If you had to choose only one lift you could do for a track athlete (don’t ask me why you’d only be limited to one) what would it be?
ELITETRACK Founder
What’s the most important weight room lift
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Keymaster -
Participant
deadlift
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Member
while i partially agree with john c-s about the squat being the best simply because you can do so many variations with it, if you were only limited to one variation of an exercise the clean and jerk with a full catch on the clean is a tough one to beat. however, lets hope it never comes to this where you are only limited to one lift.
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Participant
squats its the foundation to all other lifts..
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Member
Well, i dont think there is a lift that directly transfers to sprinting… I believe what eventually transfers to the track, is the general strength of the organism (the charlie francis concept)…I consider the general organism strength as the OVERALL recruitment capacities of the athlete. Given the strength gained in a movement range crossovers to all other movement ranges (maybe due to complex neuro-hormonal interactions) makes lifting very general in nature, and i dont think squats are necessarily better than bench …
Bench is VERY useful in a sprinter's program, imo
1) Its a tool for max strength expression. Its a big compound movement recruiting around 35% of the total musculature of the body, and based on the general organism strength concept, it makes your whole body stronger even the legs (indirectly)
2) Its a very useful lift to maintain general strength qualities, during injuries where u can't do sprints, or squats or anything involving the lower body. Its also useful during tapers.
3) It strengthens the organism, without undue fatigue to the legs, which are SPECIFICALLY trained to produce strength through actual sprint work anywaysSo i consider it an equally useful lift as squats.
Strength= CNS power + muscle cross sectional area+ leverages…
So if you have very strong lifts relative to your bodyweight, and you dont even have good leverage for the lifts themselves (eg. long femurs for the squat, or long arms/small ribcage for bench), then rest assured you have a very strong neural output. That general quality is what transfers, i think.. And this quality can also be developed through track work! So each thing influences the other, max speed influences strength in the gym and vice versa
those were some random thoughts (influenced by CF)
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Participant
Well, i dont think there is a lift that directly transfers to sprinting… I believe what eventually transfers to the track, is the general strength of the organism (the charlie francis concept)…I consider the general organism strength as the OVERALL recruitment capacities of the athlete. Given the strength gained in a movement range crossovers to all other movement ranges (maybe due to complex neuro-hormonal interactions) makes lifting very general in nature, and i dont think squats are necessarily better than bench …
Bench is VERY useful in a sprinter's program, imo
1) Its a tool for max strength expression. Its a big compound movement recruiting around 35% of the total musculature of the body, and based on the general organism strength concept, it makes your whole body stronger even the legs (indirectly)
2) Its a very useful lift to maintain general strength qualities, during injuries where u can't do sprints, or squats or anything involving the lower body. Its also useful during tapers.
3) It strengthens the organism, without undue fatigue to the legs, which are SPECIFICALLY trained to produce strength through actual sprint work anywaysSo i consider it an equally useful lift as squats.
Strength= CNS power + muscle cross sectional area+ leverages…
So if you have very strong lifts relative to your bodyweight, and you dont even have good leverage for the lifts themselves (eg. long femurs for the squat, or long arms/small ribcage for bench), then rest assured you have a very strong neural output. That general quality is what transfers, i think.. And this quality can also be developed through track work! So each thing influences the other, max speed influences strength in the gym and vice versa
those were some random thoughts (influenced by CF)
If you read CF more carefully, you will see that he actually focuses on posterior chain training in the weight room. Benchpress is probably the best overall upperbody exercise, but does very little to increase posterior chain strength. YMCA's and other clubs are full of kids who bench but never squat. Their legs are still small and weak, and they have no lower body power, and less speed.
Squat is number one on my list, followed by power cleans.
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Participant
do you guys use wrist wraps when you're doing cleans?
When i did performed ol's i would use straps for the hang clean/snatch but never for the power clean/snatch.
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Member
no i feel it takes away from grip strength. it also backs it harder to bail on a lift with straps. with straps i've actually had the bar slide down my shin and ripe off a nice section of skin because i couldn't get away from the bar quick enough. never had a similar problem when i don't use straps.
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Participant
no i feel it takes away from grip strength. it also backs it harder to bail on a lift with straps. with straps i've actually had the bar slide down my shin and ripe off a nice section of skin because i couldn't get away from the bar quick enough. never had a similar problem when i don't use straps.
You shouldn't have to bail from the weight, should always know your limits. I hate when coaches bring up grip strength, if you are trying to develop grip strength then use other means.
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Member
there is a difference between knowing limits and using heavy weight. i see people miss at 95% of there max all the time and that is under their "limit". and if you dont push the envelope every now and then you won't know your limit. not using straps is a way to build grip strength without focusing on grip specific things. saves on time.
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Participant
there is a difference between knowing limits and using heavy weight. i see people miss at 95% of there max all the time and that is under their "limit". and if you dont push the envelope every now and then you won't know your limit. not using straps is a way to build grip strength without focusing on grip specific things. saves on time.
"You're a runner not a weightlifter." why are you going 95% if your an athlete? There are other ways you can work on grip strength and still use strap for hang clean/snatches for example pullups, chinups or you can add 2-3 sets into your BB circuits.
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Participant
Good points, but what i do with this. When i run long distance my bodyweight on one leg is 2 x my own bodyweight, when i do sprints it goes up to 4 x my own bodyweight and when i go for long jumps and triple jumps it is 6 X bodyweight on one leg. I am 70kg, so 420 kg comes on one leg. What is the need for light weighttraining , even when i do long runs. Its still 2 x 70kg=140 kg that comes on one leg. My coach let me train with weights from 20kg – 40kg! I train now on my own and get from 50 kg to 110 kg in Sq's, its notting yet,ist only 150 % but i feel i get stronger and faster.
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Member
utfootball the comment "You're a runner not a weightlifter," is reference to my coach telling me its alright if my squat or clean max doesn't keep a great deal as long as i get faster. from personal experience i've seen more runners perform better under a powerlifting/weightlifting program than under a bodybuilding program. high weight near maximal and very low weights has always allowed me gain strength without unwanted hypertrophy.
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Participanti would always say the clean….but this season it doesnt seem to me all that important…so id say squat…
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Member
squats are good because there are so many variations you can do with them. just by changing the bar, method of resistance like adding bands, or creating isometric tension you can add in a decent amount of different stimuli.
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Participant
clean easy.
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Keymaster
For me it is cleans or squats. Bench press doesn't even make my top 5. I think I could really accomplish the same things with either of those two exercises but I'd just need to alter other aspects of the program (assuming I stick to the hypothetical task of only doing one exercise) depending on which one I chose.
As a related note to some of the comments above, I frequently use percentages upwards of 90% in training. Overall, I'd say that most of our 'work' sets for the OLs are about 85% although we do use lower weight sets. One of the thing I like about heavier loads in group settings is that they force the athlete to train with the desired intensity. If for example, the exercise prescription called for 5 x 3 @ 70% with an emphasis on speed, the athlete could pretty easily just go through the motions because the weight is so low. This can be problematic in group settings where it's difficult to monitor every single set.
ELITETRACK Founder
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