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Other/Mixed Sprinting speed questions :)

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Hello,

If you want to do isometrics, here is a "guideline" which is Prilepin's table, as @Bro Mo mentioned, for isometrics:

Here is the "regular" Prilepin's chart:

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I'm reluctant to share my programme as it was given to me by an experienced pro sprinter. Sort of specific to me but general for an over 40s competent sprinter.

I'd echo @Denny Phillips recommendation to do drills.
Start your session with drills and be attentive to them, very important. I add some single leg hops too.

Rest periods for speed: 1 min for every 10 metre.
There's a trade off with all modes of training, isn't there?
You may think that's far too long.
There's a split between sprinter training and sprint for sports conditioning. The latter, recovery is more important than raw top end speed, the former, recovery and the ability to repeat high efforts quickly is not the primary intention, speed is.
So you have to be fresh and full recovery is preferred. There are times to reduce rests for specific purposes but only apply them once you've established solid technique and sprint capacity. It's difficult to differentiate, as they merge in a sense, within the framework of 'sprint training'.
The 2 broad templates for sprinters are a long to short, or short to long. They are more similar than they different.
If you frame any programme from a technique first standpoint then broadly the choice is competition timing, climate and individual response/needs.
I wouldn't want to guess what you 'need' to work on as a priority but you need to think sprinting as your strength training. The focus. So all other stuff is moderate and respect the intensity of it.
Carefully monitor max velocity volume and be aware that sub max, 85-90%, can accumulate to.
I'm 56. I do a 4 month long to short prior to winter sprint events. Then speed maintenance during 2 events, break, then short to long for summer competitions, break....long to short again. If that's of any use at all. 2 x week.
Some sprinters I know, do no more than 3 x week but those that do are pretty experienced and, well, world class.


By long to short....sprint capacity/speed endurance first, to shorter speed.
Short to long....speed first, speed endurance prior to competition.
Micro dose/grease the groove - for speed maintenance (and development).

It's not a case of which is better, more which one is appropriate for you. And within each approach there are details. A Charlie Francis short to long includes 'aerobic sprints', often overlooked when discussing short to long, as it isn't 'just' short. Pros and cons of both. For each block/phase allow 6 weeks and phase into another block. Again, in general.

This year has gone pear shaped though, in many ways! So not sprinting at the moment but the plan is to start training in September for winter competitions, if they are on even.

Depends where I am in that 'normal' cycle as to what else I do. Broadly swings and get ups. Did q&d swings press ups snatches last year as prep. Non exhaustive stuff anyway. Made loads of balls ups, calendar mishaps and whatnot to know what I already knew: respect sprint intensity. 'It depends' lurks here. I did a deadlift programme and got my sprint training messed up, coinciding with the end of the programme clashing with some heavy sessions, not a good mix. Never had conflict with swings and get ups, but modified from what I'd do as a stand alone.

However, speed adaptations occur at max velocity but you need to cope with the specific forces and postures to handle the stress.
So overall...drills, technique focused sub max 85-90% would be my broad recommendation. Long rests.
The timing, again broadly speaking, of peaking relative to your speed....if you do endurance first, build capacity (of all physiological processes) to soak up the intensity of speed sessions, you build up nicely to peak. If you can maintain that speed performance during comp season great, obviously....and then switch short to long....you may clip that speed in favour of endurance.
All sprinters slow down, it's just relative to your competitors....so the speed/speed endurance is a balancing act. The downside of peaking with endurance prior to comp is risk of doing endurance at too great an intensity, risk of over doing things and slowness results from fatigue.
Personally I prefer a short to long as the timing of it suits me but I do long to short because of need. A 6 week sprint capacity with increasing weekly volume is easy to start, very demanding at the end. Then there is a mix of flys, acceleration blending into max velocity and blocks....so you don't lose speed endurance as you are working it with less volume.
All in all, a relatively simple framework is quite complex with the aim to, hopefully, optimise speed adaptations. It can go well, or not. If it doesn't on the day, it may not be the training but something else. Crap sleep, nerves, event prep etc.
Also, what sort of sprinter are you - powered by posterior chain or quad dominant? Elastic type or muscled?
And that matters too. I'm more elastic, posterior driven. If you are muscled, quad dominant - this a gross generalisation but it maybe that heavily muscled with greater glycogen capacity will favour sprint endurance, so working on pure speed may be of greater benefit with only a smattering of endurance to peak. I'm more the opposite, fast but less enduring, hence some speed endurance is required to bring me up to competitive level. My block starts are crap too. Identify your weak points, right?
So many variables. Keeps it interesting.

Creatine? Why not?
It is no substitute for drills and sprint skill though.
Competition will improve your speed, no one sets a record or pb in training so entering a sprint event will give you an idea where you are at and where you'd want to be.

Hope that helps. A lot of info but it'll give you some pointers. It's complicated.

So recap:
Drills. Sprint technique. Long rests.
That's your bread and butter.

That's one model. There are others.....
 
Great post,ali.

Full recovery is key and I really like the 1 minute for every 10 meters rule. In the event that the original poster read the Mach article you might recall that the drills are often considered strengthening exercises every bit as much as they are form drills, perhaps more so depending on the muscular development of the trainee. A deeper look into the drills includes "pawing" drills that stress a foot strike that lands directly below the center of gravity. Take this video for example;



Apologies for the infernal ad at the beginning. Every one of those guys strike in the same fashion. Drills like pawing help prevent overstriding which is essentially a process of putting on the brakes every step.

Our approach was based loosely on what ali referenced, our philosophy was to train everyone like a 400m runner early in the year, or, more long to short. With volume carefully considered it was our thought that more attention be given to conditioning or a measure of speed endurance before getting too caught up in running "at speed."

A sample of an early season sprint workout week:
Monday: Repeat 200's or continuous 4x200m relays.
Tuesday: Flying 30's. Oddly enough we always took 3 minutes rest between.
Wednesday: Stick work and field event emphasis if applicable.
Thursday: 300's. We wanted to get the athletes just into lactic acid and then stop the session. We knew when an athlete had reached lactic acid because they appeared to running with muddy boots.
Friday: Stick work and a few starts.
Saturday: Compete.

There were certainly ladders (ex. 100-200-300-200-100 for desired repeats) and longer sprints like 500m that were used on the volume days. The transition to short to long was established by how well the athletes responded to such workouts with shorter rest periods with the exception of the pure speed days. The pure speed days were adjusted by increasing the distance traveled (providing no breakdown in technique) and/or competitive 30's from blocks. The competitive 30's were a good way of checking to see who could maintain relaxation in a competitive setting and who tried to muscle it out.
 
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@Denny Phillips ....any tips for block reaction speed for an old boy?

Good vid showing the best of the best foot action.

Are you aware of researcher JB Morin?

Extraordinary helpful guy, he sent me a study related to master athletes.

A feature he singled out when researching Lemaitre was indeed the precise timing of optimum force transmission on the foot strike. Moreover the ability to tense and relax at that precise moment was a key feature of elite sub 10 sprinters.
Good to see it in slo mo.
 
The thing that seemed to help starts was for an individual sprinter to have a mental prompt as he or she was settling in. If in doubt we told our kids to clear their minds of clutter by reciting the prompt in their minds until the "Set" command. The easiest prompt for our kids was "fast hands." Other than that having someone use an actual gun start was reported by our kids as being helpful.

I am not familiar with JB Morin, thank you for the heads-up.
 
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Not to hijack the thread, but I cannot think of starts without remembering a stunt I pulled off as a sophomore in high school. The starter at most of our home meets was also the head football coach, over time I sensed that he had a distinct pattern to his command sequence, not the least of which being a firm 1001-1002 count prior to firing the gun after the "set" command. This was back in the days of two false starts before disqualification so I decided to see if I could time him out during the 120 yard high hurdles. After the "set" I counted 1001-1002 and let it rip. I timed up perfectly with the gun, perfectly. One of the guys in the lane beside me uttered curse words I was out so fast. With today's block technology in international events I would have been busted because human reaction time is simply not that quick.

After the race I passed the starter as I went to retrieve my sweats, he looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said "Quite a start there, Denny!"

He knew. I never tried it again.
 
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Hello StrongFirst Forum,

I have done a lot of research before posting this.

But I hope you want to answer some questions so I can be sure :):)

I want to improve my sprinting speed with about 10 km/h
My thoughts and close to a plan looks like this:

- Drop my body fat to around 9%
- Sprint interval training 3 times a week
- Strength training 3 times a week with focus on 3-6 reps (so I don't gain to much mass) Muscle group focus: quadriceps, hamstrings, Glutes, Abdominal Muscles, core
- Isometric training combining with the strength training
- Stair sprinting
- Jump rope
- other jump exercises
- Anavar cycler 50mg ED 8W (then 8 weeks off) repeat for a total of 3 cycles. I have an idea that Anavar is great in providing strength without much mass.

I hope you will confirm /correct every above statement and come with input as well as suggestions

:)

I am assuming you are hoping to compete in the 100/200m sprints. Please clarify if I am wrong but I will be basing my advice based on that.

1, dropping your bf% will be due to creating a calorie deficit. So a mixture of lower calories and increased workload.

2, sprint training 3 times a week is a great start. However varying how you conduct your sprint training so you are working on different aspects of sprinting.

3, strength training 2-3 times a week is great. Making them full body training sessions. I would scrap the whole "3-6 reps so I don't gain too much mass" mindset. It is BS. Some of the best gains I have ever made in my life was doing Korte 3×3 where you work in the 5 rep range. 1-5 is a better rep range for you. However there will still be some work you would want to do in higher rep ranges, however their purpose would be more pre/rehabilitation in goal.
  1. Isometrics are a great tool but I get the impression you are still a very new strength trainee and would advice against isometrics to keep things simple.
  2. Stair sprints are in the same category as hill sprints. Include them once a week but more so to aid in your body composition. These will not make you faster.
  3. Jump rope is a great way of burning additional calories and increasing your aerobic capacity. Bettering your aerobic capacity will decrease necessary rest time between sets of sprints or heavy compound lifts. Easy runs at a conversational pace for 20min+ will also achieve this
  4. plyometrics such as jumps, skips, hops and throws are an incredible tool for your goals. However at your level you do not need an independent training session away from your strength sessions to reap benefits. For example super set your Squats with body jumps. When you become stronger and more explosive then look to give your plyometrics their own session.

4, 50mg of var ED could be beneficial if you do not suffer from pumps. Many people have crippling lower back, shin, hamstring and forearm pumps on orals. I am not going to give you a lecture on health because for the most part AAS are pretty harmless. That's the truth of the matter.

However this is not the place for in depth PED discussions and although they are a HUGE part of sport, this forum is orientated around the methodologies of training.

I could go into more detail about all these points but I need more information from yourself first.
 
Downward head/eye angle and holding breath with an opening a tight jar lid feeling while exploding out of the blocks and continuing for 20 meters or so is often helpful.
 
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