I think the upper body has merit to help speed of the body, but how much? Does one need to bench 2 x BW to get under 10 seconds? Should we do one rep max testing like one guru suggested with pull-ups as it’s “directly related to how fast one sprints”? The answer is of course is the least popular, everything in moderation. Extreme or esoteric suggestions are always more popular but I would focus
Upper Body Strength = Fast Times?
-
-
Participant -
Participant
great post!
Last year I used a setup for the first 3-4 months of. Monday: short hills, 1 plyo and lower body lifting. Tuesday: upper body lifting, 1 max strength and the rest hypertrophy. Wednesday: tempo. Thursday: off. Friday: short starts changing stimulus each time, 1 plyo and lower body lifting. Saturday: upper body lifting, 1 max strength and rest hypertrophy.
I really loved this setup and allowed me to really push some weight around. It was meant to help gain weight and gain strength. Wednesday and thursday could be switched depending on feel. The lower body lifting and upper body had totally different lifts each day.
-
Participant
.
-
Participant
JC, Mo Greene. Yoked and fast. Numerous others.
Good post Carl…….substance.
-
Participant
Star61,
In the spinal engine the upper body value was talked about and shows that it does make a contribution but it’s not much. Mike’s article on sprinting and max speed illustrates better than I can write. My belief is that you just want the upper body and core not cause problems vs performance enhancement. It’s more addition by not getting subtraction.Kebba Tolbert is more articulate about his discussions with world class coaches so he can explain why it’s observed in may circles.
I like all the rep ranges but statistically I use 3 more. This may change but I don’t like high rep benching and most lifters need more reps to get better at technique. I just can’t do a lot of singles when people need to learn to bench more. I think going from 200-345 pounds doesn’t need a lot of periodization if you are patient. I don’t worry about 400 pound benching. Again this is not about periodization it’s just that on average athletes from 16-25 don’t need more than an honest and clear approach. I feel that elite 100m athletes are benching 300s so that is not a big challenge and will come with time. I think the upper body does need lower numbers in general than the the legs because the legs hit the ground when sprinting and the air resistance isn’t going to make the body stronger that much. I have seen upper bodies develop without much lifting with my visits to the south because hormones are real and high velocity contractions does trigger some adaptations. Honestly I don’t put huge amounts of effort in the upper body as I never seen someone pull a rhomboid during a race!
-
Participant
Thanks for the clarification. I too think the upper body strength and power plays an important role in sprinting…I was just thrown by the use of the word momentum, but I think we’re on the same page with that.
I like 3’s in the gym too, they form the basis for most strength work. I will go higher, at least 5 but never more than 10, reps per set if hypertrophy is needed. I really like including both sets of 8 and sets of 3, not necessarily in the same workout. Gives us the best balance of strength and mass and rarely leads to stagnation or plateus.
-
Participant
.
-
Participant
Great post Carl. More like this please.
-
Participant
.
-
Participant
Its not quite as simple as that. It would be fair to say that the heavier you are, the more force it requires for you to get going. However, a more well-muscled athlete could potentially produce more force than a lighter athlete. Neural adaptations are also important in strength. Then there is the possibility that a greater negative vertical force could result in a greater tendon/muscle pre-stretch during running.
In my opinion, upper body exercises are useful because you can get a good training effect from them, particularly if you are injured. If you cannot run or do lower body weights, like me for a 2-month period this year, then bench was the only real way for me to get Testosterone and GH release through training. With regards to peaking, as Carl alluded to in his post, bench can play an important role as it is CNS stimulating, but wont fatigue the legs in the same was as a squat/clean, or fatigue the system as much as a full running session. In the GPP upper body exercises can also add training loads without too much CNS or energy system fatigue.
Posture is also important in sprinting, and some corrective upper body exercises can ensure optimum posture.
-
Participant
With regards to Newton’s Law of Inertia, wouldn’t greater hypertrophy/mass/water retention etc breach those laws?.
[quote]This law states that all objects with mass have inertia.
The higher the inertia the more difficult it is to move an object; the larger the mass, the greater the inertia of an object.
Put simply; the heavier you are the harder it is to get moving. So regardless of how muscular you are, if your mass increases then the harder it will be to get going, so you may increase your power levels by getting larger muscle mass but now you have to deal with greater inertia.
What is the ideal?. Wouldn’t a sprinter want to see a small/decreased change in body weight and a larger increase in strength?.
The “positive” talk on hypertrophy/mass contradicting Newton’s Law has me a little flummoxed.[/quote]You could use the same logic with respect to a car. A Bugatti Veyron weigh over 4000lbs., the Scion iQ weighs about half that. Which would you put your money on in a race? Newton’s Laws are a little more complicated than that.
-
Participant
Nice post Carl. Coaches need to talk more on sequence and why.
-
Viewing 12 reply threads
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.