there are some interesting parallels to boxing training with Well’s work. What is the intensity ceiling that needs to be maintained to allow for the very high rep numbers that are seen here?
Olympic lift derivatives do not lend themselves easily to high (>3r) rep ranges due to their high technical component.
Remedial exercises do not permit an absolute expression of strength due to stability /saftey reasons.
I have found through practical experience that the more ‘massive’ the movement the fewer repetitions are required to induce an adaptation stimulus (e.g. Higher reps for bench Vs squat). I have not however read any research to support this hypothesis .
Finally and in contradiction higher repetition programs on squats HAVE been shown to produce a greater T spike which obviously increases trainability of the whole organism.
David, I agree with you about oly lifts being performed in for reps of three and below. Anything more than that, from my experience, tends to get sloppy. I have performed clusters of power cleans for as many as fives from the floor- not hang-with intra set rest intervals of 10-20 seconds that can work well but generally I like 3 reps and below. Of course the other exception would be for higher reps would be pulls and shrugs but I know you mean specifically the full lifts or the power versions of the same lifts.
Would this rep volume extend to plyometric exercises such as hops and depth jumps? When I do depth jumps I notice my form starts to deteriorate after 8 reps.
Also, the other day I did step up jumps for 18 rep sets. I also did sprints up steps of multi-storey car park for something differant + split squat jumps for over 10 reps. I did not see or measure any increase in thigh circumferance over the following 2 days, in fact their was a slight Decrease in size, despite the high protien/high calorie nutrition I’m on at the moment. (I will often take a thigh measurement/s at begining of new exercise program and over the following several days.)
I guess then that this could well be the fast twitch fibres ATrophying.
My thighs were at their biggest 2 years ago when my strength routine was a simple 4 x 5 parallel squat (only last set done with a heavy weight/ 1 working set)
plus 4 x 5 stiff leg deadlift ( 3 warm up sets and one heavy work set.)
David/ Pioneer
are you stating that a weights session with varying rep ranges for each excercise is acceptable?
as seen in this sample weights session,
Power Clean: sets of 3 reps
Squat: sets of 6 reps
SLDL: sets of 12 reps
I think you have to experiment a bit and find what works for you and/or your athletes. David made the point about research can´t back it up, but he feels…
Well, if you find that it works, that is all you need, right? Have you guys seen Charlie´s video with Ian King? Talkin´ about scientists and that there is no research to suggest… Charlie´s comment was great. I know that Clemson was there.
In terms of reps and hypertrophy, Ian King feels that with more training experience, hypertrophy seems to be stimulated with less reps.
Charlie Poliquin has mentioned that he feels hammies are mainly fast twitch, so you may want to think about doing 12 reps for SLDL a bit…
But as I said above, your own results are your best justification.
Maybe I should clarify a bit what I meant by Charlie´s comment in the video. They were discussing training methods, and Charlie mentioned that sometimes sport scientists will use the standard refrain:
`There´s no scientific proof or documentation that proves that this works!´ (or something to that effect, this is NOT a direct quote).
Charlie then went further and said, `Well, hey you´re the smart guy, find it!´
I think Charlie is saying that you don´t need scientific proof if you find it works. The proof is in the pudding.
Scientific research must always FOLLOW observation/intuition, as it must validate a given proposition. Failure to validate a clear observation is the fault of the science- not the observer.
Great point, Charlie!
Paar Olaf Aastrand, a very highly regarded Swedish exercise physiologist, once said he and his group probably learned more from the athletes they tested and advised than the athletes learned form them.
Great to see Allan Wells willing to help out the Scottish sprint squad.
The article below confirms Allan’s involvement. Interesting that it finally puts to bed the notion that Margot was his coach. Allan had Margot as a sounding board and as an off track consultant.
I suspect speedball training will be recommended for a few of them.
Wells making great strides in nurturing home talent.
by Stuart Bathgate.
Allan Wells is based in Surrey but has established the Allan Wells Sprint Squad with Scottish Athletics and is hoping to inspire more medal winners north of the border. ‘If I can be a role model, I will,’ he said
A little over a year ago, Allan Wells was in Melbourne, looking back on a disappointing showing by Scotland’s track-and-field athletes at the Commonwealth Games.
The former Olympic champion, in Australia as one of the Scottish team’s ambassadors, had seen Chris Baillie win a silver medal, and Lee McConnell a bronze. And nothing more.
It was not a haul to compare favourably to Wells’ own day, and the gloom was deepened by the fact that, in some events, we had no-one even capable of qualifying to be in the team. Wells, himself, was the only Scottish sprinter who had made it to Australia.
He was measured rather than scathing in his criticism then, and hinted that, if there was anything he could do to help, he would. “People ask me why I’m not involved, but I’m based down south, and, if they want to ask me anything, I will help any way I can,” he said. “There is an element of what is not being done right in training. You need the right people to change that.”
Fourteen months on, he is involved. Although still based in Surrey, he has now established the Allan Wells Sprint Squad with Scottish Athletics, and aims to do as much as he can to help the sport get back on the right track.
Ian Mackie, the former Olympian who retired from sprinting less than two years ago, is also working with the squad, whose first meeting was held in Grangemouth in March. Mackie took the latest get-together a fortnight ago, and the programme is being overseen by Piotr Haczek, Scottish Athletics’ sprints and hurdles manager.
Wells’ commitments elsewhere mean he is unable to participate in every squad meeting, but he explained that he will do as much as he can in addition to attending some sessions.
“We’ve not got a hard and fast schedule - I’m going to come up as often as my other activities allow,” he said. "As well as me coming up to Scotland, I’ve issued an invitation for any athlete to come down to Guildford and I can see them on a one-to-one basis.
“I’m looking to see a response from the athletes and from their coaches, and to get an idea from them what exactly they are looking for. There has been a positive reaction so far, and let’s hope we get a lot more.”
The squad has been selected by Wells and Nigel Hetherington, the performance development manager of Scottish Athletics, and includes promising young athletes such as Sabina Astarita, Suzanne Begg, Ryan Oswald and Neil Fachie. Rather than offering alternative advice to a group who already have their own coaches, Wells sees his and Mackie’s role as a complementary one, helping coaches as well as athletes to expand their own knowledge.
“We can pass on our abilities and experience from the past, from when I was competing, and we can help with the stuff we’ve picked up since,” he continued. "We’ve not stood still - I’m the type who is always reading about new research and new findings so I can keep up to date with developments in athletics.
"We can’t possibly have all the answers ourselves, but we can get hold of other people, the right people to answer the athletes’ questions that we can’t answer on our own. As well as that, though, coaches have to be searching for the answers as well. We did a number of things on that first Sunday, Ian and I, like warm-ups and technical runs. But we’re not there to say ‘You’re doing things the wrong way’.
“Good athletes do not necessarily make good coaches, and I’m not saying I am a good coach. But I can direct people.”
Margo Wells, who provided vital support in her husband’s rise to becoming Olympic 100-metre champion in 1980, will also be able to help with her own experience of assisting athletes. “The athletes will have her to consult with as well,” he added. "She was never my coach as such, but she was an extra pair of eyes to be consulted. After training sessions, I might ask her something like ‘What happened on the third stride of my second run?’ and she’d remember. She’d say something like ‘You stumbled slightly, but recovered’.
"There is also an opportunity to e-mail me or phone me and I can go through it with the athlete. One thing I can give back is advice on how to cope with injuries, and it’s just as important to have advice on that as it is to get advice on the technical or medical side.
“It’s not going back to school, but, hopefully, we can help with coaches’ education as well as with their athletes’. There is a lot of help in Scotland, but this is the opportunity for a select few to have it at their fingertips.”
In addition to any technical knowledge he may be able to impart, Wells believes his work ethic will be there as an important example for the squad. To succeed, he believes, you must first accept how tough it will be. Many critics have argued that that acceptance has been lacking from British athletics in recent years, with too many talented athletes more interested in showboating than in doing the hard work.
“You can’t simulate motivation, but, with this situation, you can maybe conjure up motivation and commitment,” he commented. "If I can inspire people and be a role model, I will. It took me a whole 24 hours’ commitment a day, for 15 or 16 years of being an athlete, to get to where I did.
"I want to help. I am not going to sit on my arse and say ‘I’ll pick up a few pennies for this’. There is finance, but I am not doing it for the money. It is an opportunity for me to get involved and pass on my experiences.
“I suppose this is the right time to get involved again, with the 2012 Olympics coming up in London. The right time for me and some others.”
As the phrase “some others” implies, there is now a widespread feeling of greater unity within British track and field, and a stronger conviction that things are moving in the right direction. One piece of evidence for such optimism came earlier this week when Scottish Athletics announced the imminent establishment of a new centre for elite athletes - initially based at Grangemouth before moving to Glasgow once planned facilities are ready - something which Wells believes will dovetail with his activities and those of his colleagues.
“This group is about sharing information, so, in a way, we are doing what the elite centre planned by Scottish Athletics is going to do,” he said. “We are bringing coaches together and inviting them to share their knowledge.”
Wells’ conviction that athletics needs greater unity, not less, is one reason why he would not favour any bid by Scotland to have its own team enter the Olympic Games.
Such a bid would almost certainly fail unless Scotland were independent, and Wells is convinced there are sound sporting reasons against making it in any case.
“I personally think it would be detrimental. For a start, Scottish athletes would lose out on medals in the relays,” he said.
"Then you would have a very small team, because so few would make the qualifying standards, and that would not help athletes accumulate the experience at a high level they need.
“It is not a patriotic thing, because no-one is more patriotic than me. To have the strength and resources of four teams behind you, united under that British flag, is a big thing.”
On Wednesday, the same day that plans for the elite centre were unveiled, UK Athletics announced its target for the World Championships in Osaka - 14 finalists, with three or four converting into medals.
“It is not unrealistic,” Wells said of that figure. "It is double what we got two years ago in Helsinki, so, if it is achieved, that shows we are heading in the right direction.
"There’s a lot of energy in the sport just now, helping people focus in the right direction. Twenty years ago there was nothing like what we have now - then there were just individuals athletes working with individual coaches.
"After London won the right to host the Games, there was an initial panic, a fear about the number of gold medals that Great Britain might get.
“But now things are happening, and already we’re getting results. Look at the European Indoor Championships.”
Those results were indeed encouraging, but Wells would be the first to say they are no more than an initial step. He knows a sustained effort is needed, and that he can be part of it. The sprinter is in this for the long haul.
He has a book out???
very, very basic! plus a lot of it would conflict with charlie’s approach i should imagine. there appears to be a lot of non specific work involving punch bags and speed balls, and he does no weights in the book if i recall correctly.
I actually own a copy.
me2
It is said by some coaches who follow the Wells type of training system that the value of boxing is that the rhythm and punch through the hips simulates and perhaps also stimulates that of sprinting (without actually going out and running). This was quite handy for people like Allan Wells who said when he lived in Scotland in winter it was a bit too cold to sprint outdoors. He was tremendously fit though, with legs like those of a race horse - vascular network like roadmaps. I took him to the beach once when he was training in my city and the sunshine brigade were literally stopped in their tracks - not sure whether it was by his chiselled body or by the moon tan:p
He was ripped alright. I thought his training was very interesting and made the most of a difficult training environment. We tried the speed bag work for a bit but the speed bag would constantly break and needed to be patched almost every single day! A pain in the ass, though the other stuff was doable.
BBC Did a documentary at the height of his success called “No Easy Way” it showed the same training that was in his book, very interesting. Steam rising from his body after doing circuits in his cold garage/gym.
I saw that documentary. It is very cool. It shows him doing his boxing training along with some funny looking drills on the track.
I’m trying to order this book in a double digit figure. There seems to be a few copies in India, but after I order I get an email saying the order got cancelled because the item was not available.
Any resource ideas?
Never mind! I found a copy at www.alibris.com for 11 euros (the site only ships in the US for those interested).
speedball.