Integrating Strength & Power Training for Sprinters into the Track Session [Part 2]

The Employment of On-Track, Applicable Strength Training Methods Transferable to Sprint Performance.

Jim Hiserman is the author of 3 books:

Integrating Strength & Power Training For Sprinters Into The Track Session

PART II

“Training programmes are written on paper, and not carved in stone for a reason.”– Paul Walker

This ARTICLE is intended for the sole purpose of providing examples of planning training for your athletes for the entire season. It is best to consider that creating a rough draft of your training plan for the entire season WILL, most likely, be edited on a Week by Week basis. Having an overall plan to edit is better than planning a week at a time because you create the type of progressions YOU think would be optimum FOR THE ATHLETES YOU ARE CURRENTLY COACHING. Remember, optimum is RELATIVE to each individual you have in your training group. This requires you to consider training all the BIO-Motor Abilities/Skills that are necessary for athletes in your event area.

A review of the 2014 T&F Strength/Power Progressions Chart (see CHART 2 in Part 3 tomorrow) that I developed for the athletes at Palma High School, will reveal a list of Exercises with Progressions from Beginning level movements/ intensities to Intermediate levels and finally, to Advanced movements/intensities. Not all your athletes will move up at the same speed. Many will NOT get past Intermediate levels in many, if not all categories. EACH category, or Bio-Motor Ability/Skill, presents different challenges to different athletes. It is common for athletes to excel in some Ability/Skill areas while being deficient in others. You will see this IF you observe each athletes.

Make sure all your athletes are challenged accordingly in EACH type of Ability/Skill area. Keep them on the Beginning or Intermediate Levels UNTIL they have mastered the exercises. This may mean athletes utilizing different Training Levels for different Bio-Motor Abilities/Skills. Bio-Motor Abilities/Skills that are addressed in the STRENGTH/POWER Exercise Progression List include:

Multi-Throw/Jump = Explosive Strength/Speed Strength (upper body, lower body or both)
Upper Body Strength = Absolute/General Strength (upper body)
Lunge Progression = Absolute/General Strength—lunge movement ROM (hip/ham/quad/core)
Jump/Plyo Progression = Elastic Strength (Reactive Strength or Stretch Reflex)
Total Body Strength = Absolute/ General Strength (total body coordinated movement)
Total Body Power = Exlosive Strength/Speed Strength (total body coordinated movement)
Squat Progression = Absolute/General Strength–squat or “hinge” movement ROM (hip/ham/quad/core)
Core Progresssion = Absolute/General/Postural Strength/Stabilization (Scapula-Rib Cage-Pelvis)
Mobility = Mobility/ Dynamic Flexibility (creating optimum Amplitude of Event-Specific Movement Patterns)
Glute-Ham Activators/Strength = Development of ability to “actively recruit” and “explosively” fire Glute and Hamstrings in the correct sequence AND in the event specific movement patterns required for Sprinting/Jumping/Throwing events.

Creating The Weekly Training Plan

Weekly Planning should involve Sequencing of training modes to be used for each day. There is an OPTIMUM sequence for utilizing different Bio-Motor Abililties in the same workout that allow for best results in each area. The following sequences are recommended and vary depending on what Bio-Motor Abilities you are training that day.

Warm-Up, Technique/Skill Development, Elastic Strength (plyos), Strength/Power, Cooldown
Warm-Up,Technique/Skill Development, Speed, Strength, Cooldown
Warm-Up, Technique/Skill Development, Energy Sytstem Development/Edurance/Speed Endurance, General Strength, Cooldown
Warm-Up, Technique, Speed, Elastic Strength, Cooldown

There are many types of variations in ways to sequence. A good general rule to follow is to train Technique right after a proper Warm-Up. Then, Speed, if being trained, should come before EITHER Strength/Power or Elastic Strength (plyos). Energy System work such as Speed Endurance, Special Endurance, etc. can be trained after Strength or General Strength after Endurance. Like the quote from Bruce Lee below, teaching your athletes to “become the movements”that are their competitive movements is more important than training your athletes to survive a large volume of work.

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and crash. Become like water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee

Not to leave out the Jumpers in this article, consider the following rationale to train jumpers as sprinters.

“Running and jumping are sequences of movements cohesively combined. A continuous movement from start to finish. Once that concept is understood the paradigm shift begins to manifest itself…”— Kenta Bell

Defining “Special Strength” Training

The exercises in the 2014 Strength/Power Progressions Chart (CHART 2) can be viewed as “General Strength” GPE and “each exercise” on this chart has a role in every athlete’s training. The challenge for you coaches is to figure out how to incorporate each type of exercise list into your weekly plan. Many of these can be incorporated in Warm-Ups (Mobility/Flexibility), some can follow Technique/Skill work while many are best suited for the Cooldown portion of the daily training session.

Basically, Special Strength is a name given to exercises that develop strength you can apply in your sport or event. There are many definitions of Special Strength exercises in the literature BUT they all share many common elements. These are best described by Dr. Bondarchuk and Dr. Verkhoshansky as they are the undisputed leaders in the field of Special Strength and Transfer of Training.

Viewing their criteria below can help each of you to discern the best exercises from the SDE and Competitive Chart that best meet these criteria FOR YOUR EVENT AREA (hurdles, jumps,sprints).

Bondarchuk: To identify special strength exercises, Bondarchuk categorizes exercises based on muscles, movements and energy systems used. By doing this, Bondarchuk came up with four categories that move from “general” to specific”.

General Prep Exercises (GE)–exercises that use different energy systems and movements than the competition movement (specific event movement)
Special Prep Exercises (SPE)–exercises that use the same muscles, same energy systems BUT different movements.
Special Developmental Exercises (SDE)–exercises that use the same muscles, same energy systems AND parts of the competitive movement.
Competitive Exercise (CE)–the competitive movement itself (specific event)

EXAMPLE: A sprinter would consider jogging /skipping during warmup as GE, Squats as SPE, Falling Starts/ Sled Pulls as SDE and 30m Max Sprints as CE. What most people call special strength falls into the SDE category since it mimics the movement of the competitive exercise in order to strengthen the movements and muscles used in sprinting/hurdling.

Verkhoshansky: The originator of Special Strength Training bases his criteria on the principle of dynamic correspondence. These five criteria are recommended for use in selecting a special strength exercise. They appear below.

Muscle groups involved in the exercises;
Amplitude (range of motion) and direction of movement;
Accentuated part of movement amplitude;
Magnitude of force-effort and time of it’s application
Regime of muscle contraction

The obvious difference between Bondarchuk’s and Verkhoshansky’s defining criteria is that Verkhoshansky is a little more specific. Bondarchuk looks at movement similarities while Verkhoshansky defines what similarities are important……the regime of muscle contraction, magnitude of force-effort, timing, amplitude, etc. Their common agreements focus on using muscles and movements from the competitive exercise (specific event). Because of this, what is considered a special strength exercise for one event/ sport might be a general strength exercise for another event/sport. For example, a Clean and Jerk is NOT a special strength exercise for a sprinter, but IS for an Olympic Weight Lifter! Determining what exactly are special strength exercises is best left to EACH coach who should know the movements that define THEIR events. These are the movements you should plan to train with exercises that move from General (GE) to Competitive (CE) without leaving out a mix of SPE and SDE exercises.