Coach, I am hoping you can help me here. I just started my sprint work for football and after about 3-4 maximal sprints, I will feel a tightening or pulling in the bottom (towards the knee) of my hammies. Any ideas what this could be?
Also, what is the best way to add weight for the Glute-Ham raise?
Large difference between “tightening” or “pulling”. Certainly through maximal speed runs you need to show some care and make sure you have properly built up to top speed and done a great deal of dynamic stretching before-hand. With regards to your Glute-Ham - are you using a machine or on the floor. Assuming the machine, I would alternate with four mediums. Holding a weight across your chest (as in performing a “waiter bow”), tossing a med ball while coming up (can provide a tremendous “shock” training method if applied properly), bands (which can unfortunately skew the difficulty in one particular range dependending on the tension) and my favorite when on a machine, with an Olympic bar on your shoulders. Let me know how it goes. In faith, Coach Davies