hye iam a 16year old sprinter and i was wondering what type of wieght training should i do
Have you done any weight training previously? How long have you been training for sprints? I assume that you know the basic lifting techniques, but if you don’t then that should be the place to start with the guidance of someone qualified.
Remember that weight lifting is general, not specific, for sprints. So keep it simple. Choose 2-3 main lifts per session (squats, power cleans, deadlifts, bench presses, push presses) and a couple secondary ones (bent over rows, chin ups, reverse hypers, one-legged hypers, etc.). For the main lifts use something like 6-8 sets of 3 reps with 75-80% of your 1RM in the gpp. Rest intervals shouldn’t be higher than 90-120s. Use higher repetitions (8-12) for the secondary lifts.
In the spp (in your max strength phase) you should then increse the load to 80% and higher, of course taking an easier week once in a while. Also increase the rest intervals to 3 minutes. For example 2-3 weeks with 85-90% loading and then 1 week with 75%.
This is just one way to do it so keep reading the posts on the strength training forum get more ideas.
thanx a lot
Hi
I’ve been a structural bodyworker fascial connective tissue manipulation specialist for 22 years. I used to work on Olympic Athlete runners and jumpers, a champion college track team and some serious 10K and marathon runners. I just finished a number of hours with a serious sprinter in his 30’s, and he hired me because all his weight training had really tightened him up - he was bigger than anyone except the Olympians, but just as thick and tighter than they were. Now he is much looser down to the bones. He was already a serious stretcher doing a lot a day and my work helped him do a lot more here as well.
So I recommend you do a lot of stretching to begin with while you are starting young - he even recommended that. When I worked on the track team, their biggest problem was tight legs including hamstrings. Here we have a two-joint muscle tendon mechanism. The gluteals and tensor muscles tighten and pull the tendon across the hip and knee joints to stabilize the leg, whenever we stand on one leg, including when we are walking and running.
People often feel the effects of tight thigh and leg muscles in the knees and lower back. And while the hands on Bodywork is very fast and does a lot, I was even able to use stretching of the fascial lengths to remove sciatica for a Mediteranian Games silver medalist shot putter and later, an assistant manager of a health spa workout gym.
You can get tips on what to do and what you should be aiming for at my website http://www.backfixbodywork.com See the Free Articles Page for Stretching Tips and Improving Athletic Performance. For understanding muscle anatomy and how tightness causes different kinds of problems, see Fixing Accumulated Shortness. You may also get info from the stretching video blurb and the testimonials of the Athletes, Coaches and Runners. See the links page under structural and postural integration for more related sites.
Listen to Lou. I’m the one he was referring to in his post. Start seriously stretching now, from the very beginning. That is the most important piece of advice I can give to a teenager. An ounce of prevention is worth a couple tons of cure (and a lot of saved money). Teenagers especially tend to slack off on stretching because they are fairly loose in general and they don’t think 10-20 years down the road. Learn the lesson now.
Another important consideration is that stretching will help maximize your power output. If the tissue becomes chronically tight, the joints will not track properly and the nervous system will inhibit the muscles to protect the structure. The fascia is the medium through which the muscles transmit force, and if it becomes chronically tight and stiff, the force transmission is reduced.
The Australian strength coach Ian King has been a staunch advocate of stretching for years. He considers stretching the most neglected training component and the one that offers the most untapped potential for most athletes. Ian recommends 1 hour of stretching for every hour of training.
I’ve followed Ian’s work for years, and have used some of his stretching methods, but it wasn’t until recently that I really took his advice to heart and truly understood where he was coming from.
I wanted to ad something for your routine. Try eating a lot of seaweed - from the health food store as well as from the oriental store. Never mind the nori which is processed seaweed around sushi, and not as high in calcium and other minerals as the others. Try kelp (kombu), dulse, wakame, arame. They are all high in calcium, kombu and wakame and arame the most. Dulse highest in iron. They come in powders and sheets. Dulse comes in flakes, too. They are loaded with the minerals for muscles! They can make you stronger, recuperate faster and even keep your tissues more relaxed.
Also, dark green organic leafy vegetables, kale, collards, parsley, spinach, chard, dandelion greens. Eat a lot and get a Green Life, Champion or other juicer that does greens. Mix with some carrrot juice. It’ll give you energy and more elastic muscles that stretch further and relax better.