Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Hey all,
Everyone here knows that lifting is important for TJ/LJ….....But I cant seem to find the right way to lift. Should I do my lifts heavy and with fewer reps or should i keep weight low and more reps.
ex: 4 sets x 4-6 reps with heavy weight or——4 sets x 15-20 reps with about middle weight….(I feel that i get a better work out when i do middle weight with many reps)...... Should I devide the lifting part ex: Jan-March with lower weight but many reps march-july with heavy weight and fewer reps?
I heard from Ato Boldon that you should do your weights slowly becasue it develops sprint muscles, is that true? Should do my lifts slow or quick?

Should I do anything elese for upper body besides bench? Becasue I kno Upper body is important.

How Long should I be in the weight room?

Suggestions about weight room for TJ/LJ….......?

See here:

< http://www.elitetrack.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=102 >

hey all,
I went to that site, I dont find it much helpful…......whats the deifference between sprnters lifting program and TJ/LJ lifting program? Im training right now with the sprinters group, and do everything they do (weights and bounding and other stuff), jumping 2ce a week. Is this the right way? Im still not sure what should I do for weight room to improve TJ/LJ? Can some one give a sample?

This is what my week looks like right now in general:
Mon: jumping/ bounding
Tues: lifting
Wed: tempo/ endurance/ bounding
Thurs: Speed/ Power/ med ball / bounding
and light lift after
Fri: off / play other sport
Sat: speed/ power/ some med ball and bounding and lift after
Sun:off

(is this fine?)

Since im training with sprinter, i do their weghts, i would like to know the difference in that area b/w sprinter and TJ/LJ ers…......

All the stuff I posted was for horizontal jumpers unless I specifically said it was for sprinters. The strength program of a sprinter and a jumper should be very similar if not identical. That doesn’t however mean that the sprinters workout that you are following is necessarily correct.

As for track work, I think jumpers need more plyo work than sprinters and the running workouts should be considerably different. Jumpers probably shouldn’t do any more than 1 interval workout a week and most of their running workouts should consist of acceleration development (< 40m) and maxV (< 90m).

As for your week, here are some suggestions:
-Put Tuesday’s lifting on Monday

-Do medball and other general strength work on Tues. Maybe also do some short approach jumps.

- Don’t do tempo work. I don’t think there is any need for a jumper to do tempo work though unless they are also doing some running for the team.

-Instead of the tempo session do some acceleration development or MaxV work and add some heavy lifting.

-Make Thursday similar to Tuesday’s recomendation.

-Friday or Saturday would be a good day to get in a running workout (<300m sprints). Do some lifting on this day too.

-I think you’re doing a little too much bounding. Bounding is great but it can be very hard to recover from (you might not feel it until it is too late).

How much lifting would you suggest for a 18 year old? I do 3x a week right now.

Three times a week sounds perfect to me.

Coo, thnx mike.
:D

hey again, just came up with another question.
My coach told me not to do clean and jerks right now ( Olympic lifting ), im 17, he said its too early, is he right? If he is, when should i start doing clean and jerks and stuff like that? Because here i’ve read that olympic lifting is a good way to develop explosiveness. Brian Wellman from Bermuda also told me that i should do olympic lifts, that was a year ago.

I’d only recommend against it if you don’t have a person who’s qualified to teach you correct technique.

Mike, have you ever though of calf and dorsi muscles being usefull in TJ? If yes, would you recomend for a TJ person to do calf raisers and dorsi flexors in the weighroom?

Another thing, maybe i missed this, but i still cant figure out wether i should do all my lifting fast or slowly. (to clear the meaning ex: squat 5-7 sec per rep or 2-4 sec per rep?)

PS: Sometimes when I do calf raisers without any weights, I feel my Ham muscles are involve alot…......

You can lift at all speeds. When developing max strength, lifts will inherently need to be slower because a high load is necessary. When developing power or speed-strength, faster lifts are necessary. Very slow lifts (10 seconds per rep) may even have limited value in developing eccentric strength or for variety.

I don’t think doing anything special for the calves is necessary. The calves get a lot of work during walking, running, sprinting, and jumping, as well as in lifts like the snatch, clean, squats, and lunges. The calves contribution to running speed and even more so to jumping ability (while important) is highly overrated. Having said that, we do plantar/dorsi flexor work in our general strength circuits but not in the weightroom.

As you’ve found out the calves (and more specifically the gastroc) is worked during some some hamstring exercises and also depending on the body position the opposite is true (hamstring may be worked during gastroc exercises). This is due to the gastroc being a 2 joint muscle.

mike, i wasnt clear on one thing, you start out the season by telling your athletes to do weights at about 50-60% x about 8-10 reps x 4 sets….............and than increase the weights to about 80-90% x decrease reps to 3-4 x 4 sets as the season moves closer to competition?

off-seasonlifting: 50-60% of weight x 8-10 reps x 4 sets
midle-season: 60-70% of weight x 6-8 reps x 4 sets
competative-season: 80-90% of weight x 3-6 reps x 4 sets

does you program looks sometihng like this? ( low to high intensity/ high to low reps? )

Mikhail- yes and no. I do start off the season with lighter loads and higher reps but this doesn’t last any time at all….maybe 1-2 weeks. After that, reps drop, sets go up dramatically, and the load goes up gradually. By the third mesocycle, the athletes were lifting at 85+% for multiple low rep sets for all the major exercises.

It would probably look more like this:

-inititial 1-2 weeks: 50-70% x 4 x 8 reps
-80-92% x 6-8 sets x 3-5 reps
-80-90% x 4-7 sets x 2-3 reps

This however doesn’t paint a very clear picture. Besides sets, reps, and load, the other paramters I like to use as variables are exercises, speed of movement (including static holds), and range of motion.

mike,
1st- do you know any websites where they show techniques for Olympic Lifting.

2nd- right now im only using power clean and jerk, would you recommend adding other stuff like snatch, or clean from knees, floor….....?

3rd- does it matter wether i use machienes or free weights?

4th- what do you think bout this TJ lifting for competative session?

Tues:
Warm up 15 mins
dumbell sprint 5 mins
Step-ups with weights 15 reps
jump squats with weights 15 reps
split squats with weights 15 reps
skip jmps 5 mins
cleans + jerks 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
cool down and stretch 15 mins

Thurs:
warm up 15 mins
clean + jerk 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
up right raw 10 x 3 sets
push ups 50
cool down and stretch 15 mins

Sat: ( sometimes i’ll take sat off casue of competition )
Warm up 15 min
sit ups 15 x 3 sets
back hyper 15 x 3 sets
chin ups 10 x 3 sets
hip flex+ extent 10 x 3 sets
ham curls 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
leg extent 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
clean + jerk 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
toe squat or regular squat 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
bench press 80-90% x 6 sets x 3 reps
cool down and stretch 15 mins

anything i should add/delete/replace?

5th- should i increase/decrease weight as the sets increase?
ex:
1st set x 80% x 3 reps
2nd set x 82% x 3 reps
3rd set x 84% x 3 reps
4th set x 86% x 3 reps
5th set x 88% x 3 reps
6th set x 90% x 3 reps

woops, mike i forgot one more thing, can plzzzz paste an intermidiate lvl lifting program for TJers (off-season and competative season 3 days a week). It can be one of the programs you give to your athletes.
thx

ps: i dont have a jumps coach therefore that program i pasted on top was from a book + i added some stuff that i really liked

Here’s a basic template that is used throughout the season at LSU:

Monday:one olympic lift for 4-6 sets; one squatting type exercise for 4-6 sets; one pressing exercise for 4-6 sets.
Tuesday: bodybuilding circuit
Wednesday: Same format as Monday but different exercises and slightly different loads.
Thursday: bodybuilding circuit
Friday: Same as Monday except different exercises and slightly different loads.
Saturday: bodybuilding circuit

The bodybuilding circuit can be seen here: < http://www.elitetrack.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=102 >. Later in the season, some or all of the body building circuits are dropped. Reps fluctuate as would be expected: 1-5 reps for Olympic lifts; 3-8 for squats and presses depending on the time of year.

As for your questions….
1. Do you know any websites where they show techniques for Olympic Lifting?

Check out < http://www.usaweightlifting.org > they used to have some picture series and I’d assume they still do but they just restructured their site. Also check out the advantage athletics site < http://www.advantageathletics.com/ >.

2. Right now im only using power clean and jerk, would you recommend adding other stuff like snatch, or clean from knees, floor….....?

Clean and jerk is fine and more than adequate but think about at least adding snatch later on to not only increase variety but also because it has a higher velocity and rate of force development requirement than the clean. The other variants are likewise good but not absolutely necessary.

3. Does it matter wether i use machienes or free weights?

I’d recommend using mostly free weights.

4. What do you think bout this TJ lifting for competative session?

I think it looks OK but I would also include some form of core strength lifts (squats, presses, etc). Also, try not to mix endurance type things like “50 pushups” or high rep sets (9+) with power type exercises like the Olympic lifts as it sends mixed messages to the body. I’d also focus more on major exercises rather than spending too much time on things like hamstring curls or upright rows.

5. Should i increase/decrease weight as the sets increase?

Yes, I like to do that but in a much more dramatic way…..that is something like this:
1st set x 65% x 3 reps
2nd set x 75% x 3 reps
3rd set x 80% x 3 reps
4th -8th sets: 85% x 3 reps

This way you work a greater portion of the force-velocity continuum.