PoleVaultPower.com

Hi,
I'm going to do pole vault during the upcoming track season at my highschool (that starts in about 2 weeks), and I was wondering, does pole vault require a lot of upper body strength? What muscle groups must be worked on? Etc. Thanks.

Yes, bicept/tricept and abdominal muscles.

nope, bicep and triceps are to impress the ladies, and believe you me i do a lot of em, but if you wanna vault high, you need power and explosion on the runway, do squats, cleans, and snatches.

-Do some tricep pull downs, it works on the right muscles to help with your extension and push-off.
-Definately abdonminals, they help you with balance, and your swing.
-Also it is good to workout the lower body as well, for your run (to make you faster and to be able to get on bigger poles to jump higher).

It is important not to do these everyday , your muscles need about 24 hours of rest before you work them out again. Your abs can be worked everyday, like crunches and situps.

If you can do 5 pullups, you can vault 15'.

Barto

People on my team ask me if they should start pv... and i say can you do a pull up? pv is gonna be hard if you can't lift your body.

If you can do 5 pullups, you can vault 15'.

My ladies do 52 pullups during their gymnastics work outs. How high should they be able to jump!!

Noodlez, another question that you should answer and that is, what have you done over the winter as to training. Once that is established, then the guys and gals on the forum can help you focus on the areas that will make a difference for this season. If your season is starting in two weeks that doesn't give you enough time to go from ground zero. Another question you should answer is how many years are you planning on doing this? In other words, if you are in 8th or 9th grade, and you've never vaulted,spend the time this season getting the "coordination of vaulting" down. You can do this while you are working on training. You don't have to be real strong to work on, the run, the plant, getting off the ground, the pivot, the push off etc. most of that you will be doing from short steps and low (if any) heights anyway. On the other hand, if you're a Jr. or Sr. and this is your first ever attempt at vaulting and your team needs you to contribute right away, then you don't have the time for a lengthy "learning curve". At which basically you're stuck with your current strength and most of your time needs to be spent on the mechanics of the vault. (Wouldn't you agree Dave?) I can't tell you how many guys used to come to me and tell me they wanted to be a vaulter when I was in High School. Bottom line was I know they figured that if I could do it any body could. But they couldn't get the coordination of the jump down. Even though their body strength was far superior to mine, they just couldn't do it. You've come to the right place for help and good advice. There are some very knowledgeble folks contributing here. Good Luck............Later................Mike

Yes, I do agree Mike. Lots of focus on mechanics and a lot of short work will actually build some upperbody strength and help you with fundamentals, Noodlez.

ladyvolspvcoach wrote:If you can do 5 pullups, you can vault 15'.

My ladies do 52 pullups during their gymnastics work outs. How high should they be able to jump!!

mathematically 156 feet

I agree if your just starting out spend more time on form then strength

YEA BONE!!!!