Hey guys i was wondering which would be the best program for athletic strength because i am a sprinter and have decent strength but would like to get stronger which would help improve my speed.
Thanks for the help.
for overall strength/rofd/mmo I would go with the snatch from above the knees for sprinting thats gona turn over the most, the quickest & most explosive exercise out there as far as strength exercises go, bands & chains with deads are also a favourite (for me anyway) with light loads. For upper goes the normal bench/dips/bhn presses/chins will do & then your away!
Brad
I would go with DB Hammer’s system. .It prepares you specifically for sprinting by working on weaknesses. Either that or go over to charlie francis’ site. Becareful with oly lifting. It isn’t what you think.
O’Lifting works as well as the person doing them is capable of doing them. If you KNOW how to do them (ie have been taught), do it and reap the results. However, if you don’t know how to do them, you’ll at best get nothing from them. But nothing wrong with adding more speed to your deadlifting or integrating some of the pulling movements since most people who can deadlift, can at least throw in a powerful shrug or an upright row at the end. Also some plyometrics can be of aid as well and most plyo exercises are simple enough.
I don’t think you could go too far wrong by doing CT’s Pendulum Training for Athletes. It works all of your strength qualities over the pendulum cycle and allows training for your sport on the “off” days.
I would have to recomend Joe Kenn’s Tier system in his new book. It combines the best of Westside and Olympic lifting and more.
Try to find one of Coach Davies actual routines. I paid $50.00 to see what they were like. I switch from a form of Westside to Renegade Training for Football by Coach Davies when I start to feel beat up. Davies routine is very comprehensive and deals a lot with agility and increased range of motion as well as strength and power. His book(s) is great but you need to get an actual routine from him as there are no blueprints in the book. As far as becoming a complete athlete, Renegade for Football is perfect regardless of the sport you want to excel in.
Hey Scottish could you point me in the right direction to find out more about that book please.
I would check out Charlie Francis’ site and get his ebook about speed training. It’s very reasonably priced. I would also read Westside for Skinny Bastards and CT’s Pendulum Training for Athletes. Joe DeFranco’s site has a lot of other great tips for sprinters too and they’re free.
Don’t forget flexibility either!! It’s critical to stride length, not to mention injury prevention and well being. For that I’d recommend the flexibility work of Pavel Tsatsouline. I’d also do Ian King’s Lazy Man’s Guide to Stretching before each workout, especially if you’re going to do Oly lifts. Thomas Kurz’s book about stretching comes well recommended but I’ve never read it. Maybe someone can chime in on with a review.
I can’t believe no one has even mentioned CT’s guidlines for training the Easy-Hard gainer… go to the first article, keep those thoughts in mind, write out the simplest thing you can think of, and give it 2 months. don’t post, don’t read up on anything else, just do. You’ll be a lot further on your way.
PS - Did the same thing myself. I also am a sprinter.
You can’t go wrong with Coach Davies’ stuff. Other than the fact you’ll spend nearly every workout wishing you would die. But when it’s time to step on the field, no one can hang with you…