Ok, here’s a short background…we got a new fitness director at work a couple of months ago. I believe his background is mainly in training track athletes like sprinters. I went to see him for some advise on planning my yearly training and he broke it down into three phases: general prep, strength, power.
I’m just finishing up the strength phase and will be starting the 4 week power phase in a week. I’ve never done a power phase before so I’m looking for some advice. I’ll be asking my fitness director as well, but I’d also like to get some input from the guys around here who may have some experience.
Basically the guidelines I’ve been given so far are to use 30% of max for weights and 15% of bodyweight for med balls. Any advise on how to set up my workouts?
With lighter weights, should I worry about strength loss? Should I be keeping some heavy work like deadlifts in during this phase? I’m training for overall performance, not lift competitions, but I don’t want to have to start over from the beginning when I start my next strength phase in November. The power phase is only 4 weeks, followed by a two week rest period, and a 8 week general prep phase.
I think what the OP is referring to is speed strength, which includes loaded sports movements and 1RM weights of about 20-30%. This has kind of fallen out of favor in recent years except in short cycles because obviously weighted implements can interfere with the biomechanics of the actual sports movement.
What’s traditionally referred to as explosiveness or power is strength-speed, which includes the Dynamic Effort Method (50-70% 1RM) and Olympic Lifts (70-80%).
I know the technical aspects of each but I don’t have any kind of experience other than power cleans. Both of Christian Thib’s books have a great deal of info on each.
i see now, 20-30% seems low can someone describe how this works in more detail, id like to learn about it as another tool i can add to my training, so lets help this fellow and possibly turn this into a discussion on power training?
Speed strength phases are only used for short periods because they lose effectiveness after a while and you start to lose strength. In general speed-strength workouts are:
low volume per workout
higher frequency
long rest periods
low reps per set
Some example lifts are:
lunge jumps
ballistic bench
ballistic push up
squat jumps
medicine ball throws
sprints
box jumps
My yearly training set up is geared for both work and around yearly flag football tournaments. The progression is designed around what a competitive track athlete would use and has it set up so that the tournament falls directly at the end of the power phase. Being stronger and faster only helps me for work also.
The way I’m understanding the purpose of this phase is that it’s to develop speed-strength. The link Johnny put up is a good one and has some good explanations and will be a good place to start. I’ve been given 3-4 weeks for this phase and will be doing it only twice per year, so it’s definitely meant to be used as a short term thing.
I can see how things like ballistic jumps and med ball throws fit in, but can someone explain how to use barbells, etc for this? With ballistic jumps and med ball throws, you can accelerate through the motion. You jump as high as you can, let the med ball go at the end of the motion, etc, but with barbells, you have to hold on to it. Wouldn’t this mean that for the last portion of the movement, you’re decelerating it? Would oly lifts work with these lighter weights?
Does anyone have any opinions on the benefits of a speed-strength phase? Would this be beneficial for strength athletes to use every so often as well? During my strength phase, I’m using heavy weight, low reps and I’m trying to accelerate the weight through the movement (it doesn’t go very fast due to the higher weight). I had thought that this would just transfer over to higher speed with lower weights, but I may be wrong.
I’ve also read about how weighted sports-specific movements can actually mess with the biomechanics of the actual sports movement, so I won’t be doing any of those.
western periodization is useless. I tried that a long time ago, and lo and behold, when I ended my ‘hypertrophy’ sessions, and started my ‘strength’ all that hypertrophy starting going away. why do people still use it?
Western periodization is very useful if you use it properly. Your lack of results indicate that you:
-didn’t properly organize your training
-are not advanced enough to need it
-or both.
It’s really pretty similar to block periodization (more or less a fairly quick cycling of western periodization), which has proven to be extremely effective for elite-level athletes. You don’t need it yet. Stick with conjugate training for now.
Besides, if you’re losing mass, it’s because you’re not eating enough.
I agree with Ryan here. I used to spend about 90% training for hypertrophy. For the last couple of years I changed that a little in that I’d do 2-3 months of chins, dips, etc when preparing for my fitness test. Besides that, it was all hypertrophy. I had trained for hypertrophy for the 6 months prior to my strength phase. This was my first go at a strength routine (just finishing up 8 weeks)and I haven’t lost any weight or size at all.
For now, I’m more concerned with performance than with pure hypertrophy and see it as a byproduct of my training. I agree that haphazard periodization is dangerous, but if designed properly with a goal (competition) in mind, than it is very useful. It’s supposed to be designed so that you peak on a certain date. The fitness director who gave me this periodization also trains national level athletes and I’m hoping he knows something about what he’s talking about.
That being said, this is my first go at periodization and I posted here for advice as well as anyone’s opinion as to the benefits/disadvantages. All opinions are more than welcome.
Well a common developmental bench mark for speed strength is vertical jump heights, you could try pre/post testing for the phase and see if it benefiting you. If your not maintaining 90% of your strength from strength phases your doing something wrong.
I have found different periodisation models work for different athletes depending on age/training age/season length/competition frequency. But i’ll use Conjugate type periodisation for players in on/off season sports with weekly games etc during on season. where as athletes who compete more sporadically, Fighters, track and field etc ill use linear/undulating for best results.
But conjugate work should go through general “blocks” of focus. I have also found all over results are more gradual but consistent with conjugate.
[quote]Kulturkampf wrote:
western periodization is useless. I tried that a long time ago, and lo and behold, when I ended my ‘hypertrophy’ sessions, and started my ‘strength’ all that hypertrophy starting going away. why do people still use it?[/quote]
Similar to what Wayland said, it’s my understanding that training should progress from least specific to most specific the more advanced you are. So that would mean something like starting with a concurrent model, progressing to conjugate, gradually including more and more specialized blocks in conjugate, and finally on to block periodization when results start to run out with conjugate. This will take a while, though.
Also, conjugate seems to be a better model for in-season work or when you don’t have very long to get results.
Conjugate periodization has been made famous over here by Westside Barbell. Basically, it’s a fancy way of saying that you train two or more fitness qualities in the same cycle, hence the term “conjugate.” Typically, it’ll be only two or three qualities, and it’s generally best if they have some carryover. Westside combines limit strength, strength-speed, and hypertrophy.
How you set it up really depends on what you’re trying to do. There’s no blanket “power phase,” in other words.
Some coaches have really funny ideas about things. If you look at the people who really get people fast, I think you’ll find a lot more than med ball tosses. What are your goals? If you’re trying to be a world class sprinter, my advice will be different that if you just want to look good naked, which is also a noble pursuit.
Right now my goals would probably by strength first, speed second, hypertrophy third. Looking good naked is definitely very important, but I’m going to keep that as a by-product of my training. I’ve trained for that for years and can stand for a change. I don’t need to stay super lean, but I don’t want to put on too much fat either. I’d like to stay around 10 - 12% body fat (2-3 weeks from beach condition).
As far as flag football goes, I play a lot of D-line and a little O-line (also eligible receivers) so I need strength and speed.
As far as work goes, I need strength if I’m going to have to fight with someone, but I need speed to catch them first. There’s no point in me being a strong/fat 240 lbs if it means I tire out and there’s no point in being a fast/lean 170 lbs if I get my ass kicked. (I do train in street defence, but that’s another thread for another forum).
I guess, my main goal is to be stronger AND faster than the majority of people I’m going to have to deal with.