December 1st, sprinting vs weight lifting

[FlymetotheMoon21]

I've been working out REALLY hard the last few months and doing abit of sprinting here and there, i just started vaulting two weeks ago and im doing really good so far, except for my whole leaning back at take off deal but my question is its december 1st...sshould i continue to lift heavy in the gym? or should i start turning my focus towards sprinting and getting faster since iam vaulting at practice now...what does everyone think?

[GeorgeN]

I used to run 10 - 200 meter "runs" 2 days a week all year long, and I would run 2 miles on 2 other days of the week.
I would not sprint as this can lead to pulled or strained hamstrings (hammys).

I trained year round for 5 years, never changed. Lift on the 2 off days, one day nada.
I only vaulted 2 days a week and ran the 200s on those days after vaulting.

I did 16'6" at 18, then was injured. I am now beginning to vault again after 30 years off.
The 200s are still a basic .

[EIUvltr]

I used to run 10 - 200 meter "runs" 2 days a week all year long, and I would run 2 miles on 2 other days of the week.
I would not sprint as this can lead to pulled or strained hamstrings (hammys).

I trained year round for 5 years, never changed. Lift on the 2 off days, one day nada.
I only vaulted 2 days a week and ran the 200s on those days after vaulting.

I did 16'6" at 18, then was injured. I am now beginning to vault again after 30 years off.
The 200s are still a basic .

No disrespect, but this is about as far as being constant with the principles of overload, specificity, the law of diminishing returns, and periodization of training as you can get.

Flyme, you are thinking correctly as far as your training goes. It sounds like you have developed a pretty good base as far as overall muscular strength and conditioning goes. Now as the season is about to start, you want to begin to taper off the general training and train with specificity in regards to the vault. You can start to lay off the hypertrophy a bit and focus more on speed training and explosiveness.

In the weight room you should do more olympic(ish) lifts (cleans, snatches, high pulls, jerks) focusing on doing the movement as explosive as possible as opposed to "slow and controlled" like you would with a heavy bench press. The goal here is to train the nervous system to cause the muscles to contract as fast and forcefully as possible, hopefully this doesn't need explaining.

Plyometrics or shock training should become a weekly part of your training as well. Bounding, medicine ball and PUDs, box jumps, etc. all train the CNS very well.

On the track, you can lower the volume and increase the intensity. This means running shorter distances (if you were running 200s, start doing 100s, and maybe by the end of the season 60s), but at a much faster speed. The goal here is to increase your top speed, and hope that you are able to replicate that result on the runway, especially at takeoff. Running 2 miles twice a week would be aerobic training and is heavily reliant on the oxidative properties of slow twitch muscles, but since you are essentially a sprinter who uses his fast twitch muscles which rely heavily on their glycolytic mechanisms for energy, this would only hurt you. By no means are the distances I gave concrete, but they were merely an example to explain the direction you should take in your training.

[EIUvltr]

Don't forget pole vaulting tho! The best way to train the body to do something well, is by doing it a lot. The more you vault, the better you will be at it, assuming you are an adequate technician.

[ADTF Academy]

I used to run 10 - 200 meter "runs" 2 days a week all year long, and I would run 2 miles on 2 other days of the week.
I would not sprint as this can lead to pulled or strained hamstrings (hammys).

I trained year round for 5 years, never changed. Lift on the 2 off days, one day nada.
I only vaulted 2 days a week and ran the 200s on those days after vaulting.

I did 16'6" at 18, then was injured. I am now beginning to vault again after 30 years off.
The 200s are still a basic .

George you had it backwards. This is why you got hurt. Not form speed training. Also speed training is not what football players do. 40's till they turn blue.

Rest and recovery is the key to speed training. max roughly 500 meters of total work but adequate rest. The typical rule is 1 min for every 10 meters ran over 20 meters. So 30 meter acceleration you should take roughly 3 minutes rest inbetween.

Speed training will not hurt you if you do it smart. Overtraining will.

10 x 200's is pointless for a sprinter/jumper. Espically during season. Last time I checked your approach distance might be all of 35 meters. if you want to do speed endurance work do 4 x 30s with less rest maybe 40 seconds at 100% with full recovery between sets. This will work speed endurance in the fashion we as jumpers are trying to perform.

That type of workout will not increase speed. It will work on speed endurance. You need full rest to train speed.