I am 15, 5’5, 140 lbs. I am wondering what I should do next for a weightlifting program. I am finishing up Bill Starr’s 5X5.
My stats are:
Back Squat: 260X5
Bench Press: 170X5
Deadlift: 275X5
Power Clean: 160X1
Incline Bench: 140X5
Vertical Jump: 24 inches
I was thinking of doing WS4SB but I’m not sure because I feel that I am very strong in the weight room, but not as explosive as I should be. I feel that my vertical should be higher because I can squat alomost double my bodyweight. I am a sprinter and my season is starting soon, but I want an offseason program so I can know what to do after the season.
A program is only as good as the time it takes you to adapt to it. This means that most strength programs will work for awhile until you adapt at which point you have to change up acute variables.
One method is to alternate accumulation phases (higher volume and lower intensity) and intenification phases (lower volume higher intensity) to avoid stagnation.
For more specific ideas for sprinting see Charlie’s work. With vertical integration all components are present throughout the yeah but the volumes vary.
There is no ‘good’ only ‘appropriate’. This depends on the athlete of course, but given a good lead up (GPP/SPP weights programs), you could go with something like this:
Snatch (if you can do them safely) 2 (80%x1rm), 2, 1 (90%) - med ball ceiling throws 6x5kg
Powerpull (Clean Pull) 2 (80%), 2, 1 (90%) - box jumps 2x3
RDL 3x5 (80%)
You might put bench press/bench pull or another leg exercise on another day if you feel you need it, or just use med ball work as your strength component for the day. Ultimately all you want to do is ‘top up’ the CNS if you haven’t already done that through your track work. IMO you do not need to lift a lot of weights as a 400m runner inseason, so long as you have built a decent base of strength in the pre-season. Keep in mind that weights are primarily of use to you in the first 20m of the race (5% of the 400m). Most of what you do will come out of your runs and drills, so make that the priority.
you are probably right that max stregth wont help that much. but im also training for football so i would like to keep the gains i worked for over the offseason
Yeah thats what I was thinking of doing. Would 1 day for upper and lower be good? And how heavy should I go for maintenance, I have never done it before.
Champion you say you are 15, a wise man at that age.
back in the 80’s a 15 year old girl who was doing the same type of program which included a leg press won a 12 months subscription to a gym in a bench press comp, competing against body builders etc. 3 lifts, percent of bodyweight. In the weight room she did matrix with a max of 40lb plus bar. her weight was 60kg and lifted 1.5% of her weight to win. She was found by some talent scouts and the story ends there.
BTW she used to come 2nd at state behind Jana Pittman and she has won at world champs, youth, junior and senior.
I would maintain a 2X/week per muscle group frequency. But you can cutvolume significantly, up to 2/3rds from your normal volume (so if you were doing 6 sets for legs 2X/week, you can go 2 sets)
What you should NOT cut is the intensity. That’s the key to maintenance, you can reduce volume and frequency but you have to maintain intensity (defined here as weight on the bar or %1RM). This will maintain your max strength for quite some time.
If you feel like it’s slipping, plug in a couple of weeks of focus on max strength, bump up the volume to get it back up and then move back to maintenance.
So warmups, a couple of heavy sets at or near your best weights and move on. In fact, low volume heavy work can make an excellent primer for power work. You get ap otentiation effect from the heavy work without tiring yourself out and may find that your power work (whatever it is) goes better
Alternately, do the powerwork first and heavy maintenance work afterwards. So warmups -> power work -> maintenance strenght work -> go home.
Much of this depends on what else you’re doing in the week or on that day, of course. The above is just general commentary.
If you are doing track and weights on the same day you will have to be very careful about managing CNS stress. I get the feeling that you’re the sorta guy who loves to train, but always be mindful of how much your body can handle. You don’t wanna go into the gym with your CNS trashed from a big track session (even if it was the day before) and do yourself an injury lifting weights. This is a particularly big concern with powerlifting and shoulder/spinal injuries. I’ve had spinal nerve compression from trying for too much on the snatch after a big speed session and by God did it hurt!
Remember - whether it is for maintenance or power work or whatever, weights are a secondary activity to sprinting, and if you feel like doing a gym session is gunna jeopardize your next sprint session, you’re best to leave it alone. But I’m sure you knew that.