Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

hello everybody!
first, sorry my english is not especially good. (I am form Europe, Switzerland).
So, I hope you understand what I have to ask!

I'm 22 years old and I started sprinting last summer. So did short an hard sprints (20m-50m) for max-speed and long sprints (200 - 400m) for endurance.
So the thing is that I have been just sprinting and did nothing else during this year. My friend told me now to do some weightlifiting exercises to become stronger and to build up muscles.

So what do you think about this? Is it useful to build up muscles an to get stronger?
What would a normal week schedule looks like?

CU
Reo

Weights is probably a good idea because a strong core helps for sprinting a lot

Weights are a MUST if you want to reach your potential in the sprints. Check out these threads for advice:
[list]
[*]http://www.elitetrack.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=102
[*]http://www.elitetrack.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=139
[*]http://www.elitetrack.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=134

How much time will additional lifting shave off a short sprint like the 100? Should I expect drastic jumps, because I'm not really muscular at all. A few tenths? A few hundreths?

Stylee.
We dont know enough about you and know you at a personal level to tell you more. What we can tel you for sure is that you can def. expect improvement. How much improvement we cant tell you that will depend on several variables including your work ethic, intensity, volume and past experiance.

Muscles in and of themselves are not the answer. Strength and power is the key more so than the muscles themselves. If muscle size alone were the answer, then bodybuilders would be the fastest guys in the world. Increased muscle mass is however often associated with greater strength and power so if you are very thin it may be an indication that you could perform better if you put on some muscle. Every person however has an optimal level of muscle mass which will result in the best performance. This is most likely the weigth that will give them the greatest power / body weight ratio.

hello together!
so i see the importance of weightlifting for sprinters. thanks for your replies!
Would it be enough to do my exercises
twice a week if train 4 times. That means twice a week weightlifting and twice specific sprinttraining.
If there is time enough :cool: I think it's a good idea to do some endurance exercises like cycling, spinning or runnig.

Thanks and CU

Reo

Do your weightlifting on the same days as your sprint workouts. Preferably after. This way you have the days in between to recover.
good luck!

Hi
That's a good idea. so my schedule will look like this:

1st day: sprint + weightlift
2nd day: endurance
3rd day: recovery
4th day: sprint + weightlift
5th day: endurance
6th day: recovery
7th day: recovery

In the long run i think i'll replace one endurance day by a sprint and weightlifting day. So i have three sprint+weightlift workouts a week and endurance will be reduced, what's probably necessary to perform better.

Thanks and CU
Reo

I think if you were only going to train 4x a week you might be better off to do 3 days of work developing speed and power and 1 day for active recovery. Also what are you thinking about doing on the days you call "endurance?"

I think endurance training like long distance running or spinning is a good idea to have some cardiovascular basics.

Or is it a bad idea for sprinters to do such trainings. Isn't it nessecary to develop the cardiovascular system?
Some people I talked to said that it is good for general athletics. Others told me that I'll become too slow for sprinting.
So what's right?

regards
Reo

Hi Mike
So i see that endurance training is not nessecary for a sprinter even if could be for a "general athletic education". Facing this, I will try to manage without endurance and plan my schedule with components you mentioned in your posting (jumps, sprints, strength, and so on).

Thanks very much for your competent advices!!

Reo

Reo-
Cardiovascular fitness is important in athletics but endurance training for sprinters is not the way to go about getting it. Sprints, tempo work, circuits, jump circuits, and even strength training will sufficiently train the cardiovascular system. Remember that even though most of the activities I just listed are predominantly anaerobic, the recovery from those activities has an aerobic component(you've probabaly noticed the slightly elevated HR after a 300m interval @ 90% :D). Also strength training has recently been linked with cardiovasular fitness despite the fact that it never elevates heart rate to any significant extent. In the end, while it is of some importance for sprinters (and all athletes) sprint and power training is typically more than enough to to provide adequate cardiovascular benefits.

Really, as with anything, you need to consider why you would want to do it. A sprinter doesn't have the same cardiovascular fitness requirements of an endurance athlete because they don't need such fitness to compete in their events. Not only that, the training that would be necessary to get that level of fitnes would actually hurt them by dulling their speed and diminishing strength and power. What cardiovascular fitness will do though is promote general health and serve as a better nutrient transport system which will aid in recovery. Specific training to develop it though is unnecessary.