How many days a week do you lift?

[PVJunkie]

I have seen first hand more than my fair share of good vaulters turn into "big" bad vaulters from over emphasizing the wt room. Lifting should make up about 15% to 25% (at the most!!) of your overall training. Speed and technique are far more important than lifting.

Give me a kid who gives me 110% ON the track and never lifts over the kid that shows up 3 -5 times a week so tired from lifting that they cant even give me 75% on the track any day!!! AND I will gaurentee you the kid that never lifts will STOMP the muscle head.

[rainbowgirl28]

yea. day 1- chest, day 2- back, day 3- shoulders/triceps, day 4- biceps. i do legs on saturdays, and i workout everday, sometimes i work up to 14 hours at one time so i take those days off
even with running twice a day i gained 30lbs in one track season just by working out 4 days a week. during summer and winter breaks i go everyday though.

That's a nice workout for a body builder...

[dguier]

well im not "technically" a vaulter anymore. i just graduated from HS and im not good enough to vault at the college im going to. I didnt focus on the weightroom as much when i started vaulting, but i started to my senior year b/c i only weighed 135lbs and couldnt get on a pole about a 13' 150lb skypole. at all the camps i went to the coaches said i needed to work on speed and strength. after lifting alot the end of my senior year i was on a 14' 165lb. i would only workout 3-4 days tops when i was vaulting, but summer and winter breaks i would focus on it everyday. now that im done vaulting i still workout everday.

[RoySloppy]

Give me a kid who gives me 110% ON the track and never lifts over the kid that shows up 3 -5 times a week so tired from lifting that they cant even give me 75% on the track any day!!! AND I will gaurentee you the kid that never lifts will STOMP the muscle head.

This is not entirely accurate. if you lift 3-5 times a week hardcore and do it right, which includes alot of wieght but ALOT of cardio, at least 30 minutes a workout, if not more, and you run on the side, you will find that the "musclehead" will be in alot better physical shape then the kid who dosnt lift. he will not get tired as easily. and also i think you should lift hardcore in the fall and winter, 85% in summer if your going with a club, and take it down to about 50% during track season, you shouldnt be busting your balls at the gym hardcore during the season, you should go to keep your strength, maybe 3 days a week stretched out working the same muscle groups as before but not at the same frequency. do you think NFL players lift hardcore during the season? they would never survive. they just lift to maintain, not to gain. that should be your slogan. Maintain, not gain during the season. holla

[dguier]

thats what i would do, and now that im done vaulting i have found i like working out, so i do it everyday b/c i cant vault anymore.

[PVJunkie]

50%?!?!?! When is a vaulter who dedicates 50% of their efforts in the wt room EVER going to be rested enough to make any tech or speed gains. Vaulting tired is good for advanced and elite vaulters (who still wouldnt dedicate 50% except in the off season when they are not vaulting). For the other 99% of the vaulters out there who do not fall into the advanced/elite catagories........get out of the wt room and onto the track. Focus your efforts on speed and tech. The funny thing about vaulting is just by doing it and drills associated with it, you ARE getting stronger and your not wasting your time in the process. Work smarter not harder!! Once you get into that last 1% you fine tune your jumping and focus on getting faster and stronger (in that order) to nail the BIG sticks. Vaulters who only focus on big sticks and high grips will NEVER reach their potential because they never work on jumping as high above their grip ht as they can (being proficient) and aslo are far more dangerous. Good tech is efficent use of energy, the more efficent you are the higher you will jump and you can NOT develop tech when you are always sore and tired. Lifting is a part of vaulting its just not a major part when you break down what it takes to get good. NOT great, good. Great takes tons of factors (primarily speed and tech). For the majority of HS vaulters, vault more, run more, lift less. We all dig a hot physique but getting beat by the scrawny kid cause he/she has tech still gets you second place.

[Robert schmitt]

PVjunkie,

exellent-again you hit the nail on the head.

[vaultin chris]

speed is KEY. your legs will get strong, you body will get strong, but most importantly you will will vault better. stop trying to be shot and disc guys and become track athletes.

[zack]

When we're doing running workouts on days we're not vaulting my coach always tells us less is better if we're feeling wiped out or have an injury problem because he would rather we be fresh for vaulting then tired from a workout we did. Think about it, if you're too tired from lifting, running, whatever, how are you going to stay consistent on the runway and get in quality jumps? Think about in terms of another sport too. If you play basketball and want to get better what would you do? Hit the weights or go take 1000 shots a day in the gym?

[PVJunkie]

Good to see I am not alone here...........not that I would train my athletes any differently than I already do.

[RoySloppy]

stop trying to be shot and disc guys and become track athletes.

What if we are also shot and discus guys? Does that make us any less of track athletes? i mean i think shot and disc are in the decathlon, and there the best athletes. ive read in many places that shot and disc are good events to do with pole vault because of the explosiveness it requires

[PVJunkie]

Shot and Disc guys train far different from TURE vaulters. Muli eventers Train..............well for everything!! That was the point, train for the vault not the beach.