Everyone needs one of these!

[VaultPurple]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upg_ojYp ... ideo_title

I saw Trey Hardee using one of these on his website last year, and then all of a sudden we had 5 in the weight room. It is like the most run specific weight training you can get!

[VaultMarq26]

I would think power cleans would be more beneficial to sprinting because of the speed of the muscle contractions. That machine trains strength, but not power.

[VaultPurple]

Power cleans are very beneficial too. I just meant in the since that it uses most of the same muscles you use for sprinting in the same motion you use to run with. You need strength for power too. Remember Power = Force/Time so this helps teach you to apply a lot of force to the ground when running. During this workout they did 40, 30, 30, 20, while going up in weight each time. Sprinting requires strength and power and it takes strength to be powerful. You won't find someone power clean (power) 300 that can not squat 400 (strength).

But don't worry, their workouts have plenty of power cleans, hang cleans, hang snatch, power snatch, and plyometrics. We even have a machine where you hook a cable up to the hang clean bar where it tells them how fast the bar is moving in m/s.

[VaultMarq26]

The acceleratomer you are talking about is a great training tool to monitor the speed of the lifts. It is a good way to monitor fatigue during lifting.

[vault3rb0y]

You need strength to be powerful, but if your rate of force development is fast enough, and your Index of explosive strength is low enough, you don't need it as much. This machine looks cool, but how is it all that different from a seated double leg press machine? When during running do you put force on the knee/hip joint at 120-90 degrees? Or put force on the knee at an angle greater than 15 degrees? And when do you move this slowly through your motion of running?

You're right, it hits a lot of the muscles that running does, but not all of them, and it does so in a very different way than running does. It can be helpful, but it's a stretch to call it the most specific weight training you can get. Otherwise you can argue that distance running is specific to vaulting because aerobic capacity helps increase anaerobic capacity which helps increase your ability to sustain ATP-CP capacity, which is what vaulting uses. In the same way, this machine works the muscles of running at a large joint angle which increases your ability to increase force at smaller joint angles which increases your ability to produce power at these smaller joint angles.

The "most specific" training for sprinting is sprinting, and for weight training, any olympic lift will be more specific to sprinting than a lift where power is not a factor. Just be careful with the term specific, it would be better to say "appropriate" for an early season weight training cycle.

[dj]

hello

Dead Lift....

pull a sled.. run (sprint)stadium steps.... sprint up a 2 degree hill... all 3 exercises... 3 x 6 @ 30/40/50 meters

speed will come... form will come...

dj

[VaultMarq26]

hello

Dead Lift....

pull a sled.. run (sprint)stadium steps.... sprint up a 2 degree hill... all 3 exercises... 3 x 6 @ 30/40/50 meters

speed will come... form will come...

dj

That is about right. Don't over think training. Take normal sprinting and add a vertical or slight weight element.

[vault3rb0y]

Maintaining specificity with only slight resistance during running (2 degree increase) and then over-speed training (bungee assisted running) are the easiest way to see the most immediate result on speed in a single season for intermediate/beginner athletes (approx less than 2 years). If you plan on training for 3-4+ years, however, be sure to include more and more general exercise training (strength, power, speed, balance, etc) in a periodized fashion if you want to get the best results.

But the best advice is STILL that you should not overthink your training, let your coach do that.