::Snelkracht articles

Periodization and Sprint training II

Note from Elliott: This is an excerpt from a posting by Carlo Buzzichelli to the Yahoo Supertraining list.

Long runs will do absolutely nothing for you, in fact most elite sprinters never run further than 300m and even that distance is only at the beginning of the season in the preparation stages. Aerobic endurance is of very little benefit to a sprinter, and virtually no benefit in a sprint as short as 100m

Carlo:

- I think we need to distinguish between Tempo, special endurance and aerobic endurance training. Tempo training (up to 2000m of volume per training session in reps of 100-200m, sometimes 400m, at 65-75% intensity) is carried out nearly year round by sprinters. Special endurance runs, 150 to 600m runs at 90%+ intensities, are done mostly in the general preparatory phase. Most sprinters that specialize in the 100m would not go over 300m. Aerobic endurance specific workouts are not used by sprinters (like 60 minutes of continous run).

As for reps above 5, not much of point in doing that either. As a sprinter, you need to have a high strength to weight ratio and doing reps above 6 will tend to cause too much hypertrophy. Maximum strength and power are what you want to emphasize.

Carlo

- I would say that in developing athletes (and sometime even mature ones, just think of Roshaan Griffin) hypertrophy training still has a place. That doesn't mean that they ned to go over 6 reps though.

Best,
Carlo Buzzichelli
Siena, Italy