Weights following speed work

[hemann]

@speedcoach

Hemann, I think you can get the best of both worlds. I would eliminate neither strength or speed. You just have to find the balance. If your speed is for football, the way I have my athletes do it a little different. Because football is neither all strength or all speed, you need to train accordingly. Training strictly like a track guy will mess you up. Because I have very short off seasons with my players. I tend toward to a conjugate method of periodization. I would likely use block if I had more time, but that isn’t the case. When the season is over, I let my kids have a few weeks of “ME” time. When we start to work, its kind of a recuperative period. When we get the kinks worked out, I do a bastardization of Wendlers 5/3/1. We do short accel work 2 days per week. Maybe 200 yds of 10’s and 20’s. With weights, its the same format as 5/3/1 with more balanced work as opposed to triceps specialization work. We do Upper 2 days and Lower 1 day in mid week. Lots of rest and chilling out on off days. Kid’s have made tremendous gains. I have seen kid put on 20 lbs lean and improve their 40 times. They routinely go to school and test out at the very top. When we have occasional blips in schedule, I will stack weights and accel. I back the volume off, but not intensity. No recovery issues whatsoever. Hope it helps.

thanks for the response. i think we would both agree that there is no magic formula for every sprinter, but some major guidelines can be followed. Right now im of the belief that the best way i can improve is by improving my weak points. One of the weak points is definitely strength. i have had great success with improving my squat by doing them every 5 days… working up to a five rep max. Im not too strong; usually working with around 225-250 pounds, so i don’t think my CNS is stressed from it… thats what i have observed. I haven’t put on much mass either. (yet at least)

You say your guys are doing the 5-3-1 workout, obviously more stressful on the CNS: requiring longer rest periods (7 days). Now, i won’t be able to do 5 reps forever without my body adjusting, do i think the 5-3-1 would be a good change of pace. I’d knock it down to 1 workout per week.

@lkh

But if you are NOT “strong enough”, you might need to emphasize strength (and less sprinting) for a while, because combination makes it difficult to make major strength gains.

This is where im at. weak. In a sport thats all about acceleration… it would behoove me to improve my acceleration. Thus: squats and deadlifts every 5 days … …and accels 1x every 15 days