What I want to do is split up my workouts - track in the morning, weights after I get off of work.
So,
Day 1: Morning - Sprint work
Afternoon - Weights
Day 2: Morning - Tempo
Day 3: Morning - Sprint Work
Afternoon - Weights
Day 4: Morning - Tempo
Day 5: Morning - Sprint work
Afternoon - Weights
Day 6: Tempo
etc etc.
Are the afternoon weights from Day 1 going to affect my CNS (the sprints on Day 3) more significantly if I set it up like this than if I did everything in one big session on Day 1?
I suspect the answer is yes, but I’d just like to know if it’s possible.
I would suggest weights in the AM and track in the PM
The speed work has higher CNS demand in comparison to the weights, and certainly more importance from a training emphasis standpoint, and as a result you are almost sure to experience higher quality track work in the afternoon vs the 1-2 hours after waking up.
But that would require you to significantly lower the amount of weights you can plan for because you can’t assign a level of lifting that even might affect the capacity to sprint, even if the sprint capacity wasn’t ultimately used (for whatever reason) in that session.
If the weights are after, you can let the weights fill up the “CNS glass” to the top.
What Ben often did was a compromise. He lived far from the track, so two a day sessions weren’t an option except in training camps, so he’d do easy “beach lifts” in the am near his house to get his system primed, then do the sprints followed by the high load weights in the PM
Can you expound on the beach lifts? Are we talking working arms, shoulders, etc? If so, how would these serve to get his system primed, I would think that the lack of MU involvement would do little or nothing to really prime the CNS? Maybe the increased bloodflow had a positive effect?
Didn’t expect this many responses so quickly…thanks guys.
I don’t even have access to a track. The high school I went to has one but they only let current students and faculty on (regardless of how much tuition we’ve paid them!). I sneak on to a middle school football field in the morning. They’re using it in the afternoon.
I’d do everything in the morning, but I’ve got to get to work by 9 and don’t think I can wake up early enough to make everything work.
Oh well, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try to figure it all out.
I would recommend doing speed work in the morning and the lifting in the evening. However, because you will be better rested for the weight lifting in the evening than if you did it immediately following the sprints, your lifting output in the gym might actually be higher. While that might sound great at first, it means that your overall CNS output for the day will be higher, which might be too much to recover from. Plus, as you mentioned above, the delay in the weight workout will reduce the recovery interval before the next sprint workout. Therefore, you need to be conservative with your weightlifting until you have properly gauged your ability to recover with this kind of split.
Yes, the weights must yield to the track work so in reference to my suggestion the context would be that weights are planned conservatively relative to the objective of that block.
In this case one might argue that if the weights come first, in the AM, then how might one know ahead of time how that will affect the track work later in the day. To this my answer is context dependent upon my particular method of programming in so far as I plan the weight work far in advance and have seen a very high degree of predictability in so far as having a very good idea as to how the weights will affect the speed work.
Granted, my preferred method is speed work then weights all done mid day to afternoon; however, given the circumstances presented in stylee’s case (AM and PM) time slots, I have seen over and over again that early morning speed work almost always fails to be as high in quality vs later in the day as the AM speed work requires even longer warm up purely from a muscular standpoint, the CNS in naturally ‘asleep’ for the first hours upon waking, the athletes are inherently dehydrated and nine times out of ten malnourished (granted within their control but since it’s out of mine I can’t count on it); whereas the weight work (while also CNS dependent assuming the percentages are moderate to high and certainly benefits from hydration and nutrition) provides a greater degree of latitude in all cases.
Personally I don’t like doing a damn thing with my athletes within the first few hours upon waking; however, logistically this is necessary.
At any rate, I’m not a fan of the speed work within the first few hours after waking if it can in any way be avoided.
Here’s my scenario, I hit the track but then I have to drive to go do my weights…whats the longest you can wait before you lose the effects of the track?
It would take 10, maybe15min at the most (if traffic is bad.)
I have an interesting option that might suit a high school athlete. Do the track sessions as normal in the evening and do a ‘makeshift’ weights routine at home:
Day 1/Monday - Curls, chin ups, ab circut in the morning. Speed work, then bench and deadlift in the afternoon.
Day 2/Tuesday - Ab circut in the morning. Tempo in the afternoon.
Day 3/Wednesday - Curls, chin ups, ab circut in morning. Speed work in the afternoon but no weights.
Day 4/Thursday - repeat Tuesday
Day 5/Friday - Same stuff in morning as M/W. Speed work, then bench and squat in afternoon.
Day 6/Saturday - repeat Tues/Thurs
I’m still recovering from my hamstring problem so the deadlifts and squats are pretty light. My “speed” work is only at 85% right now for that same reason.
GPP is 12 weeks…long time but I’m pretty out of shape. 3 weeks of just general fitness/beginning speed, 3 weeks with an emphasis on acceleration, 3 weeks top speed, 3 weeks S.E. All elements, however, are present to a certain degree in each phase.
Thanks, David. Training a football guy right now whose working hours are pretty terrible - I think he’ll benefit from something like that.