lifts (i.e. clean and jerk, snatch)? I’ve had difficulty learning to do the Olympic lifts properly. My back lately has had some pain. Also after doing clean and jerk sometimes my back hurts a little; I know I don’t do these properly so I don’t do them anymore. I realize any possible substitute will probably have to be a combination of exercises. I am able to do squats on a Smith machine w/o back probelms.
Can one be a “successful” sprinter without lower body lifting?
Does anybody know any 400m sprinters or other sprinters that were “successful” with very “minimal” weight training? I know that is a tough question because “successful” and “minimal” are subjective.
What percent of my 14 hrs/week training time should be spent lifting when training for 400m? 25%? 15%?
1.i would say to learn the basics first. learn the starting postion, learn how to do the power shrugs and pulls. these are effective as you wouldnt really HAVE to do the full blow oly lifts if you arent confident on learning the technique. i think that the back thing could be a technique issue for the squat as i am not a fan of the smith machine at all. but its better than nothing.
2.yes but there are many more examples of ones who did lift.
3.kim collins and carl lewis are usually brought up when it comes to great spinters who supposidly didnt and dont lift. i think you are better off doing so, but carl and kim would argue otherwise and have a pretty good arguement.
4.i would guess about 3-4 hours but i would think that it depends on what part of your season you are in.
to sum things up, i would learn the basics of the oly lifts and the core lifts. a great book is “explosive lifting for sports” as it gives detailed pics and descriptions as well as progressions of the oly lifts and it even details how to put together a solid weightlifting program.
let the experts on here give you more info than i can. hope my little 2cents helps anyway.
AC
While I agree with some of what AC said, I do disagree with his view on learning the Olympic Lifts. I prefer to take a top down approach, starting at the High Hang position and working down. By starting from the high hang, you are immediately training the second pull–the triple extention. Some research was done a while ago, comparing force in watts of different exercieses, coincidentally the second pull of a snatch from the floor and a snatch from the high hang were equal–5500 watts. If one were to take it from the floor, it is likely that they’d miss the all important scoop before the second pull, and therefore “cut the pull” reducing the lift’s effectiveness.
olympic lifting as an excercise can be very useful but its results can be achieved in different ways. most people cant do the olympic lifts properly. the individual benefits of the olympic lift, plyometric effect, and inverted force velocity curve can be achived with may different movements and methodics.
Explosive Medball Throws (Between Legs Foward, Overhead backwards etc), Barbell & DB Jumps Squats, Box Jumps and Depth Jumps all plenty of stimulus to accomplish the same goals as the olympic lifts. Its all about how you choose to implement them.