The personal training industry is expanding rapidly and with that expansion comes misinterpretation of fitness application. Just the other day I read a post about a sprint coach needing to help an athlete run a faster10m sprint to make a top level team. Unfortunately the coach only had 4 more days to train her and she was missing the marks by .05s on a consistent basis.
As with anything within the fitness industry, there were some great answers and some not so great…here are some of answers I read:
- Use the PAP method, specifically to 1/4 squat super heavy, get a full recovery and than run.
- Take Creatine to help with explosiveness
- Work on the start position
PAP Method
The PAP or Post-Activation Potentiation, is based on lifting a heavy weight in hopes of carrying over the explosive capabilities to a lighter movement. A great example is to think of lifting a heavy box that you assume weighs 300lbs, but the box actually weighed 100lbs, the force needed to pull 300lbs will then move 100lbs very quickly.
While this is all good and dandy, it most likely wouldn’t work because of the fact that testers more than likely wouldn’t allow this or wouldn’t have the equipment to execute a PAP method. While the application of the PAP method can potentially make a substantial gain, the application to the testing environment will most likely not allow such a method.
Take Creatine
When I first read this I thought the personal trainer was kidding, but this is the fitness field and every Joe Schmo has an opinion. This is a classic example of why it’s beneficial to have an educated and experienced personal trainer or sports performance coach. To be clear it takes a few days for the creatine to actually saturate into the muscle and from there it’ll take time for it to actually have a positive effect. Bottom line, taking it right before you compete will NOT have an immediate effect.
Work on the Start
This by FAR was the smartest answer I read on the post. If you have minimal time, working on positioning will be key vs. any muscular adaptations. Nailing down a good start position will make a BIG impact on novice sprinters pretty quickly, so in my professional opinion this would be the way to go.
Conclusion
The point of this post is to be sure that you fully understand the application of any movement, supplement, program etc… before you jump into it. Simply reading a blog post, abstract, or advice from an unexperienced trainer isn’t good enough. The internet is saturated with uneducated and unsubstantiated advice from so called personal trainers, just do your due diligence and think with an open mind. Remember that just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s correct. Keep in mind that doing full squats used to be considered bad for your knees, and that was widely accepted…
Train Smart,
Team Fusion Trained
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