Strongman training for speed athletes

[onspeed]

Has anyone done much strongman training with sprinters or similar speed athletes (low bodyfat, light frames, immense power to weight ratios, temperaments like tantrum throwing children:>>>)

We have tried a little on the easy stuff – farmers walk, rope pull etc

In particular any that people have felt might be a little too dangerous for fine boned sprinter physqiues?

thanks

[ashley]

Have not done strongman outside of rugby and even there I am restricting it somewhat as a finishing option in a Tabata interval style or as a once a week strength endurnace circuit, in an I go you go fashion, 1 minute work 1 minute rest and then move on to the next station for about a 45 minute session after warm ups, cheers, ash

[fergus]

I would not see a great benefit for strongman in T&F Sprinting, but in rugby there are great opportunities for a great many variations

[onspeed]

Thanks Ash, Thanks Fergus

Fergus – reasoning? movements too slow? the guys kinda like it because of its novelty and challenge – we were thinking of using it to occassionally replace a heavy weights (rather than a power or speed) session just for freshness and variety

You think a waste of training effort?

Cheers mate!

[fergus]

Yes, for a sprinter I guess in a GPP phase or such you could use possibly them for variety – but in terms of ‘means to an end’ I’m not sure what sub-max movements would give you or the sprinter.
I’m not saying they are a waste but for a sprinter they might have a little risk involved too.
For variety I would look to med balls and such for lower intensity ‘elastic type-work’ over the season, whereas strongman training would be a bit taxing for less neural development….

…. again just my thoughts – there are no Irsh running sub 10’s yet so perhaps you should take it all with a pinch of salt!

[justin]

Hi

i have not seen any experimental evidence but my thoughts would be that of the strongman events heavy truck-pull style sled pulls maybe useful for sprinters, particularly those who require better acceleration out of the blocks

i assume that your athletes do a regular weight trainng program consisting of some combination of cleans, squats, fronts squats, deadlifts plus plyos

what i would suggest is that the heavy strength/power squat/clean exercises be replaced (at some times) by heavy sled pulls over distances of 5-15 m and which take anywhere between 5-15 sec to complete the distance? i would say that such strength and lower-velocity power would be more useful than merely increasing squat strength etc

would wlecome your thoughts on this?

for your more enduarance sprinters, you could do these over longer distances and if strapped for resources push or pull cars as well

Justin

[onspeed]

Hi Justin

thanks for that mate

it would be interesting to try this coming off static blocks and driving for 5 – 10 m!

[jmc404]

Hi
Be careful when using blocks and sleds,
1. the sled will hit the blocks when you start!!!
2. can cause injury i. hamstrings
ii lower back
3. progress it start with rolling start, then, tripod start etc keep the wtgs low its all about explosiv starts and encouraging good technique and form.
Always be mindful that good technique is vital in T & F.

JMC404

[onspeed]

good practical points that we would take into consideration!

thanks

[justin]

we had this issue when doing a research project with track sprinters

if you do from teh blocks, you will need a much longer rope than the distance over which the sled is pulled e.g. if doing 10 m reps with a few m decelaration phase, you may need a 20 m rope to be safe

in our strongman training we dont have a block to start from, but i am sure it will help move heavier loads initially

Justin

[onspeed]

Thanks Justin

thats useful

did you happen to look at any form of force – speed – weight curve?

or simply put what were you getting them to pull in terms of load ?

thanks mate

[justin]

we looked at teh effect of a few loads on teh acute sprinting kinematics
it will be published in the next issue of JSCR (i think)
reference is
Maulder P, Bradshaw EJ, and Keogh JWL. Kinematic alterations due to different loading schemes in early acceleration sprint performance from starting blocks. J Strength Cond Res in press.

[onspeed]

Thanks Justin

will look out for your paper

maybe once its in print you can post a pdf for us?

cheers

[justin]

sure, no worries

[Author]

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