Many more exercises are now recommended since uni lateral exercsies have become so popular. The uni lat exercises are very useful to promote balanced strength to both sides of the body, stabilisation and therefore injury prevention. This makes periodization and prioritising even more difficult without loosing the qualities gained by the various exercises and also avoiding overtraining.
How do you pick and periodize from Back squat, bulgarians, single leg squat (pistols), reverse hyper, back hyper, romanian dead lift etc. and their single leg variants?
I have left dominant upper body exercises which are less complicated for sprinters, and also the optional oly lifts. Of course any lifts performed have to fit in with the overall periodization plan for improving results on the track.
IMO for lowerbody, pick either a squat or deadlift(or one of the variations) and stick with it unless you see a specific reason to change. Reverse hyperextensions and hyperextensions can play a complementary role in your workouts. They can be used for higher repetitions to increase work capacity or for heavier resistance for specific strength. Although, depending on what your main lift is, using it as a strengthening exercise might be redundant. If you just did deadlifts then the lowerback/posterior chain just got plenty of strength work anyways and hypers/reverse hypers should be used mostly for raising work capacity in that case. If you feel they are needed, single leg exercises should play a secondary role as their inability to generate high forces would most likely put them at a disadvantage if they were used specifically for general strength.
in program design its a good idea to listen to the advice “work proximally to distally” that means work the muscles cloesest to the center of the body before your work the muscles that are further away (dsital) from the torso. this is a uff guide line but remmeber that the body transfers force through the core and that the core must be stabalized so that the prephrial muscles can effectivly do their job. in essences if the core aint working right the arms wont work right the legs wont work right and youll be a display of ineffecient movments. alos you would train your shouldars, for example, before you would train your biceps as the moment arm of the shoulder is low while its external moment arm is high. the external moment arm of the upper limb is easily over 20 times the length of the deltoids moment arm so the deltoids actually have to produce a force 20 times that of the external force due to the difference in motor arms (if a person is holding a 10 pounds weight in static equilibrium his deltoid must produce a force of 200 pounds to balance the internal and external torques). this is another reason to train proximally to distally, the same applies for the lower limbs and is the reasone most individuals display a diminishing of muscle mass when you go from the core to the limbs. if your arms are bigger than your shoulders, you may want to look at how your training. if your calves are bigger than your quads… youve got a problem.
It’s best to concentrate on classic compound lifts rather then their variations. I’ve seen many people get into isolation work and different forms of classic lifts, and only run into trouble. Remember, your body adapts for what it’s asked to do. Pistol squats do not match, by any means, the power output or cns requirements of a heavy squat. Don’t get too caught up in the hype of the latest “new lift”, just keep it simple. Always.
What about a unilateral exercises being used in GPP transfering to traditional bilateral exercises for the max strength phase. This would develop the stabilizers and equalize the prime movers to benefit max strength. Also, as long as strength was maintained adequately and any hypertrophy gains were met, a great bonus would be further removing the mental state of staleness from the ‘big’ lifts especially for atheletes with a greater training age.
By the time of the max strength phase plyos and track could maintain the stabilising qualities from the unilateral exercises otherwise a short weekly maintainance session could be applied.
If the only thing your worried about is mental staleness, then of course it’s alright to change the routine up (as should be done in the first place). Just make sure it still operates around the big 3 and your doing oly lifts with proper technique, etc. I still disagree with the variations though unless it’s for a specific purpose (ie: close grip bench press to get through sticking spot and increase tricep output).
What is the problem that requires all this unilateral work in the dirst place?? You’re right that it’s better to do it in the GPP but you need a damn good reason considering the very real risk of trashing your athlete’s resources that are needed elsewhere. Trendy bullshit artists sell this crap to everyone regardless of need. Caveat emptor
I think Bruce Lee said something to the effect that you must strip away all that is not useful to you. You cannot overfill your cup of water.
I’m constantly working to become a minimalist when it comes to exercises. Many of the books out there are just lists of exercises, with no explanation of progression, context, individualization, transition, etc.
It’s not a case of “he who dies with the most exercises wins.” Ben Johnson ran 9.79 slowing down with no Olympic lifts, no plyos and no unilateral work. That speaks volumes to me.
You just made a very valid point, but at the sametime everyone isnt ben johnson and cant exert the same effort he did on the track with his training along with all the other factors.
Ben Johnson worked with a training model which was specific to his needs. He was naturally strong and trained in the weight room (I forget his lifts off the top of my head but search for them, they were equivilent to an amature powerlifters). We’re discussing uni vs bi lateral exercises and if Ben Johnson comes into the discussion, remember that he was VERY strong in the main compound lifts so whether he did plyos doesn’t matter. BJ was strong and trained specifically for sprinting. That’s all you need.
According to several authors of t-nation (strength coaches and physical therapists) unilateral exercises should be placed in the prehabilitation phase or GPP to help AVOID injury and promote hypertrophy.
As one author states, the only non weight lifting sport were we practice on 2 feet together is rowing. We use physio and med balls to develop the stabilisers, why not unilat squats etc.
I believe plometrics are excellent in developing core strength (as well as power) for sprinting and certainly better than the usual physio ball stuff. I think many agree. Are plyos any safer than unilateral weights?
I have been experimenting with unilateral exercises and am surprised how fast my legs have developed. I havent had any niggles either. Going off the figures they should cross over very well to the full squat, but I will let you know.
Plyometric work builds explosiveness, where as core lifts build overall strength. There’s a huge difference - no comparison between the two. Unilateral exercises will develop you just like any new form of training will (training adaptation). Regardless though there’s a much higher risk of injury, lower ability to overload, and there’s just overall better options. I can see where your coming from but your trying to get way too complex for a simple problem.
Of course plyometrics build power that is their main use, but they also build core stability very well. Physio’s often prescribe unilateral plyos for core stability. As sprinters we would probably use them firstly for power and secondly for stability depending on our individual needs.
Uni lateral exercsies when performed safely and progressively over several weeks or months can decrease injury potential through increased proprioreception and stabilisation and also decreased loading of the spine.