posted on 6-18-2002 at 02:29 AM by jacko
strength at LSU
Mike, My interest is in sprints/Horizontal jumps. Could you lay out the approach in the weight room at LSU for the jumpers/sprinters, have read an article where Boo spoke about cleans & squats but what other exercises are used/How many days per week ect.
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posted on 6-18-2002 at 05:03 PM by Mike
Cleans, etc.
Our lifting schedule varies throughout the year, but in general it goes something like this:
-4 – 6 days a week.
-At least 2, possibly up to 3 of those days will be a workout consisting of an olympic weightlifting movement, some type of squat, and some type of pressing movement.
-The remaining days will be used to perform a weightlifting circuit of some sort where the athletes do anywhere from 15-30 exercises and the circuit will last about 30 minutes.
-As for our exercise selection it goes something like this: for the Olympic weightlifting movements, we might do power cleans from various positions (floor, above knee, below knee) or snatches (split snatch, power snatch from floor, above knee, below knee). The squatting movements could be back squats, front squats, lunges, step-ups, split squat jumps, etc. The pressing movements ussually are either bench press, incline press or military press. The reps and intensity as well as the exercises chosen vary throughout the year and depending on the training cycle. As a rule of thumb however, our olympic movements are ussually in the 1-4 rep range, and the squats and pressing movements are in the 3-8 rep range. We ussually do 4-6 sets of each of those exercises. I hope this cleared some things up. If you have any further questions let me know.
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posted on 6-18-2002 at 10:43 PM by Jacko
thanks mike,
Sounds similar to Dan Pfaff’s stuff at Texas, (I know he came from LSU) have spoken to him numerous times about his programs. Are the circuits mainly ancillary type stuff?. I have some test results that Boo put up on a list somewhere for MJ’s , Shot throws and 30m. What sort of numbers do the female sprinters (Muna ect) put up in the weight room (Cleans, squats, Presses). My best female sprinter (11.40w/11.60) has the following bests at 55kg BW
Clean 70k, Back Squat (Full – Olympic) 100kg, Bench 70kg.
Keep up the good work
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 12:56 AM by mike
Jacko-
You’re right about the circuits- they are mostly ancillary type stuff (body building exercises/ general strength type stuff). The main purpose of these circuits is to increase work capacity and also to help improve recovery. Body building exercises (in the 8-15 rep range) and exercise circuits have been shown to increase growth hormone secretion which should help in recovery from the harder workouts.
Are the test results that you are referring to the ones that Boo posted to the speed-power list server? If so, those results are from this past year’s test pentathlon. That was an unbelievable competition. Walter Davis and Claston Bernard both broke the school record for the test (which is quite amazing if you consider the great athletes we’ve had here at LSU). We do this test in the fall as a big competition for the whole team. The test consists of the 30m, SLJ, STJ, overhead SP, & between the legs forward SP.
As for the weight room numbers for the womens sprinters, I’m not exactly sure, but I know they are nothing amazing. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Muna ever clean more than 50 kg or squat over 70 kg. She is pretty thin though if you’ve ever seen her. Lolo Jones is quite strong from what I’ve seen but I couldn’t recall any numbers for her. The women’s sprinters don’t follow quite the same weight room routin
e as us though. It’s similar but not exactly the same. In general, the strongest athletes on the team are the throwers and jumpers/multis.
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 05:23 AM by jacko
strength ar LSU
Mike are you able to post any samples of your gym circuit work?
I have heard the same reasoning for the circuits from Dan Pfaff.
what are Walter’s strength levels like ?(yes the testing was the one you mentioned)
and finally do you have any formula’s ect for comparing cleans/squats to the various field tests (SLJ, BOH ect).
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 06:19 AM by mike
The bodybuilding circuits go like this:
Circuit A-
knee extension
lunges
leg curls
lunge walks
back hypers
rows
lat pulldowns to back
behind the neck press
dips
hanging leg lifts
russian twists
behind the neck press
Circuit B
single leg extension
twist lunge
single leg curls
back hypers w/ twist
rows
lat pulldowns to front
alternate weighted v-sits
hanging lateral leg lifts
stooped russian twists
windmills
crossover stepups
closed squats
We ussually do a circuit consisting of 24 exercises. This may either be 2x through one of the above circuits or 1x through each.
Walter is quite strong. He’s not the strongest jumper though at LSU. Off the top of my head I’d say he could max out on cleans at 120 kg and about 160 kg for back squats. Where he is most amazing is out on the track, not in the weightroom.
No we don’t have any formulas for comparing the various tests in the weight room to field tests. One of the things I’m doing for USATF right now is trying to come up with something like that though. I’m not really sure how valuable it will be; but I’m looking into it to help create some kind of standardized testing set up for the womens putters.
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 06:31 AM by jacko
strength at LSU
When evaluating my program for the year, and looking at out testing (Pre training) It appears to me our strength levels are good, but our results in power tests SLJ, Shot throws are relatively lagging, So I think I need to incorporate more explosive type work, especially things to improve our starting strength.
So I am thinking that a little more use of Shots/MEd balls ect may be in order.
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 05:13 PM by mike
getting strength that means something
I think you’re right. Weight room work needs to be balanced with medball, SP throws, plyos, etc. to really get the full benefit. A lot of people mistakenly think that weight room strength has a direct correlation to performance on the track. I think that it definitely helps but there comes a point of limiting returns where more strength will not necessarily help all that much. It may in fact hurt performance if the athlete is spending more time trying to become a better lifter and devoting less time to becoming a better track & field athlete.
It is also important to keep in mind that while force development in the weight room is very high, the rate of force development is actually quite slow when compared to most track and field events. I think this is where the plyos, medball, etc can help to bridge the gap.
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posted on 6-19-2002 at 10:41 PM by jacko
Mike, Have read a lot of stuff recently about the posterior chain, and using special exercises to target weakness in this area eg using deadlifts to strengthen the glutes/HS before moving on to faster
lifts like cleans ect. what are your thoughts, do you think the olympics are the best lifts to generally strengthen this area (I agree that they have benefits in RFD, Starting strength ect).
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posted on 6-20-2002 at 03:20 AM by mike
posterior chain, etc.
I think posterior chain stuff is really important. I handled all the strength work last year for all the sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers at Ohio University and we did lots and lots to work this area. We only had one hamstring problem all year and that was to a guy who had had chronic hamstring problems his whole career. We did quite a bit of Romanian DLs, Glute-Ham Raises, Stiff Legged DLs, Clean Pulls, etc. I think DEEP squats are great for this area too. When I say deep, I’m not talking about parallel- I’m talking about bottom to the floor- super deep squats. The lower the depth of the squat the more the hamstring muscle group gets involved. When looking for the best exercises to develop the posterior chain, remember that the hamstrings are hip extensors AND knee flexors, and as such both functions needed to be worked. If you can find an exercise to work both roles at the same time then you’ve got a gem- the Glute-Ham raise (where they come up to parallel and then flex at the knees so that they finish with their torso perpindicular to the ground) is one of the few that will do this for you. There’s also some stuff you can do on a stability ball that can do the same thing.
I’m a really big fan of the Olympic lifts. If done correctly, they are irreplaceable in the training program. I think that they can be great at strengthening the posterior chain also. As for needing to do other lifts before you teach the Olympic Lifts (OL), I think that it is a good idea from a teaching standpoint but not really necessary from a strength standpoint. As with all training, one of the keys is to not do too much too soon. One can easily do the OL with something as light as a 15kg bar to learn the technique if necessary. If there is an obvious strength deficiency in the hamstring muscle group then that would be another story altogether. In that case, you’d definitely want to develop a strong foundation level of strength, which will require special attention to the weakest link.
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posted on 6-20-2002 at 05:43 AM by jacko
Mike, Previously we have used Cleans & Squats on Monday & Thursday each week, But I am currently trying just one lift on each of those Days ie one day squat theme and one day cleans theme.
will use a few extra sets eg 5-6 x 5 instead of 3-4 when using two lifts. And will begin the cleans theme day with deadlfts before moving on to clean Pulls and Cleans later in the year.
A little more economical I think, will also allow a little more time for MJ or MT work before the weight room. (Time is short as most of my athletes have to work).
May include some ancillariy stuff if time and energy permits. (Ps we do our upper body work on seperate days)
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posted on 6-21-2002 at 11:13 PM by Daniel Fichter
You mentioned squats very deep. This is exactly why i love the Olympic Lifts through a full range of motion. The power clean and power snatch have there place in every weight room, but do not neglect your full olympic lifts and their impact on developing full range of motion!
Dan Fichter
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posted on 6-25-2002 at 03:43 PM by mike
Great Point Dan-
I love the full Olympic Lifts. I don’t think that there are any other exercises you could do that would better develop total body power (with the explosive pull & jerk), strength (from standing up with the weight after it has been racked in a low position), and flexibility (from the low positions of both the clean & jerk and especially the snatch)
. I’d say if you only had 2 hours a week to devote to strength, you’d really only need to do 3 exercises:
clean & jerk
snatch
back squat
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posted on 6-26-2002 at 01:36 AM by jacko
sleds, Hills ect
Mike, do your guys (or Boo’s) do any sled work or hill work for power development, if so what types do you like.
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posted on 6-26-2002 at 01:30 PM by mike
Resisted Running
I am going to start a new thread on this one (see Resisted Running)
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posted on 6-27-2002 at 05:49 AM by jacko
mike,
You mentioned front squats in your weight work, whats your take of these for Long Jumpers, I have used them in the past and like the fact that they take the load off the back as well as the flexibility benefits, I also think they do a lot for core stability. I used full front squats (bottom to floor) to rehab one of my athletes knees after surgery once the physio’s partial range type exercises (1/4 squats and step up type things) failed.
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posted on 6-27-2002 at 07:57 PM by mike
Jacko-
Ditto to what you stated in your last post. The front squat is a great way to strengthen all athletes. In the front squat, more emphasis is placed on the anterior thigh muscles and less on the low back and posterior thigh muscles. To do them correctly, you must also have a more upright posture. On a related note, a recent research article stressed the importance of selecting exercises in which the posture used in training exercises closely resembles that of the movements
they are attempting to facilitate. Since we want a mostly upright and ‘tall’ posture when running and through takeoff, maybe front squats would be of greater value than other forms of squats….I don’t know. Here’s the article info that I’m referring to:
Wilson GJ, Murphy AJ, Walshe A. (1996).The specificity of strength training: the effect of posture. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol; 73(3-4):346-52.
I think heavy loaded movements (squats, olympic lifts, overhead pressing movements, and various pulling movements) are the best way to strengthen the core. I think the typical core/pillar/ab/hip/glute circuits are good for getting some of the smaller muscles, or for training muscles in different motions but I don’t think they could possibly have the same strengthening effect as the above mentioned exercises.
The rehab “training” that many athletic trainers have athletes do for rehab is worthless. I think most of the typical 1/4 squat progression stuff, balance board stuff, tape jobs, and flexibility recomendations that are often seen in athletic training rooms is hogwash. Having said that, a good athletic trainer who knows what he/she is doing can be an invaluable tool to any sports team.
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posted on 6-27-2002 at 08:39 PM by Daniel Fichter
Mike,
My take on it is this. Often times we send kids to therapy becuase of an injury. What happens is the therapist works on restoring the correct neural firing pateterns etc. The exercises they do are different(some times). When the athlete is returned to us, we see an improvement in their performance. Of course, most coaches think it was the therapy that made them perform better. I tend to think that it could of been an over use injury and the athlete just needed proper recovery and regeneration. It wasnt any of the neat balancing tricks they did, it was the fact that they did different drills to help aid the recovery process. What coaches are now doing is bringing the ball to pracitice thinking this is the cure all to athletic performance. They are dead wrong. Building in proper recovery is the way to go. Nothing specia
l here, just sound training. Dont look for the gadget. Look for the right plan. These people are not performance specialists, they are here to get our athletes back to full speed.
Dan Fichter
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posted on 7-11-2002 at 12:46 AM by Jacko
mike, when you are lifting (Big lifts) 3 x per week how do you allocate the lifts ie
do you back squat 2 x and choose a different lift for the third day or do you choose a different lift every session eg day 1 = Back sq Day 2 = Lunge Day 3 = Front squat
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posted on 7-11-2002 at 03:50 AM by mike
We would typically do squats only once a week. We might do front squats, lunges, lunge jumps, step ups, or split squats on the other days. On occasion we may throw in some static / dynamic type lifting also.
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posted on 7-23-2002 at 03:00 AM by jacko
mike, do you do GS circuits in the field as well as the gym stuff. where does it fit in the weekly plan.
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posted on 7-24-2002 at 06:04 PM by mike
Yes we do GS in the field also. We have GS circuits that are done 2-3x a week as well as medball circuits that may be done 2-3x a week. The GS field circuits would typically be done on the same days we do the bodybuilding circuits.
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posted on 8-30-2002 at 05:45 AM by jacko
Mike, what sort of rep schemes do you use for step ups and lunge jumps, I assume you would not be strictly in the 3-8 range as per squats.
Also when Boo takes the squatting out of the program does he replace it with other exercises of does he just do the olympic variants in that session?
PS Thanks for your thoughts so far, my athletes appreciate it greatly.
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posted on 8-30-2002 at 05:48 AM by jacko
Mike,
Could you go more into what you did at Ohio last year in terms of the strength work set up, as well as how the track work was set up around it.
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posted on 8-30-2002 at 04:56 PM by mike
When I was at OU two years ago I put together the strength program for all the sprinters, jumpers, hurdlers, and multis. We lifted in the morning (7am) 3 days a week during fall and some of winter and 2 days a week for the remainder of winter and all of spring. I personally wanted to do more but we were limited by the facility times we were given. Our track workouts came in the afternoon (3pm). A typical program would consist of an Olympic movement or a variation, a squat (front, back, single leg, lunges, etc.), a pressing movement (bench, military, DB work, etc.), an upper body pulling movement (chin-ups, rows, etc.), and some assistance work. The assistance work might be some short weight circuit or maybe a couple bodyweight exercises. I like to keep the rep range relatively low through out the year, even early on. What I would do though is monitor the intensities and volume. I’d do this by using % of rep max’s, and varying the sets and to a small extent the reps. For instance, during September they might do 8-10 x 3 for cleans @ 55-65%. In May however, they would do 4 x 2 @ 85+% after a couple low-rep warm up sets. Also, I take an opposite view to most on near maximal work. Most people think doing 1-2 reps at 90+% is where athletes get hurt. I tend to think it’s probably more likely that a kid would get hurt on the last few reps of a set of 12 @ 75%. Those last few reps are when the muscle is really fatigued and technique is most likely to break down as a result. Also, when you do lower intensity sets (i.e- 12 @ 75%) the first few reps of the set are not taxing the body to any great extent. Compare these two
possible pre-comp rep schemes for the squat:
Option 1 sets/reps/intensity
1 x 4 @ 50%
1 x 4 @ 60%
1 x 4 @ 70%
1 x 4 @ 80%
3 x 3 @ 85%
Total reps: 36
Total reps @ 70+%: 14
Total reps @ 80+%: 6
% of reps @ 70+%: 39
% of reps @ 80+%: 17
Option 2
sets/reps/intensity
1 x 12 @ 50%
1 x 10 @ 60%
1 x 8 @ 70%
1 x 6 @ 80%
Total reps: 21
Total reps @ 70+%: 17
Total reps @ 80+%: 13
% of reps @ 70+%: 81
% of reps @ 80+%: 62
If you think that increasing force production is your primary reason for being in the weight room, then why would you choose option 2. You’d spend most of your energy, on very low intensity sets, and in the process fatigue yourself for the “work” sets.
I don’t think that higher reps are terrible, I think they do have a place and I did incorporate them at certain points of the year. I would just prefer to train speed / power athletes like a speed / power athlete and not like a body builder.
In addition to this format, I also, included some very low load (30% body weight or max depending on the exercise) speed exercises later in the year. These were either done for time or for reps (ussually less than 8).
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posted on 9-4-2002 at 11:09 PM by jacko
Mike,
Do you think the circuits as Boo uses them are an effective way of keeping people fit/lean, I have a few issues with bodyweight control for one of my female sprinters. I am very reluctant to expose her to more work on the track for fear of stress type inuries to the shins/feet ect.
What other options are available to get people “Fit”?
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posted on 9-8-2002 at 06:48 PM by Mike
I think the circuits are a great way of increasing general fitness and in so doing, helping to keep athletes lean. Fat is the bain of anyone in track and field. I think for strength / power athletes, weight circuits offer a viable and more useful alternative than adding aerobic workouts as a way to increase fitness. One of the nice things about weight circuits is that they have several benefits but do not require any significant recovery time. Weight circuits can be a means of increasing aerobic capacity and work capacity (although the aerobic component is minimal), as well as beneficially stimulating hormone levels. All of these add up to a leaner athlete. And all other things being equal, a leaner athlete will always have an advantage.
If you wanted to do something else to increase fitness without overly stressing the body you could try pool workouts (aqua jogging) or interval workouts on a bike. Also, low intensity general strength circuits would be beneficial.
Another alternative which may be harder to sell to kids is to make them understand that perhaps the best way to get lean is to be active throughout the day. That is, just tell them to do some really easy calistenics first thing in the morning or before they go to bed. If people would start walking places to where they would normally drive or parking their car a quarter mile away from their destination instead of always looking for the closest parking spot then obesity wouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem in this country. Any of these suggestions will fire up their metabolism and assist in fat burning.
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posted on 9-8-2002 at 10:39 PM by jacko
Mike, have you had any experience with interval workouts on the bike, Dan Pfaff suggested simulating all the track sessions on the bike for an athlete of mine who was recovering from a stress type lower leg injury.
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posted on 9-9-2002 at 02:36 AM by mike
I agree with Dan but I think that you might want to up the volume a bit just because cycling is so much less stressful than runnin
g. If you were doing equivalent workouts on a bike as you are on a track (i.e- 4 x 300m run / 4 x 42′ cycle @ 90%) I don’t think that that amount of cycling would be nearly enough to elicit the same training response as the sprinting workout.
Now if you are adding cycling workouts to a pre-existing workout regimen then there would be no need to try and get the same training response. That would more than likely just lead to overtraining.
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posted on 9-10-2002 at 05:59 AM by jacko
mike, back to your program from 2 years ago, where did you start in terms of rep ranges for the squat, I assume the 10 x 2 was for the olympic lifts?, I like the look of your program, the only concerns I have with my female sprinters is really low reps with Back squats, only because the loads fo up and I am not too keen about really heavy loads on their spines.
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posted on 9-10-2002 at 03:23 PM by mike
For the first 2 weeks we did back squats in the 8-10 rep range with really low loads (either a set weight like 60kg or maybe 40-50% max). I monitored %s and set the percentage for each set. The percentages were prescribed with some athlete leeway in case they felt exceptionally strong or tired on that day. After the first 2 weeks we went down to 5-6 reps and then finally to 3-4 reps. Although the load (% of Rep Max) was undulated throughout the season, the rep range stayed relatively constant at 3-4 throughout the season. There were several weeks where the rep range would go back up (8-10) and there were likewise weeks where they would be doing doubles and possibly even singles.
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posted on 9-11-2002 at 04:17 PM by keith
Mike, How long did you stay with 5 reps before going to 3 reps? What was the reasoning for going back to 8-10 reps?
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posted on 9-12-2002 at 10:30 PM by mike
Kieth-
I didn’t do the sets of 5 for very long. We were into 3-rep squats after 1 month. Granted, we were still doing 30-35 total reps with a relatively light load (around 75%). I went back to some of the higher rep stuff after the indoor conference meet so that the kids could recover a little. Unless you’re not competing in indoors or are choosing to just train through it, a periodized plan for track athletes should have a double peak (once in indoors, once in outdoors). Essentially, in the early spring you should be putting the kids through a very similar, but shortened, version of the fall training cycle. Changes to the format can be made based on what you felt worked / didn’t work, the particular physical fitness of the athletes, etc.
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posted on 9-19-2002 at 01:53 AM by jacko
Mike
How do you guys do you step ups, what height, what reps and how much loading?
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posted on 9-19-2002 at 02:47 AM by mike
We do 3 kinds of step-ups. The first kind is used in weight circuits and is called a twist step up. On this, you start with your leg crossing your body and up on the box. You then step up and turn. This is done with dumbells. The reps for this are 10 x each leg.
We also do normal step ups with either dumbells or barbells. The load on this doesn’t get too heavy. Probably around 70kg for men. At OU I had some of the kids doing 90kg. This is for 5-8 reps per leg. The third kind of step-up is a plyo-step up where the athlete steps-up, switches feet, lands on the opposite foot, and repeats the exercise. This is done without weight. This exercise is usually done for time.
We almost always use a box that is 18-24 inches high. A good ballpark idea for step height is getting the thigh to be parallel to the groun
d when it is placed on the box.
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posted on 10-7-2002 at 07:07 AM by jacko
Mike, Two questions
What’s your take on the Static/Dynamic Stuff. (would you include it on a regular basis.)
And in the Program you designed, I take it you made up the volume by including a large # of sets,
For squats of 5-6 repswas there more sets with the lower intensities
eg 10 x 5 @ 70%
Progressing to say 5 x 5 if the intensity was higher (Say 80-85%).
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posted on 10-8-2002 at 01:52 AM by mike
Jacko-
I think static/dynamic stuff is a nice change of pace workout. We do it for 1 or 2 macrocycles here. I know several other big programs also use it on exercises like squats and bench press. I don’t know if I’d recommend doing it every week but I definitely think it can have a place in a well designed program.
As for your second question, you’re exactly right. When the intensity is lower the total volume is quite high. So if sets of 5 were being done, then 8-10 sets might be appropriate. When the intensity got higher, the number of sets and / or reps would drop.
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posted on 11-12-2002 at 08:16 AM by jacko
Kebba, how do you set things up in the weight room, I read you use RDL’s at times, where do these fit in to the schedule.
Andrew
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posted on 11-13-2002 at 01:18 AM by ktolbert
re: RDL’s
i use them as part of our auxilliary training on general days.
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posted on 11-13-2002 at 05:10 AM by mike
Before I comment about RDLs, for those of you that aren’t familiar with human anatomy or muscle function, here’s a very pertinent crash course on the muscles at the back of the thigh:
There are several muscles that make up the muscle group commonly known as the hamstring muscle group. Some of these muscles are mono-articular, meaning they only attach at one joint and thus only have one function. In the hamstring group, the mono-articular muscles serve to flex the knee. Other muscles in this group are bi-articular, meaning they span two joints. As such, they have two functions: knee flexion and hip extension. In running, the hamstring muscle group is used primarily as knee stabilizers and hip extensors. Now on to RDLs….
I love RDLs. When I was at OU I used them all the time. I had the athletes doing tons of RDLs and Glute-Ham Raises. I think that the hip-extension function of the bi-articular muscles of the posterior thigh is severely overlooked and under-worked. In running, the biarticular muscles of the posterior thigh are primarily used as hip extensors rather than knee flexors. This is why it seems odd to me that leg curls (knee flexion) are the primary hamstring exercise in most track strength programs. Both RDLs and Glute-Ham raises work the hip extension function of these muscles. Interestingly enough, we did these two exercises all year several times a week at OU and didn’t have a single hamstring injury among the sprinters or jumpers. I know this is purely anectodal evidence, but I’d like to believe that this isn’t a coincidence.
And a side note about Glute-Ham raises….
if done correctly, they are one of only two exercises I know that works both functions (knee flexion and hip extension) of the hamstring muscle group at the same time. When I say done correctly, I mean that the back rises to a position where it is parallel with the floor (hip extension) and then the knees flex (knee flexion) to bring the trunk perpendicular to the floor. It’s important that the knee flexion not occur simply through the momentum generated from the hip extension but rather as an active contraction from the knee flexors.
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posted on 11-13-2002 at 12:29 PM by JJ
RDL’s
Totally agree with you Mike.
I use the RDL’s and weighted back hyperextensions with my group and have had good success. I also used the RDL with an athlete who suffered from chronic hamstring pulls during his college career. The RDL significantly his strength and function throghout his posterior chain.
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posted on 1-20-2003 at 10:40 PM by jacko
“The third kind of step-up is a plyo-step up where the athlete steps-up, switches feet, lands on the opposite foot, and repeats the exercise. This is done without weight. This exercise is usually done for time.”
Mike, where do these fit into the program?
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posted on 1-20-2003 at 11:02 PM by jacko
Mike, you mentioned using split squats as a squat variation, how are these performed? Back foot elevated…what depth?
also what loads do you find the woman can handle.
Thanks
JAcko
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posted on 1-21-2003 at 01:19 AM by mike
We use unloaded step-up jumps early in the year as part of a multi-jump series and later in the year we do loaded step-up jumps in the weight room.
A split squat starts with the athlete in the extended or split position of a lunge. The difference from a lunge is that instead of stepping back to a “feet-together” position every reptition, the athlete just raises and lowers their hips without moving their feet from the split position.
I think 50% of squat max would be a good ball park figure for both men and women on this lift. Obviously, the higher this percentage the better because split squats are slightly more specific to running and jumping as it is a unilateral movement compared to a bilateral movement (normal squat). All this of course is said with the condition being that you are trying to achieve the same thing with both squats and split squats and not emphasizing speed or strength with one or the other. For example, our athletes don’t get that high of a % because when we do them, it is later in the year and we are not trying to develop the same thing (maximal strength) as we did earlier in the year with the full squats. When we do get around to using this exercise the athletes probably use somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40% of squat max.
