PoleVaultPower.com

This is just a sample for a one year periodized workout plan for the pole vault. It needs to also include two or three days of lifting switching between strength, power and hypertrophy. Power days should also include hurdle drills and plyometrics depending on the skill level of the athlete. It should be noted that this workout is designed to be three weeks on one week off, this means every fourth week there should be 10-20% cut from the volume and intensity so the body can adapt.

This workout plan has four major parts to it speed endurance, power, ATP CP days, and motor unit recruitment (along with rest days built in). For speed endurance the first three months are 90% intensity a little more volume gets added each month for this intensity, in the fourth month there is a drastic drop in volume and the intensity goes up to 95% and volume is gradually added for the 5th and 6th month. For the last three months intensity goes up to 100% and volume gradually drops to allow the athlete to be well rested for competition. By gradually adjusting the volume and keeping the intensity high it allows athlete to maintain a low body fat percent, and allow for endurance at high speeds with out developing a lot of mitochondria that converts muscle to type 1 (slow twitch). The ATP CP and power days are straight forward periodization high volume low intensity to low volume high intensity. However the intensity still does not drop under 90% so we can continue to hypertrophy the fast twitch muscle fibers and convert the type 1 fibers to type 2a characteristics. You will notice that in the last three months I have some over speed training this is an attempt to recruit all the motor units for type 2a and 2x muscle fibers. If your athlete is not feeling it during a day that requires high intensity they should be encouraged to do something else quality is better then quantity. Also this program was designed with the college vaulter in mind if your athlete is untrained the intensity and volume are going to need to start lower and be a more gradual build up. This workout plan is not perfect and can use some revisions but I hope some people can use it as a base to write there workouts. Also note that vault days are all Mondays and Wednesdays always vault on vault days before doing the workout
---Kasey

September
Sun-10x60m sleds or hills
Mon- vault/20 min run
Tues- 4x150 3-5min rest between intervals at 90% intensity
Wed- vault/20 min run
Thurs- 2(3x100) 3 min rest between intervals, 5 min rest between sets
Fri- 20 min run
sat- Rest

Oct
Sun- 8x60m sleds or hills
Mon- vault/10 min run
Tues- 2(5x100) at 90% intensity 3 min rest between reps 5 min between intervals
Wed- vault/10 min run
Thurs- 7x150
Fri- 10 min run
Sat- Rest

Nov
Sun 6x60m hills
Mon vault/10 min run
Tues 2(5x150) at 90% intensity 3-5 min rest
Wed vault/10 min run
Thurs 5x150 6x100 3-5min rest
Fri 10 min run
Sat Rest

Dec
Sun 12x30m heavy sleds/hills
Mon vault
Tues 4x120 at 95% intensity 3min rest
Wed vault
Fri 4(4x60m) 90% intensity focus on form. walk back between reps 5 min between sets
Sat Rest

Jan
Sun 10x30m sleds/hills
Mon vault
Tues 2(2x150) 95% intensity, walk back between reps 5 min between sets
Wed vault then 10x100m striders
Thurs (4x40, 4x50, 4x60) 95% intensity focus on form. walk back between reps 5 min between sets
Fri 2(3x100) 95% intensity . walk back between reps 5 min between sets
Sat Rest

Feb
Sun 8x30m sleds/hills
Mon vault
Tues 5x150 95% intensity, walk back between reps 5 min between sets
Wed vault
Thurs 5x flying 60s, 5 x flying 50s
Fri warm up
Sat Rest

March
Sun 10x50m downhill
Mon Vault
Tues 2(3x100) 100% intensity
Wed vault then 8times 100m striders
Thurs 5xflying 30s 5xflying 40s
Fri Rest
Sat Compete

April
Sun Rest
Mon vault then 10x40m downhill
3x150 100% intensity full recovery
Wed vault then 8xwith over-speed belt 90% focus on technique
Thurs 8x 100m striders
Fri Rest
Sat compete

May
Sun Rest
Mon 4x overspeed 100% intensity full recovery
Tues 10 min run
Wed 4x100 sprint float sprint
Thurs warm up
Fri Rest
Sat compete

Cool stuff! A few questions. As far as the workouts go, what did you do for lifting and plyos. You don't need to be incredibly specific, I'm just curious what your main exercises were. Also did you do some testing over the course of this workout plan? Do you have some measurable results? I'm curious how much your speed, long jumping ability, and weight changed over the course of the year. Thanks for sharing this. Its a great read.

Kc I read in one of the other threads that you would be posting a lifting schedule to go along with this and was curious if you had finished it yet.
Thanks,
Erich

June, July, August?

This is great but i have a few questions. First off would you incorporate a winter competition season into this? and Ive hear a lot of thing about starting off the fall with 800s and 400s for endurance and then slowly decreasing the distance and increasing the speed. Whats everyones take on this?

@Zach
http://www.stabhoch.com/epvc/petrov_plan.pdf

Check page 11.
The general idea is to build a base of endurance. However, the need for an aerobic base is under discussion, but I think it is beneficial to body's ability to recover (both between training sessions, but also between jumps).

I don't have internet at my house right now but will post lifts soon. I beleave June July and August should be spent doing other sports cycling, going on fifteen minute runs, swiming, hiking est. I have trained through these months before and now feel it is best to take them off to prevent injury. Possible lift and do hurdle drills through the summer but nothing serious.

--Kc

good morning,

nice schedule kc..

Zach.... your schedule was/is a little "over the top".. your schedule is for a world-class 1500m/5000m runner...

train like a sprinter/long jumper... anything over 150m is too long...

there is also nothing wrong with training in the "fall" just like you train in the spring competitive season and get two "seasons" in the same competitive year.

I recommend all college sophomores use this type schedule.

remember.. "Progressive Overload" and SAID.. "Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands."

dj

Sorry folks -I appreciate the effort and commitment involved in preparing this training proposal but IMHO it is a nice theoretical program that will take few vaulters anywhere except down a path to disillusionment and probably injury. I do not have time to deconstruct the whole program but would simply use two examples to point out the pitfalls that it includes.

In April - on tuesday it is recommended that the athlete runs 5x 150 at 95% intensity and in May 3 x 150 at 100% intensity. Not only will these sessions take an inordinately long time to complete -that is if they are to include the recovery periods necessary to repeat the runs at the intensity required BUT and this is a critical BUT - the demands on the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM will be such that the athlete will be unable to undertake a quality vault session the following day -as recommended in this program.

Since the whole objective of any program should be to ensure top quality vault training (and with elite athletes that should be limited to 12 -15 full attempts to ensure that the CNS is not compromised) then clearly there is a problem.

On a more general level coaches and athletes should be aware of the general adaptation theory which is concerned with all of the stresses an athlete faces - of which training and competing are just one of many - studies/personal life/finances/part time work etc. If this is ignored injury and/or illness will surely follow. A program as intense as this one is simply not necessary for most athletes - indeed if a weight training program is to added to the load it is questionable for anyone IMHO. In my experience athletes can jump 5.40 and higher using much lighter training than this - but training especially aimed at building technical excellence.

would that include more vault days or just more focus on being 100% on those designated vault days?

zachwinters156 wrote:would that include more vault days or just more focus on being 100% on those designated vault days?

That all depends on your situation. Everything about your planning depends on your situation. General environment: high school, college or open? training 3 days, 5, days, 7 days per week? 1 or 2 a day training? Availability of coaches, facilities and recovery services?

No matter what your primary concern is vaulting technique so you need to be able to set up an environment conducive to perfecting technique on your vault days. And this includes the day before your vault session; everything counts from how fatigued you are to how you eat. Think of it as your vault session preparation begins 36 hours before you even pick up a pole. You need to work your way around that. For professional athletes who train AM/PM, the best situation IMO would be:
Day 1 (AM): Gymnastics technique
Day 1 (PM): Recovery - again, what sort of recovery services do you have?
Day 2 (AM): Vaulting - also need to take into consideration what you are doing in the vault session, there are lots of things you can do for a vault session depending on what part of the season you are in.
Day 2 (PM): Whatever - fill in what else needs to be done here or recovery for a heavier Day 3

A gymnastics technique session (at least the gymnastics sessions as I would do them) will not kill you physically as opposed to gymnastic strength sessions. Again this depends on how much time you have and if you can actually afford to differentiate technique and strength sessions for gymnastics. Doing so will give you a lot more flexibility in your planning and will make the specific goals of each session easier to reach - the negative part is of course it will take a lot more time. Anyway the practice of technique is also a good tune-up for what you will do the next day.

What I wouldn't do is put the most physically taxing thing you can do on your program (150m @100% or anything that will bring you close to throwing up!) the day before a vault session. In my opinion gymnastics or some strength training followed by a recovery session (sports massage, pool etc.) for the day, leaving you fresh as a daisy for vaulting in the morning is the best. Then depending on what else needs to be done in your program, the afternoon session of the second day is open for whatever you need to plan - such as your runs. Also regarding your runs, which runs should do depend on how much time you have (again). If you're a professional athlete with all the time and jazz in your training program then you can push it quite a bit. If you've got work or school then you really need to think about how you're investing your time.

If you don't have things planned AM/PM, like if you're in school, you need to work around that. If you take that scenario, now you've not only taken out the AM session but you've replaced it with something that is mentally draining! Planning is not just about what looks good on paper, but you really have to take into consideration everything else that's going on around. Sometimes there is no choice but to go ahead with a situation that is anything but perfect - this is the sad reality of amateur coaching. However, if it can be helped by good planning, the coach (or whoever is in charge) needs to work it out well so that the athlete has less to worry about and is in a good condition for their technique. The coach does the hard work thinking through everything and all the athlete needs to do is pound the accelerator to succeed - or at least that's how it should be! If you're the coach and the athlete, then you've got a lot of hard work ahead of you!

One last big thing to consider on this topic is what part of the season you're in and your current state of conditioning. If it's early and you're not that well conditioned yet, you're not going to recover as fast. There are so many variables but whoever thinks of all of them and finds a way around them will put their athlete in the best position to win.

-Andrew