10 things everyone should consider while lifting
Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:20 am
This is not supposed to be the all encompassing guide to the weight room, but I thought it would be nice to give you guys something to think about when you're lifting.
1. Whatever you are the worst at is the most important thing you need to work on
This may seem obvious but its incredible how often I see this rule broken. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone ask me a question like:
"What is the best way to increase my vertical jump?"
"Um do jumping exercises?
If you can long jump 22' but only pole vault 8', well then you don't need to worry a whole lot about the weight room or the track. You just need to learn to vault. But if you have good form, and a good run, then you really need to improve your speed and jumping ability.
2. Pole vaulters (and all athletes for that matter) are not Bodybuilders.
I've harped on this in my other posts as have other people, but a lot of kids don't know what this means. Basically, bigger muscles do not necessarily equal stronger muscles. Bodybuilders train at a low intensity and high volume. This forces their muscles to enlarge or hypertrophy. However most of the mass that is gained is water and increased substrate(muscle food) storage. This is a logical adaptation for a muscle that is doing a lot of work. Pole vaulters on the other hand don't need increased substrate storage. Our event lasts like 6 seconds! If you are running out of energy in the vault, you should have your thyroid checked (half joking).
Pole vaulters need high intensity/low volume. You should not be doing a ton of exercises. HOWEVER, due to the intense nature of our sets, we will need sufficient rest. Some people claim that since we are the opposite of bodybuilders, we should be in the weight-room for a very short time since bodybuilders lift for long periods of time. This is not accurate. Bodybuilders should spend more time per hour actually lifting relative to a pole vaulter who should spend more time resting in-between sets. Most (maybe 99%+) high school and college jumpers are over-volumized. Our event does not require much if any conditioning so lifting/running in a fatigued state is not necessary.
Bodybuilders also utilize a lot of single joint movements. Examples of these would be biceps curls, leg curls, pec flys, and calf raises. Most vaulters would be wise to avoid all single joint exercises except MAYBE for the off-season or to address an injury or muscular imbalance. Which leads me to my next point...
3. Multi-joint exercises are the way to go
Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead press, Chins... This is what your workout should mainly consist of. These lifts incorporate a lot of muscles which allow you to lift pretty heavy weights. Heavy weights are more of an "overload" (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/glos ... ad_def.htm) than light weights. Also these exercises force you to coordinate muscle groups whereas single joint movements do not. They also strengthen the muscles not actively contracting during the movement via a strong isometric contraction.
4. Pole vaulters are not Power-lifters
No one cares how much you squat, bench, or deadlift. If your form is good, you've been lifting pretty consistently for more than a few months, and you can lift "a lot,"then its likely that the power lifts aren't going to be as super important to you anymore. Sure you should still do them, but now it's more about maintenance. Your new goal is to increase RFD (Rate of Force Development), otherwise known as power. This is done by doing powerful exercises, which brings me to my next point...
5. Pole vaulters are not Olympic lifters.
This is going to be the point I get the most heat about. But its true. And every top strength coach/track coach I've ever heard of shares this view. Joe Defranco, Charlie Francis, Tudor bompa, Yuri Verkhoshansky, etc. They are all astounded by the United States' obsession with olympic lifting. Are olympic lifters powerful? Yes. Will olympic lifting make you more powerful? Yes. Is it the best way to increase power? No. Olympic lifts have two major drawbacks.
(1) They are hard. Unless you already have great form, a pole vaulter's time could be spent in a much more productive manner than learning another sport.
(2) They only work against inertia. There is no prestretch in the clean or snatch. They both start as a powerful concentric contraction. However in running and jumping, every step except the initial one is preceded by a prestretch of the relevant muscles which enables the body to utilize the myotatic stretch reflex. Performing exercises that utilize this are much more "specific" (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/glos ... ty_def.htm) than olympic lifts and easier to do!
6. Shock training is the best way to develop power
Shock training refers to what is commonly called plyometrics. This includes but is not limited to, box jumps, depth jumps, altitude jumps, and bounding. Box jumps are where you start on the floor and jump up onto a box. Depth jumps are where you drop off of a box, land on the ground, then immediately jump up as high as you can to a higher box. Altitude jumps are where you jump off a very high platform and land without a subsequent jump. And bounding is bounding. Box jumps/Vertical jumps are the least intense of all plyometrics so they should be done first. Yuri Verkhoshansky (someone you should trust, he only pioneered periodization) recommends a progression of Box jumps, Barbell exercises, jumps with weights (preferably kettlebells), then finally depth jumps. This doesn't mean you can't do more than one at a time, this should simply be the order in which they are introduced in the program.
7. How to alter volume/intensity when doing jumping exercises
This is probably what a lot of people get caught up on. Most people know that they should be doing plyos, but what kind? and how much? when should I do them? How should I do them? I already touched on the progression. But thats the tip of the iceberg. How much and when should you do them are based on where you are in your year (off-season, pre-season, in-season, etc.) and your workload capacity/preparedness. Basically the closer to where you are trying to peak, the more plyos should be a part of your training until the tapering phase. As far as week by week planning, you should perform plyos the same days you lift. You dont want to lift Monday, do plyos Tuesday, Sprint Wednesday, Lift Thursday, Do plyos Friday, and have a meet on Saturday. All these things are stressful to the CNS and 24 hours is nowhere near enough time to recover. Lifting, sprinting, and plyos should be done the same day followed by at least one rest day. A more realistic outdoor season training schedule would be.
Monday: Plyos, Sprint, lift
Tuesday: Short run work/easy day
Wednesday: active rest
Thursday: Plyos, Sprint, lift
Friday: short run work/easy day
Saturday: Competition
Sunday: active rest
Now a lot of you are going to think that is a very low volume. But the jumps are about as high intensity of a sport as you can get, and intensity is inversely related to volume. Just because the norm is to practice 3 hours a day/6 days a week does not mean it is correct. Off-season, pre-season and early in-season can be a bit less intense with more conditioning type work in the form of tempo runs and interval training, however once you are getting close (within a couple months) of when you want to jump the highest, you should really try to tailor your training to resemble your sport as much as possible.
As far as volume, its very dependent on the athlete and the type of exercises you do. I would recommend for a beginner no more than 60 ground contacts per session to start out (each jump would be 1 ground contact). As far as intensity, follow the progression I outlined. However once you get to depth jumps, don't get carried away. Work your way up to about 30" inches but don't go any higher than that. 36" and 42" depth jumps are too high for you to rapidly rebound from. They are better for athletes that have to overcome a great external resistance, such as football linemen or throwers.
8. Not all athletes are prepared for all exercises
The "fitness industry" preaches the exact opposite of this. They love incorporating plyometrics in the form of cardiovascular activity into the workouts of ordinary untrained people because it makes it sound advanced. However plyometrics done in high volume to the point of cardiovascular activity is very taxing and almost guarantees over-training right off the bat. The soviets had a thing they called the 3 year rule where they wouldn't even put a barbell on a kids back until 3 years of general conditioning and low intensity jumping exercises, so why do we have 40 year old secretaries doing plyos? The same goes for young athletes. Don't perform an exercise until you're ready. The vast majority of young athletes today (even up to college aged pole vaulters since most high school strength and conditioning programs suck) have very weak hamstrings and many have inflexible hip flexors. This causes some kids to have hyperlordosis and throwing barbell on their back just exacerbates the problem. I would recommend an initial program of primarily accessory exercises for beginning lifters. These include upright sled drags (everyone should do these), glut-hams, reverse hypers, hypers, band good mornings, and pull-throughs. After about 6 weeks of this, hamstring strength should be significantly improved enough to begin squatting.
9. Leg curls suck
Easy one. Knee flexion against resistance occurs about never in the real world. Your hamstrings role in running, jumping, tackling, etc. is extension at the hip, not knee flexion. So the SAID principle says we should work it in that way, and who am I to argue with an acronym?
10. Don't take SAID too far!
Oops. If you don't know what SAID is, look it up. Basically don't get carried away in the weight-room trying to make your exercises mimic the pole vault. You will never be able to apply force in the weightroom the exact same way you do in the vault. And even if you get close, you probably aren't recruiting enough muscle fibers to illicit an adaptation anyway. You don't want to do this because slight differences in the two movements can screw up your body's firing patterns in the vault itself. Basically your body doesn't like learning to do two different things that are very similar. Try playing racquetball after playing tennis or running on a track after running on a treadmill for a while and you'll understand. When you're in the weight room, use exercises that recruit a lot of muscle fibers and get you strong. Learn to use that strength on the runway, don't get too creative.
1. Whatever you are the worst at is the most important thing you need to work on
This may seem obvious but its incredible how often I see this rule broken. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone ask me a question like:
"What is the best way to increase my vertical jump?"
"Um do jumping exercises?
If you can long jump 22' but only pole vault 8', well then you don't need to worry a whole lot about the weight room or the track. You just need to learn to vault. But if you have good form, and a good run, then you really need to improve your speed and jumping ability.
2. Pole vaulters (and all athletes for that matter) are not Bodybuilders.
I've harped on this in my other posts as have other people, but a lot of kids don't know what this means. Basically, bigger muscles do not necessarily equal stronger muscles. Bodybuilders train at a low intensity and high volume. This forces their muscles to enlarge or hypertrophy. However most of the mass that is gained is water and increased substrate(muscle food) storage. This is a logical adaptation for a muscle that is doing a lot of work. Pole vaulters on the other hand don't need increased substrate storage. Our event lasts like 6 seconds! If you are running out of energy in the vault, you should have your thyroid checked (half joking).
Pole vaulters need high intensity/low volume. You should not be doing a ton of exercises. HOWEVER, due to the intense nature of our sets, we will need sufficient rest. Some people claim that since we are the opposite of bodybuilders, we should be in the weight-room for a very short time since bodybuilders lift for long periods of time. This is not accurate. Bodybuilders should spend more time per hour actually lifting relative to a pole vaulter who should spend more time resting in-between sets. Most (maybe 99%+) high school and college jumpers are over-volumized. Our event does not require much if any conditioning so lifting/running in a fatigued state is not necessary.
Bodybuilders also utilize a lot of single joint movements. Examples of these would be biceps curls, leg curls, pec flys, and calf raises. Most vaulters would be wise to avoid all single joint exercises except MAYBE for the off-season or to address an injury or muscular imbalance. Which leads me to my next point...
3. Multi-joint exercises are the way to go
Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead press, Chins... This is what your workout should mainly consist of. These lifts incorporate a lot of muscles which allow you to lift pretty heavy weights. Heavy weights are more of an "overload" (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/glos ... ad_def.htm) than light weights. Also these exercises force you to coordinate muscle groups whereas single joint movements do not. They also strengthen the muscles not actively contracting during the movement via a strong isometric contraction.
4. Pole vaulters are not Power-lifters
No one cares how much you squat, bench, or deadlift. If your form is good, you've been lifting pretty consistently for more than a few months, and you can lift "a lot,"then its likely that the power lifts aren't going to be as super important to you anymore. Sure you should still do them, but now it's more about maintenance. Your new goal is to increase RFD (Rate of Force Development), otherwise known as power. This is done by doing powerful exercises, which brings me to my next point...
5. Pole vaulters are not Olympic lifters.
This is going to be the point I get the most heat about. But its true. And every top strength coach/track coach I've ever heard of shares this view. Joe Defranco, Charlie Francis, Tudor bompa, Yuri Verkhoshansky, etc. They are all astounded by the United States' obsession with olympic lifting. Are olympic lifters powerful? Yes. Will olympic lifting make you more powerful? Yes. Is it the best way to increase power? No. Olympic lifts have two major drawbacks.
(1) They are hard. Unless you already have great form, a pole vaulter's time could be spent in a much more productive manner than learning another sport.
(2) They only work against inertia. There is no prestretch in the clean or snatch. They both start as a powerful concentric contraction. However in running and jumping, every step except the initial one is preceded by a prestretch of the relevant muscles which enables the body to utilize the myotatic stretch reflex. Performing exercises that utilize this are much more "specific" (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/glos ... ty_def.htm) than olympic lifts and easier to do!
6. Shock training is the best way to develop power
Shock training refers to what is commonly called plyometrics. This includes but is not limited to, box jumps, depth jumps, altitude jumps, and bounding. Box jumps are where you start on the floor and jump up onto a box. Depth jumps are where you drop off of a box, land on the ground, then immediately jump up as high as you can to a higher box. Altitude jumps are where you jump off a very high platform and land without a subsequent jump. And bounding is bounding. Box jumps/Vertical jumps are the least intense of all plyometrics so they should be done first. Yuri Verkhoshansky (someone you should trust, he only pioneered periodization) recommends a progression of Box jumps, Barbell exercises, jumps with weights (preferably kettlebells), then finally depth jumps. This doesn't mean you can't do more than one at a time, this should simply be the order in which they are introduced in the program.
7. How to alter volume/intensity when doing jumping exercises
This is probably what a lot of people get caught up on. Most people know that they should be doing plyos, but what kind? and how much? when should I do them? How should I do them? I already touched on the progression. But thats the tip of the iceberg. How much and when should you do them are based on where you are in your year (off-season, pre-season, in-season, etc.) and your workload capacity/preparedness. Basically the closer to where you are trying to peak, the more plyos should be a part of your training until the tapering phase. As far as week by week planning, you should perform plyos the same days you lift. You dont want to lift Monday, do plyos Tuesday, Sprint Wednesday, Lift Thursday, Do plyos Friday, and have a meet on Saturday. All these things are stressful to the CNS and 24 hours is nowhere near enough time to recover. Lifting, sprinting, and plyos should be done the same day followed by at least one rest day. A more realistic outdoor season training schedule would be.
Monday: Plyos, Sprint, lift
Tuesday: Short run work/easy day
Wednesday: active rest
Thursday: Plyos, Sprint, lift
Friday: short run work/easy day
Saturday: Competition
Sunday: active rest
Now a lot of you are going to think that is a very low volume. But the jumps are about as high intensity of a sport as you can get, and intensity is inversely related to volume. Just because the norm is to practice 3 hours a day/6 days a week does not mean it is correct. Off-season, pre-season and early in-season can be a bit less intense with more conditioning type work in the form of tempo runs and interval training, however once you are getting close (within a couple months) of when you want to jump the highest, you should really try to tailor your training to resemble your sport as much as possible.
As far as volume, its very dependent on the athlete and the type of exercises you do. I would recommend for a beginner no more than 60 ground contacts per session to start out (each jump would be 1 ground contact). As far as intensity, follow the progression I outlined. However once you get to depth jumps, don't get carried away. Work your way up to about 30" inches but don't go any higher than that. 36" and 42" depth jumps are too high for you to rapidly rebound from. They are better for athletes that have to overcome a great external resistance, such as football linemen or throwers.
8. Not all athletes are prepared for all exercises
The "fitness industry" preaches the exact opposite of this. They love incorporating plyometrics in the form of cardiovascular activity into the workouts of ordinary untrained people because it makes it sound advanced. However plyometrics done in high volume to the point of cardiovascular activity is very taxing and almost guarantees over-training right off the bat. The soviets had a thing they called the 3 year rule where they wouldn't even put a barbell on a kids back until 3 years of general conditioning and low intensity jumping exercises, so why do we have 40 year old secretaries doing plyos? The same goes for young athletes. Don't perform an exercise until you're ready. The vast majority of young athletes today (even up to college aged pole vaulters since most high school strength and conditioning programs suck) have very weak hamstrings and many have inflexible hip flexors. This causes some kids to have hyperlordosis and throwing barbell on their back just exacerbates the problem. I would recommend an initial program of primarily accessory exercises for beginning lifters. These include upright sled drags (everyone should do these), glut-hams, reverse hypers, hypers, band good mornings, and pull-throughs. After about 6 weeks of this, hamstring strength should be significantly improved enough to begin squatting.
9. Leg curls suck
Easy one. Knee flexion against resistance occurs about never in the real world. Your hamstrings role in running, jumping, tackling, etc. is extension at the hip, not knee flexion. So the SAID principle says we should work it in that way, and who am I to argue with an acronym?
10. Don't take SAID too far!
Oops. If you don't know what SAID is, look it up. Basically don't get carried away in the weight-room trying to make your exercises mimic the pole vault. You will never be able to apply force in the weightroom the exact same way you do in the vault. And even if you get close, you probably aren't recruiting enough muscle fibers to illicit an adaptation anyway. You don't want to do this because slight differences in the two movements can screw up your body's firing patterns in the vault itself. Basically your body doesn't like learning to do two different things that are very similar. Try playing racquetball after playing tennis or running on a track after running on a treadmill for a while and you'll understand. When you're in the weight room, use exercises that recruit a lot of muscle fibers and get you strong. Learn to use that strength on the runway, don't get too creative.
