willie, in response to your reply: i have somewhat of a clue what i’m talking about, i’ve tried to do some research into track athlete training and preperation…I don’t think using ian kings “white men can jump” workout for a track athlete would be the best idea; i’m sure you would see some good results from it, but i think you could do better with a little thought. doing phase 3 and 4 for 6 weeks doesn’t seem logical to me. Being a sprinter there is a high change you have an ‘explosive’ nervous system that adapts to any given program at a faster rate than the average person. Poliquin has said 6 workouts to adaptation, i’ve read similiar guidelines from russian researchers usually along the lines of 3 weeks. Sprinting twice a week seems like a relatively low volume off season training program. My suggestion would be to base your weight training around your sprinting. Sprinting is a huge burden on the legs and I highly doubt it would be a good idea to additionally burden them with an intensive leg workout several times a week. For example i find that squatting once every 4-6 days during the offseason works well for me.
dman, i did not mean to say WSB approach would not work with sprinting, i only ment to say that I don’t think it would be the best choice in this situation. You may not necessarily need significant muscle mass to develop maximal strength, but i think in the case of sprinting having significant muscle mass in the posterior chain would be highly beneficial, moreso than just plan neuromuscular strength training (ie. low reps, high sets, high rest period). Sprinting also utilizes strength endurance as well as absolute and relative strength. I’m advocating using reps in the 6-8 bracket or wave loading for gains in strength via myofibular hypertrophy and neurological mechanisms.
Basically, go over to EliteFitnessSystems (make that into a url) and “ask dave”, tell him your stats and everything ask him for some ideas on a training scheme. BTW also goto Deepsquatter and read the “Eccentric/ Concentric” article… I personally can’t see why one would really need TONS of muscle mass (to the point that would constitute a hypertrophy based program, which would also be detremental to training), Nothingx. Those strength factors utilized by a sprinter (esp the 100m) are maximal strength, and power (total and in respect to their size). I know from Speed Trap, Ben Johnson ran at his fastest speed for as long as he could in drills, until it dropped off, which sometimes, in the beggining, would be only 10m. Through practice he brought this up, gradually to 100m. Francis’s thoughts were that it is easier to have a runner run hard, and increase that distance, than to have them run far and tell them to be faster.
Woah! Steady on guys. I have ben following some of the discussion on this thread and by now Matt must be completely confused. It strikes me that there’s alot of aspiring sprinters out there, that are a little wide off the mark.
Let’s get this straight. 100m sprinting is ALL about speed-endurance. No arguments. Dman’s last post hinted as much regarding Ben Johnson’s attempts in training to sustain top speed. However, there’s a continuum to follow here. How soon in your athletic career would you consider that you have a high enough top speed to warrant worrying about how long can you make it last?
So lets back track a bit. You’re young, you’re starting out. What’s the first step on the ladder? Everything starts with maximal muscle fibre recruitment, from here you will possess enough strength to generate the power to accelerate to top speed (assuming all is well technically), and then you will be concerned with sustaining this top speed.
Question… Do you periodise your training to follow this continuum each year, or do you take a longer term approach and spend say, several years concentrating on the first part, and then shift your attention further along the continuum and so on?
In short, you combine both, so that you may do brief periods within your yearly training cycle, but in the prescence of a longer period of work which concentrates on one particular aspect, eg strength. This way you get to sustain development of crucial aspects of your long term conditioning, and at the same time are able to make a reasonable account of yourself in-season. Make no mistake this approach requires excellent and focussed planning, but it stops you from short-cutting your potential. I can understand why you might want to impress your coach, but in reality this is a lame goal that might produce a short term rise in your performance, but in a year or two’s time it will be wasted time. THINK BIG! Pick a big goal 4-6 years away, then break this down into smaller stepping stone goals. Goals work best when they are related to your performance rather than outcomes, eg to run sub 10secs in 4 years, rather than win a championship event - as this depends on others not just you!
So where am I going with this? It may be that you need to look at some basic hypertrophy training for some time. Whilst this may pan out to be a 6-12 month task, it will facilitate the important task of strength training further down the line.
I don’t believe any of the programmes I have seen posted on the site are particularly relevant to sprinters. In a hypertrophy phase I am inclined to keep reps moderate (8-15) over about four sets (after warm ups). All the stuff that you know is good for is! ie squats of varying stances, pulls, deads etc. A golden rule of sprint training is not to have have two consecutive training days that represent a high neuro-muscular demand, which means you have to play around with your schedule a bit. At your stage I am a fan of having your track work mirror your prep work, so things like starts and acclerations sit nicely in this phase. All you need to add on a less frequent basis is speed reps to remind your body what it’s doing. This is one reason why some sprint disciplines in other sports eg track sprint cyclists, follow strength weights with high cadence sprint work.
I am sorry I haven’t been too presriptive here but it’s really worth a book or two. Think long term, use you body’s own physiology (ie you’re young and hormonal!), and don’t short cut your potential by periodising for lame goals.
Best wishes.