Adarq.org

Isn't that determined by the maximal strength? Or that was your idea as well? I mean, the stronger you are relatively, the longer stride length you're usually going to have.

It's determined by how much force one can generate in a window of roughly .08 seconds, while true maximal strength takes at least 1-3 seconds to fully express. Strength in the weight room and strength on the track are different entities, but one can influence the other. 

SV, SLDLs and RDLs are an economical way to tax the p-chain. There's nothing special about them besides the fact that they're convenient and they work. It's the same for ab wheel rollouts, they train both midsection stabilization and hip flexion simultaneously. Again, economical and effective. As for flexibility, there's no confusion in the literature. Frequent ballistic stretching through as full of an ROM as possible yields flexibility results, as do ISO holds at the end of the ROM. Simple.

Andrew, yes the quads are important to deceleration and early acceleration purposes, but centering a program around the squat is still misguided for a sprinter. As for training neural drive, top speed sprints and altitude landings should more than suffice. Also, I totally agree with your views on frequency. If you want to get good at something, do it as often as possible.

Raptor, thanks. I'm not 100% sure why I left either.

Barry Ross is a clown. Some of the things he recommends are solid, but focusing on the conventional DL, especially with the form he allows some of his athletes to use, is wasting time and energy. Also, he was only Felix's coach for a brief time, and only in the weight room during that time period. She is a phenomenally talented young woman and for him to claim any credit for her abilities is just wrong.

As for myself, yes, I should have spent far less time squatting and far more time doing RDLs, SLDLs, and ab wheel rollouts. Strength-wise, sprinting is all about the glutes, abs, hip flexors, and hamstrings. The quads aren't really all that important, and as such, neither are squats. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20-20. At least I'll be able to use my newer understanding when I do hit the track again though.

Haha, yeah, I gave up on that place a long time ago. It was fun while it lasted.

As for my squat to DL ratio, it's not that I have short arms (6'3" arm span), I just have a really long torso. Also, I never train the deadlift, so it naturally lags behind a little.

My name is RJ Nelsen and a few people on here may know me. For those who don't, I'm a former (failed) sprinter turned gym rat with a big interest in sports science. I'm short-legged, big-boned, and was not cut out for running, but still, I tried. Having spent years only working my lower body in hopes of getting faster, I've since abandoned the track and train upper body almost exclusively. I'm a bit out of shape (athletically), but I intend to fix that soon. I've had enough of being a gym-bro and want to get back into sports. I'm not exactly a slouch now, but I could use some work. Here are some stats...

6'1.5"
224 lbs
No clue on my bodyfat, but I have defined abs, so it's low enough

My best lifts/jumps/sprints are...

Power Snatch 220 lbs x 3 reps
Full OLY Squat 405 lbs x 1 rep
Deadlift 475 lbs x 1 rep
Clean and Military Press, 250 lbs x 1 rep
Chin Up 409 lbs x 1 rep (182 lbs + 227 lbs of BW)

100M in 11.66 FAT
400M in 54.5x FAT
LJ 20'1"

Broad Jump 10'2"
CMJ 32"

Right now I'm strong, but out of shape. I'm going to fix that in the coming months while continuing to focus on my main goal which is cleaning and military pressing 300 lbs. I may start up a log soon.

For those of you who are interested in my earlier work, here's a copy of my most recent book. It was, and still might be, for sale on Kelly Baggett's site, but I've been giving it away free for a while. Grab yourself a free copy and enjoy. It's worth it.

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/engineering-an-athlete

Haha, I hit a similar rut right in the middle of my track season this year. Sprinting is so hard, and I'm so bad at it. At TWhite's suggestion, I'm now training for bobsled, I guess.

Boxing sounds sweet, man. And you do seem to be a natural at conditioning. 5 sets of 20 reps on squats has got to be one of the craziest things you've ever done. Then again, this is you we're talking about...

So what if an athlete does have muscle tightness from training, etc.  Are there any ways of applying the EMS for flexibility or releasing a tight muscle?

If you've got a model with a TENS mode then you could use that to help with soreness. As for flexibility though, I'm pretty sure you could use EMS to help with that.

I'm just spitballing here, but if you STIM a muscle group while it's stretched to the end of its ROM it should help increase flexibility over time. The same is true any type of loading at the end of the ROM.

What, the geeky-ass white boy can rap? Who knew?

You let Squidward have it over at TVS though, Andrew.