speed strength & strength speed; for you westside guys

[JSully]

So I came across a really great article:

http://www.westside-barbell.com/westside-articles/PDF.Files/06PDF/Explosive_leg_strength_NOV06.pdf

A bit dated really, but I doubt much has changed.

I'm a thrower. I train for explosiveness so that I can throw farther. On my speed days I go as heavy as possible while maintaining 1m/s concentric bar speed. I have tendo-like unit that I can measure bar speed with to make sure I'm hitting where I need to be.

I'd just like some clarification on a few points.

1) acommodating resistance. Article says 75% accomodating w/ 25% bar weight for speed strength (>1m/s) and 50/50 for strength speed (~.5-.7m/s). Is this correct? Sounds like an awful lot of bands. Are these for geared lifters or raw? What would the ratio for accomodating resistance be for raw lifters if it is different?

2) on the strength speed days (slower&heavier), what kind of rep scheme is used? same as the faster days?

3) how many days a week would you work the plyo jumps? twice around conditioning?

My off-season is quickly approaching. I'll be training 3 days lifting and 3 days throwing (one of those is a 2/day so that I can get 2 full days rest).

Monday = oly movments + assistance work
Tuesday = heavy
Thursday = speed

I'm going to rotate front squat, back squat, sumo pulls, conventional pulls, flat and incline bench. Whichever 3 I do on heavy day, I'll do the opposite on speed day and vice versa the following week. I'll probably deload every 5-6 weeks, maybe work up to some heavy singles on the 6th week before shutting it down. Haven't decided yet.

Biggest thing I'm curious on is the rep scheme for the strength speed stuff. Thoughts?

[JSully]

ok... so maybe just a hint on the rep scheme for the heavier days? lol

[RFabsik]

I could be wrong but I think there was a typo in the article regarding the percentages. I think it should be 75% total for speed strength with 25% being band and then 50/50 when going to strength speed. In regards to speed strength this would match up with his most recent article posted on their site.

So if I squat 100lbs
For speed strength
75% of 100= 75lbs of total weight needed for bands and straight weight
25% of 100 =25lbs of band tension at the top
75lb total-25 band= 50lbs of straight weight

[Travis Bell]

I believe Rob has it right

8-10 sets of doubles is what's used still but with around 45sec rest in between sets

If you're goin to take this approach though I'd really drop the Oly stuff for awhile. We've had countless guys come to the gym who wanted to increase their explosiveness on Oly lifts for football teams. We had them drop the lifts and work on their DE and ME stuff and low and behold they all hit significant PRs on their Oly stuff.

Box jumps would be done on your DE day usually and that's it. I wouldn't do it more than twice a week at the most. It can just become redundant over time.

[JSully]

I could be wrong but I think there was a typo in the article regarding the percentages. I think it should be 75% total for speed strength with 25% being band and then 50/50 when going to strength speed. In regards to speed strength this would match up with his most recent article posted on their site.

So if I squat 100lbs
For speed strength
75% of 100= 75lbs of total weight needed for bands and straight weight
25% of 100 =25lbs of band tension at the top
75lb total-25 band= 50lbs of straight weight
This makes more sense, thanks.


I believe Rob has it right

8-10 sets of doubles is what's used still but with around 45sec rest in between sets

If you're goin to take this approach though I'd really drop the Oly stuff for awhile. We've had countless guys come to the gym who wanted to increase their explosiveness on Oly lifts for football teams. We had them drop the lifts and work on their DE and ME stuff and low and behold they all hit significant PRs on their Oly stuff.

Box jumps would be done on your DE day usually and that's it. I wouldn't do it more than twice a week at the most. It can just become redundant over time.
That makes sense, however, I need to work technique. I'd like to do an OL meet early next year. What if I kept it at 60-70%? I only do 3 triples for both the snatch and clean, so at 6 total sets after warmups it's pretty low volume. Would that hinder recovery very much in your opinion?

I appreciate the response guys.

[Travis Bell]

I'd still say drop the Oly lifts. Trust me, the collegiate athletes we see often have much worse technique than I'm sure you do.

Unless you're going into strict olympic lifting, perfect technique really isn't a priority, getting more explosive is. If you can achieve better results with this method, why worry about the other stuff?

Just my 2 cents though