Weight lifting for 3200 guy in track

You are not going to gain significant weight from lifting.

Your speed will improve faster with a few hill sprints and flat sprints each week in my experience though. I still would suggest lifting as well. Search runningart2004 on this forum.

I say yes to the weight lifting, but do not limit your strength training to it: I'm middle-aged and haven't competed at running for over ten years, but for strength, I lift weights AND employ resistance bands, fitness balls, medicine balls, the BOSU and similar implements - I think called "pillow discs" or "stability discs" - a jump rope, and, for plyometric jumping, an open field, boxes or a stone wall. Among the many instructional fitness videos on YouTube are some good ones featuring these implements and exercises. In all, I'm getting about 3.25 to 3.5 hours per week of such work. (I also stretch like mad now and wish I had done more stretching at your age, but I don't run much anymore, unlike you.)

Crossfit has been shown to be effective strength training for the 3200.

You should run 40x400 everyday at 80 seconds with 2:00 minutes recovery. then every week once you start racing subtract 5 400s and speed up 2-3 seconds. then by the time you are down to 5 400s you'll be run 60/62s. Its a full proof plan to run 7:55 for 3000m. Go get em Tiger. Also, if i were you, I would think about upping my mileage to about 120 MPW. Might as well go for the glory! Get it brother. I hope this training helps and makes you faster. I did it and improved my 3200 pr from 11:52 to 11:11. Make a wish ;)

You might want to check out Barry Ross's website bearpowered.com. Really all he did was borrow from Pavel's "Power to the People" book format. I have heard that Ross's ideas on run specific training ideaas are "controversial" but his strength training methods seem to be pretty sound, and simple. Following Pavel's PTP approach, Ross basically has integrated sumo deadlifts (as opposed to conventional style which Pavel typically does) done for heavy weight, low reps, and low sets during the week. 5 minute rest between sets to recover, feel fresh, not get beat down.

Ross's belief is that if the strength work is done right, an athlete should be able to do a run workout afterwards. He's used this with sprinters to distance folks. Percy Cerutty apparently used very similar methods with the deadlift. Either way, let me reinforce to keep is simple. Develop as an athlete, but remember you are a runner first right now.

If you are lifting in the manner as Ross recommends, 2-3 x's per week, 2-3 sets x 2-3 reps, not done to failure with 5 minutes of recovery, you will not gain bulk. Especially if you are running a lot. The one area I don't agree with Ross's concepts is that he doesn't really believe in a warmup. You don't need 12 and 15 rep warmup sets as this will just wear you out and cause unnecessary fatigue. I think it would be safer though to to slowly jump up the weights with low rep sets as a warmup.

Adding in some form of strength training may not be THE answer, but it might be one that you benefit from. Good luck.

Something to Consider wrote:

You might want to check out Barry Ross's website bearpowered.com.

This works.

What is controversial is that he goes for the "minimum effective dose". It's so simple that personal trainers feel threatened. Works absolutely fine with single leg exercises at home, too.

Google 'Easy Strength' for more info on this type of lifting. Specifically designed to be the 10% extra on top of the 90% of time/energy that goes into your sport. I have been through several cycles of this. It works even better as Pavel and Dan John suggest - do an exercise 5x per week, just do it light on the days you feel tired. Barry does 3x/week because he is a high school coach and that it how often he gets the kids to work with.

I am stronger now at 46 following these routines than I was in my 20s lifting to exhaustion.

Good post! Tsatsouline trained Russian Special Forces, and his thinking was that these guys would be called into action without the luxury of warming up, so none of his training included warm ups. For an athlete who warms up as a matter of course not only for a physiologic benefit but also for a psychological one I would think that warm ups are fine.

Another big concept of Pavel's is synaptic facilitation. You need to train your brain and nervous system to perform athletic movements efficiently, and this is done by performing the movement thousands of times. By doing a few reps of say pullups never to failure dozens of times throughout the day you will increase your strength by training your CNS.

you wont know what works for you until you try it. i say in the off season for sure, its def worth a shot. this is the time of year to experiment. try a couple of weeks, see how you feel. if you gain a bunch of weight (not likely) lift differently (reps/sets/weight). if you still gain weight, give it up.