The fitness of pole vaulters: a discussion...

[Lax PV]

So now we have a pretty mutual agreement on our basic excercises. When/how often/what intensity/what volume should these lifts be done in each season stage: Preparatory, Season, Championship

My experience is with training intermediate athletes--aka college level, 15' - 17' for prs--ish--and I tried something new a couple years back, which training-wise worked out really well. Rather than a traditional periodization of reps and weight, core slow heavy lifting, to quick power with light weight and all that, I periodized the lifts themselves.

I looked at what main muscle groups needed to be worked on, and formed a group of exercises for each muscle group. From there, I ordered them from heavy to light (i.e. dead lift is routinely heavier than a front squat). I didn't change the reps much with the thought in mind that long sets of 8-12 reps will promote hypertrophy, where as reps in the range of 4-6 will result in more changes in maximum strength, rather than bulk. So in week one a macrostate would have say 4-5 sets of 6. Then week two would have a series of 6-5-6-5-6, and then week 3 would be along the lines of 6-5-6-4-5--these arrangements were used for the same exercise, but the reps changed, allowing the athlete to lift more, resulting from a combination of familiarity with the lift, and getting stronger. Numbers that I monitored as a strength coach were the weights of the main lifts, and then i looked at the average weight lifted per rep. As a general trend, the average weight per rep went up from week to week, but the overall tonage of the workout went down over the four weeks.

As far a frequency, pre-season saw 4 days of lifting per week, early season saw 3 days a week, and by competition phase the athletes were in the weight room for less than an hour a week.

This worked really well--but remember, it is not for a new guy--the youngest guy who has tried this arrangement out had been training for 4-5 years when he started it. Saw results, but took a couple steps back at first simply from the increase of intensity and volume of work load.

[KYLE ELLIS]

Interesting idea LAX.

[powerplant42]

What was the rest pattern between sets? 30 seconds, 3 minutes, what? And what percentage of 1RM for the first session and beyond?

[Split]

I think abs and bubkas, swings and things of that matter should also be included in this discussion.

[txpolevaulter_k25]

I think abs and bubkas, swings and things of that matter should also be included in this discussion.

For minors maybe

[txpolevaulter_k25]

I would also like to suggest not doing any type of "power" cleans and switch to hang cleans. Most unexperianced (high school level) athletes will not do them corectly, and could possibly turn out to be a serious injury.

[Lax PV]

What was the rest pattern between sets? 30 seconds, 3 minutes, what? And what percentage of 1RM for the first session and beyond?

Percent 1RM for a set of 6 was in the neighborhood of 75-80% the first week. Rest for sets of 6 were about 2:30, power exercises had rest of about 3min, and then the assistance lifts, pre-hab, single joint stuff, saw rest of 1:30.

I also see a lot of people doing ab exercises at the end of workouts, and always (even suggested by the NSCA) to have rest time of about 1min. This is contradictory to me. While I do them at the end, yes, I do not understand the 1min of recovery only. Abdominals are not put together any different at the cellular level than other skeletal muscle, why should it be trained differently? Any thoughts?

[powerplant42]

I agree with you... I am not even sure why a vaulter should do 200 situps instead of 10 sit ups with 50 pounds on their chest, explosively.

Split/txpolevaulter: at the moment we are discussing 'lifts'...

[Lax PV]

I agree with you... I am not even sure why a vaulter should do 200 situps instead of 10 sit ups with 50 pounds on their chest, explosively.

Split/txpolevaulter: at the moment we are discussing 'lifts'...

Another really contradictory lift that I h ave seen is people hanging from a bar with a weight between their legs and lifting their knees up. Yes, I agree, it will work your abs a bit, and it will also work your hop flexors (primarily your soas group) however, the idea being to train yourself to run with high knees and all that, is just not going to be accomplished with such a slow movement. Instead, try putting a 5 pound ankle weight (the only use for those things that I actually like) onto your right leg. Then hold your knee at 90 degrees, and hop on your left leg for ~10 yards, covering about a yard per hop (NOTE: only wear the ankle weight on the lifted leg). Try to keep you leg up at 90 degrees the best you can. Good ballistic training for your hip flexors. However, I suppose this exercise could be done on a plyo day rather than in a weight room--coaches choice I guess.

Try to sets with each leg, then take off the weight and try a 50m accel.

[powerplant42]

Right, speed is much more important than strength for the hip flexors... Many vaulters take care of the 'strength' component of power for a lot of muscles, but not the speed.

So Laxpv, how did supplementation, nutrition, etc. work for your crew?

[Lax PV]

Right, speed is much more important than strength for the hip flexors... Many vaulters take care of the 'strength' component of power for a lot of muscles, but not the speed.

So Laxpv, how did supplementation, nutrition, etc. work for your crew?

We had a team dietician that worked for the Mayo Clinic that helped out pro-bono--mother of one of the athletes. I have not had any formal education on nutrition/supplimentation, but I can look at some of the old stuff that I was given and respond maybe later on tonight.

[KYLE ELLIS]

I have a pretty good article on nutrition by canadian head track and field coach brent mcfarlane. It is called "Eating your way to success". I can't find it anywere online for free. But it talks about how eating a balanced diet is key! It is against carb loading and eating excess amounts of carbs, protien or fats, he talks about 40%carbs and 30%protien with 30%fat. He calls it 40-30-30...It also talks about how glycemic indexes of foods and insulin spikes can affect the body and its ability to repair and produce natural hormones. In the article it talks about how eating excess amount of carbs or simple carbs can block our body's natural release of HGH. He talks about 40-30-30 being a key because it regulates blood sugar levels. Not only does he say it is important for high performance but also for a high immune system.