Sprinting Program

I understand that many of the people reading these posts are not just training for maximal strength. Many of the people I coach and other readers have mentioned that they train for sports performance and track events. So I've created this simple yet effective sprint program for these individuals!

The main focus of this program is the lower body work. We begin each of our lower body sessions with some sort of sprint variation. These are:

1. Flying Sprints

A 'flying sprint' is a sprint in which you build up to max velocity over a distance of about 40-60m, and then you sprint at max velocity for 10-20m. This 10-20m zone is called the 'flying zone' and you should time the flying zone by recording a video or using a timing device/system. These flying sprints are going to be the bread and butter of any sprinting program. The reason we only sprint with max velocity for 10-20m is because sprinting at TRUE maximum velocity is HIGHLY fatiguing on the body! Usually, I would only keep the flying zone 10m as this type of maximum intent sprinting will beat the crap out of you! During the approach of 40-60m, you should GRADUALLY build up to the max velocity flying zone. Do not try to accelerate too quickly as you may start sprinting too fast before the flying zone even begins.

2. Short Sprints

Short sprints provide you with the opportunity to train your start and your acceleration. Short sprints can be anywhere from 10-60m, but I would usually recommend 20-40m for most people. At the start of a short sprint, you have the chance to practice your sprint start. So if you are training for track, you can practice pushing off the blocks, driving through the balls of your feet etc. With these, you just want to focus on sprinting as fast as you can. You won't reach max velocity due to the short distances, meaning you can do more reps of these shorter sprints without feeling burnt out.

3. Resisted Sprints

Of course, we need some form of resistance in order to increase our ability to produce force. For resisted sprints, I would recommend you attach a weight sled to you waist via a belt and then load the sled with regular weight plates. If this is too hard, you could use a prowler if you have access to one. If this is not an option, then I guess you can use the parachute things that provide air resistance, but this is impossible to progress on. If you don't have access to a parachute, then just do short sprints on grass or hill sprints. Doing sprints on grass will provide some friction resistance compared to running on a track, and running up a hill decreases stride length, which provides a similar stimulus to resisted sprints. No matter which method you use, keep these resisted sprints shorts (usually no more than 15m). Adding weight to these means that you're legs will get very tired if you sprint for long distances.

When we combine these 3 sprint variations, we get a damn good sprint program:

Additional Notes:

• If you can, try running on a track with spikes on. This will minimize the friction resistance and will be more forgiving on your joints
• You can do the sprint work earlier in the day and the weight room work separately later in the day. You could also do the sprint work the day before the weight room lower body sessions.
• Have a rest day after Upper body 2 and Lower body 3
• The olympic lifts should be light. Focus on moving the bar with maximum speed
• Do not do nordic curls or glute ham raises if you can't regress them so that the eccentric is VERY slow. If you don't have access to this equipment, do a 2/1 leg curl where you use 2 legs to bring the weight down and only 1 leg for the eccentric. I also like banded hamstring curls, but do these for higher reps and rhythmically
• For calf raises you can do a mix of calf and tibialis work. The 2/1 method also works well here. Honestly, you probably don't need to do calf work 3x a week; 1 x a week should be plenty enough. I included calves 3x a week for pure hypertrophy sake (but some people with bad genetics may not see any calf growth)
• Time each of your runs if possible. Have a friend time the runs, record the runs on a video tape or use a timing system/watch
• You will notice that the resisted sprints and the short sprints are programmed in 3 week waves. For 3 weeks, you work with a certain set/rep scheme, and then you change in in the next 3 weeks
• You can fit the ramp ups for the heavy lifts with the 3-week wave system. So for weeks 1-3, you would ramp to a heavy set of 5 reps. Then for weeks 4-6, you ramp up to a heavy set of 4 reps. And for weeks 7-9, you ramp up to a heavy set of 3 reps. Deload and then repeat!
• For the plyometrics, just do any jump that is of a moderate intensity (not to easy, but definitely not too hard). This could be a rhythmic box jump, hopping on the ground or doing lateral jumps. Use the same variation for 3-4 weeks and then switch it up.
• For the flying sprints, really take the full rest periods. Sprinting at true max velocity is truly taxing on the body, and you need those rest periods to fully recover
• Finally, I should mention this is a linear speed program. If you were interested in more sport-like speed (ie. for American football, rugby, soccer), then I would recommend doing agility work as well on rest days.

Note the exercises rotations in the spreadsheet. If you are a beginner, don't bother rotating exercises until you've run the program for a couple months. You can then begin rotating exercises every 3-4 weeks as you become more advanced. Some will say this program is too much for a beginner. I think that if you manage volume and intensity and recovery well, a beginner can easily make gains off of this program. The 3 lower body sessions are each a mix of heavy and explosive work, so the legs won't feel very tired out in the long run. 

So there it is! Sleep and eat well whilst running this program and you are guaranteed to increase your linear sprint speed. Any questions can be put in the comments below or emailed to me at cavernofcreaturesgym@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

People With Good Genetics Can Afford To Train Sub-Par

As unfair as it sounds, this is the reality. I'm sure you've seen clips of world-class athletes doing some of the whackiest and inefficient training known to man. The harsh truth of any physical pursuit, however, is that genetics plays a MUCH greater role than most people think. When we talk about 'genetics' in sports and lifting, we generally think of muscle mass, fast twitch fibers etc. But we often gloss over other significant attributes which are used highly during sports. For example, things like reaction time, ability to recover and sleep quality are all dependent largely on genetics.

You probably don't have good genetics. If you did have good genetics, you would already be competing at the state level in your sport (the state level is a BARE MINIMUM to be classified as having 'good' genetics). Tom Brady, during his first year at the NFL, ran a 5.28 40-yard dash and had a 24.5 inch vertical jump. Basically, he was extremely unathletic. But guess what, he STILL has better genetics than YOU!

People with good genetics can afford to not train optimally. Many top athletes hire the dumbest coaches known to mankind, and they STILL get more athletic! That's the power of genetics and the human body! However, someone like me or you cannot simply imitate the stupid training of these athletes and expect to get the same results. People like you and I actually need to invest time into learning about proper training.

People tend to disregard the 'optimal' movement in fitness and sport culture. Although some people can take the idea of 'optimal' training a bit too far, this doesn't deny the fact that optimising your training is a worthy goal. Why shouldn't we try to optimise our performance? In fact, for people who weren't winners of the genetic lottery, pursuing optimal training is probably necessary in order to see real progress. 

So next time you see some kid squatting 600lbs, please keep in mind that you are not that kid. You need to train properly. He doesn't. Of course, the kid could also benefit hugely from training properly. Maybe he should purchase a training program from the Cavern Of Creatures Gym!

- Hawtsauce

Quick Tip: Upper Back Pain During The Squat

I recently had client ask me about shoulder and upper back pain during the back squat. This reminded me of a devastating time in my training career. When I was first starting out, I could not place a barbell onto my back in a high bar position without excruciating pain. This left me squatting low bar for an entire year until I could high bar squat heavy. 

During the squat, you should actively think about squeezing the back together to create a muscular "shelf" for the bar to rest on. 

The Chinese lifter Lu Xiaojun performing a high bar back squat. Notice how the upper back is squeezed and this created a shelf on the traps (trapezius muscle)

As shown above, the barbell should rest on the upper traps during a high bar back squat. One of the best cues I like is to bring your elbows UNDER the barbell (think about doing a behind-the-neck press). This will bring out more of the trapezius muscle which can provide a larger shelf for the barbell to rest on. A common mistake is for the bar to be TOO high up, which causes neck pain. Now, this high bar position does require you to have some muscle on the upper back to begin with. If you don't already have this muscle, the weight on the bar may still create pain. 

So the solution to this is to just switch to the low bar squat. The low bar squat can be performed by basically everyone as it requires the bar to be places on the rear delts, which are well developed in most trainees. 

Proper bar positioning during the low bar back squat. The upper back is still tight, but the bar is now on the muscular rear delts (rear shoulders) rather than the traps (hence the name "low" bar)

Using the low bar position will require you to widen your grip, but it will provide a pain free solution for most. Before you squat, make sure to warm-up shoulders with some light face pulls or shoulder external rotations. If this still doesn't work for you and you still experience pain in the low bar squat as well, consider switching to the front squat or the SSB squat temporarily (or any other squat variation that doesn't induce pain). 

So, how should you gain the upper back muscle to squat pain free? Well, I recommend doing upper back work at least 2 times per week at the end of your upper body sessions. The best exercises to use here include facepulls, rear delt flyes and upper back inverted rows. The loading with these exercises isn't as important as the volume, so I recommend you do 100 total reps in each of these sessions. Also, you can do loaded carries like farmer's walks to directly build the upper traps.

One of the best exercises for the upper traps is the snatch grip high pull. Whenever I do this exercise for higher reps, my traps feel like they've been hit by a truck the next day. Try these out for 4-6 sets of 5-10 reps.

Basically, if you want to squat with a barbell pain-free, choose a variation that doesn't induce pain temporarily whilst building your upper back musculature. After about 1-3 months of this, you should be good to go!

- Hawtsauce

What Do I Do During Rest Periods?

Rest periods can take a long time. I will often rest up to 4-5 mins on my main compound exercises. But these rest times cab really build up and take up the bulk of your training time. So what should you do during these long and monotonous periods other than scrolling through Instagram or YouTube Shorts aimlessly?

I have two recommendations. Firstly, do more supersets! A superset is when you do one exercise, rest for only a small period (30-45 secs) and then go on to a different exercise, and rotate between these two exercises. This decreases rest periods from 3-5 mins to 30-45 secs. Keep in mind that supersets will NOT impede performance if the two exercises you choose work different muscle groups. So for example, you would NOT superset RDLs with leg curls as these exercises both target the hamstrings, and your hamstring swill be very fatigued after the RDLs. Instead, you could superset the bench press (which targets the pressing muscles) with a barbell row (which targets the pulling muscles). In this way, each muscle group is allowed to recover WHILST you perform the alternate exercise. I would only recommend supersets to be done with upper body exercises (ie. horizontal presses + horizontal pulls, isolation exercises) since lower body exercises are generally more fatiguing and will require full rest periods for optimal performance.

So what should you do when you can't superset. I do not recommend you do any sort of prehab work during rest periods as this prehab work will likely be too intense that it may actually impede workout performance (if the prehab work is not that intense, then it is probably a useless exercise!). I would much rather save prehab work for post-workout or later in the day.

Instead, I think you should spend rest periods playing some low intensity games. This can include juggling (an idea which I heard from Will Ratelle), juggling a soccer ball, dribbling a basketball, or doing reaction-time tests with a partner. Whichever game you choose, make sure it is low intensity to not impede performance, but that it is also wakes up the nervous system. This will keep emotions light-hearted and engage more of the sympathetic nervous system for better intra-set recovery. 

Playing these types of games is much better than scrolling on your phone and they also allow athletes to get in some time acquiring athletic-related skills. Doing something like this will ensure high levels of engagement with the workout rather than just going through the motions.

- Hawtsauce

How To Structure Your Workouts (No matter the goal)

Structuring your workouts correctly plays a significant role in performance during that session and subsequent performance as well. Placing movements too early or too late in the training session is a common yet overlooked mistake amongst all categories of trainees; whether you train for size, strength or speed. Here's how I personally structure workouts for myself and for clients:

1. Max Effort Work

If you have programmed a max effort movement, it should be during the start of your workout. A 'max' effort movement here is defined as an exercise in which your goal is to set a PR. So, for example, a max effort movement could include ramping up to a heavy set of 5 reps on the back squat. Most max effort movements will be a squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, snatch, and clean & jerk. 

Max effort movements are put first in the workout since our soul aim with them is to increase the weight we lift. However, these max effort movements should be done at a LOW volume. The maximum amount of volume you would want to do is a single heavy set, with maybe 2-3 backoff sets. The reason we want to keep volume low is so that we have enough energy to do the explosive work AFTER the max effort work. With explosive exercise like resisted sprints, we are less concerned with the weight and more concerned with positioning and speed. Volume work is VERY fatiguing on the body and will significantly impede explosive performance.

For most people, I would recommend to just do 1 max effort exercise per session. But for those who do 2 max effort exercises in a single session, I would start with the more technical/less fatiguing exercise. So if I was doing heavy snatches and heavy bench presses, I would start with the snatch as it is a far more technical lift and it requires the body and mind to be fresh. If I was doing heavy back squats and deadlifts, I would start with the back squat as it is more technical and far less fatiguing than the deadlift. Of course, the order of exercises here can change if you are significantly weaker on a specific lift. For example, if your deadlift is weak compared to your back squat, you could start with the deadlift.

2. Explosive Work

We then do our explosive work for the workout. Performance here will feel much better due to the post-activation potentiation effect after the heavy maximal effort sets previously performed. Here, the order of exercises will simply depend on the goal. If your goal is to get faster, start with sprints and then do plyometrics. If your main goal is vertical jumping, start with jumps and then do light power cleans. Most trainees won't be doing more than 2 explosive exercises per session.

3. Volume Work 

Volume work can be split into 2 categories:

Heavy/Assistance Volume Work

This includes volume work for the maximal lifts mentioned earlier. Here, you could do 5 x 5 with your squats, bench presses and deadlifts, as well as assistance exercises for your main movements (ie. incline bench press, pause deadlifts, belt squats, hyperextensions). These movements will come first as they are quite a high priority for an athlete who wants to increase maximal strength or performance in the most important movement patterns. Most trainees will have around 1-2 assistance exercises per workout. These will probably be the most fatiguing exercises in your workout, as they require a good mix of both intensity and volume.

Light/Hypertrophy Volume Work

Here, we do movements which are targeted for hypertrophy and longevity and thus require less loading. This could include weighted chin-ups, curls and tricep extensions, hip flexor work, hip thrusts, and core exercises. These exercises generally require less intensity and so can be performed towards the end of the workout. Trainees could have up to 3 exercises in this category.

4. Miscellaneous Work

This can include basically any exercise that isn't a high priority and more optional and prone frequent changes. For myself, I include calf work, static holds for grip strength, and neck curls in this slot. These exercises aren't as important for the goals of strength, size and speed to be considered 'volume' work, but they still provide some benefits. This slot is optional and not everyone will need to do these types of exercises, and most should be fine by just doing the first 3 exercise categories I just mentioned. I would only do 1 exercise in this slot per session.

But Hawtsauce, how many exercises should I do per session?

I would say 6(not including the miscellaneous exercise). I have found experimentally that 6 exercises is the maximum number of exercises any trainee can tolerate in a single session with a generally high level of intensity. Maybe if you are on a very low frequency split (2-3x per week) you can add a handful mor exercises, but anyone training 4-5 times a week should keep 6 exercises the cap. If you train high frequency 5+ times a week, you should probably do even less than 6 exercises per session. 

Below, I have outlined how each type of trainee can allocate these 6 exercises in their workout:

Strength Athlete:

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Explosive Exercise
3. Assistance Volume Work
4. Assistance Volume Work
5. Hypertrophy Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Physique Trainee:

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Assistance Volume Work
3. Hypertrophy Volume Work
4. Hypertrophy Volume Work
5. Hypertrophy Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Hybrid Athlete (ie. sprinter, soccer player, fighter):

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Explosive Exercise
3. Explosive Exercise
4. Assistance Volume Work
5. Assistance Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Overall, this is a solid way to structure workouts, and it WILL provide optimal results no matter your training goal! 

- Hawtsauce