Electric Hurdles
Hub / The Season and the Athlete / 6

Strong in Our Shapes

Enough strength, kept simple, lifted on sprint days, in service of the shapes.

Founder method
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01Teach from here

Strong in Our Shapes

Hurdle strength is the ability to create, hold and move quickly through the race's shapes.An athlete can be strong in the weight room without being Strong in Our Shapes.Sufficient strength matters. Enormous strength does not.

Coach notes
  • Plyometric work, hurdling and sport exposure can supply enough natural strengthening; at times the founder has taken athletes out of the weight room entirely.
  • For athletes at this level, weight training is mostly preventative maintenance: protect the Achilles, soft tissues and joints, and reduce the exertion the race demands. "It's good to be stronger."
  • Ceiling raising: to bench 200 pounds twenty times, either grind upward at 200, or build to 350 so 200 becomes easy.
SourcesKU-015AS; KU-015AT
02Teach from here

Lift on Sprint Days

In the perfect season: weight room on sprint-practice days.Three times a week in preseason. Twice a week in competition.Do a little less on the track those days to make room.

Coach notes
  • The historical obstacle has been recovery: track work is engaging, and the drive to get it right has sometimes pushed athletes close to their limits, leaving them under-recovered for the sprint day two days later.
  • The founder's 15 percent was a ballpark illustration of "a little less," not a target. This is a reallocation inside the sprint day, not an extra day.
  • He does not regret the prior allocation; regular lifting is the next opportunity to improve a system that already worked.
SourcesKU-015AU
03Teach from here

Keep the Weight Room Simple

A handful of exercises, done regularly, progressively overloaded.30 to 45 minutes.

ExerciseNote
Nordic curlsafter practice, never before; no weight room needed
Hex-bar deadlift, no negativespull to the top, then drop the weight
Single-leg split squats
Monkey Feetdumbbell on the foot, hip-flexor knee raises; a cable machine works too
The founder's small menu
Coach notes
  • The founder avoids Olympic lifts he is not skilled at teaching and does not want a large, complicated weight-room system. He closed the topic at this depth.
SourcesKU-015AV

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