PoleVaultPower.com

Hi,
I'm a sophomore and have never pole vaulted before, but I'm really anxious to give it a shot. My HS's track season starts in about a month, but I'm not sure I could even do PV. I do not have a WHOLE lot of upper-body strength. Don't get me wrong, I'm not out of shape, I'm a cross country runner but I'm not sure I'm quite built enough to be a pole vaulter. I'm kinda scared to try, because I HATE to fail and I don't want to look weak or anything, and I'm not sure I'd be able to do it. So do you have any suggestions as to what I should do to prepare? (Such as what exercises to do, etc). Thank you.

Go out there and do it. Vaulting is great fun. If you want to build muscles for vaulting work on tricept, bicept, abdominal, and leg workouts. You want the triceps for holding your arms out straight, your bicepts for rowing pass your pole as you initiate your turn, you need your abs to lift you up into an inverted position and hold it there, and lastly your leg muscles for both running down the runway and swinging your leg to get momentum. Some light weight lifting, at something like 3 sets at 20 reps per workout should be just fine. Do plenty of crunches and other abdominal works, work on sprinting by doing power lunges, stadiums, and 40-60 yard sprints. Pull ups are great for working your biceps, even better if you can get a "pull up-esk" machine wich allows you to pull up weights rather than yourself allowing you to lower the weight and get more reps in. Good luck this year.

hey, I used to be an xc runner before vaulting and the problem you have is that, you have more slow twitch than fast twitch muscle fibers in your leg. On top of the lifts and sprints recomended I suggest doing 3-4 100 meter sprints once a week as well to get those fast twitch fibers. Also, pick a pole up and learn how to run with it, and if you have access to a gymnastic room try to get in there. ake sure you lift though but gymnastic strength is important in vault. The drills in gymnastics are swinging to inversion on the rings, bubkas on the high bar and this thread has more on gymnastics http://www.polevaultpower.com/forum/vie ... php?t=3844

Good luck