weight training for sprinters

I was a sprinter/hurdler in high school and college. I'm going to give you my college lifting program, b/c that's when I actually gained muscle and enhanced my performance.

Do only these four exercises 2 to 3 times a week, every other day: squat, bench, clean, hang snatch.

At the beginning of your trainging you should start out with 3 sets of 10 for each exercise.

When you start to do more speed workouts and are beginning to race start doing 5 sets of 5 for each exercise.

About a month to 6 weeks before you want to peak, do 5 sets, reps should be 7,5,3,3,3.

Don't lift the week of the meet where you want to peak.

In addition to doing these four core exercises, you should do a circuit with other exercises.

Circuit: 2 times through, after core exercises;

leg curls (10)

leg extensions (10)

pull ups (as many as you can up to 10)

overhead bicep press (10)

curls (10)

lat pull down (10)

abs:

crunches (30 seconds)

bicycles (30 secs)

bent leg v-ups (30 secs)

Good luck

any additional one you wish to add.

Check out www.charliefrancis.com. There is a strength training forum on there.

runnergirl has outlined a solid program for sprinters of either gender.

With the four core exercises, particularly the clean and hang snatch, vary the weight weekly in monthly cycles. These exercises done at speed are explosive, but you'll also need heavier(=slower) weeks in order to progress.