Ok guys, my high school track coach wants me to design a good lifting program for the throwers on the team. Having five years of experience (throwing the shot) and being an exercise science major I have a very good idea on the different types of lifts and numbers of sets and reps to improve strength and explosion. Here is the program I came up with.



Lawrence Track Lifting Program- Throwers only!
Important- Anyone who is either new to lifting or hasn’t lifted for an extended period of time, use 4x12 (except for the clean and jerk and the deadlift, just do the regular sets) for each exercise for the first two weeks, to build basic muscle endurance and stamina. After that two week period, you can use the program listed below. Experienced lifters can bypass this, and go straight into the program.

Monday (light day) and Thursday (heavy day)
Bench Press
Warm up- 2x8
3x5
2x3
2x2

Incline Bench Press (can be done with dumbbells)
4x5

Clean and jerk (using light weight for technique and speed)
3x6

Front raises (done with barbell)
3x6

Lateral raises (done with dumbbells)
3x6

Military Bench Press
4x6

Dips
3x10

Abs (any abdominal movement)
3x30

Optional lifts
Cable Pushdowns
4x5

Upright row
3x6

Rows (on machine)
3x6

Bicep curls (dumbbells or barbell can be used)4x5






Tuesday (heavy day) and Friday (light day)
Full squats
Warm up- 2x8
3x5
2x3
2x2

Leg press
3x6

Deadlifts (used with trap-bar)
4x6

Calf raises (done on machine)
3x20

Leg extensions (done on machine)
4x5

Straight legged deadlifts
3x8

Back extensions
3x8

Abs (any abdominal movement)
3x30

Optional lifts
Hamstring curls
3x6



Ok, what do you guys think?

Might find some useful information to help you design a program at:

http://danjohn.org/coach.html

It looks solid. I do think you should talk to your coach. Doesn't he have a lifting program for you? Especially for a thrower, it's an integral part of training that I'd think coaches would address.

It looks solid. I do think you should talk to your coach. Doesn't he have a lifting program for you? Especially for a thrower, it's an integral part of training that I'd think coaches would address.

I think you overestimate the organizational skills and knowledge of the average high school coach :( ....

Well, we've been using the BFS program for the past few years, but thats designed mostly for football players, and not throwers. He wants more emphasis on the shoulders, chest, and leg strength that the BFS didnt really provide.

Well, we've been using the BFS program for the past few years, but thats designed mostly for football players, and not throwers. He wants more emphasis on the shoulders, chest, and leg strength that the BFS didnt really provide.

I came across this

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/8682/lifting.htm

while searching for information on one-leg squats; this was the interesting part for me:

"I would recommend that the throwers do one type of heavy squat once a week as their primary hip strength developer. I would start with the back box squat. I use the box to control depth and teach proper technique. Then just do back squats to about parallel without the box. I also like some secondary squat activities because of their body awareness and balance elements.

If you have adjustable steps, I like the one-legged squat/stepdown with only a heel touch. You'd be surprised how difficult this is when you take out the toe pushoff. Use no weight, and progressively add 2 inches to the box height until the thrower can do multiple below-parallel one-leg squats. Then you can add DBs."

Some other time I came across this one too:

http://www.coachr.org/glide_vs_rotation_roundtable.htm

Thanks for the help guys, I already changed it around a little bit already. I'm going to keep tweaking it and tailoring it to the needs of everyone on the team, but I'm pretty content with the revised version right now.

I think you overestimate the organizational skills and knowledge of the average high school coach :( ....

Perhaps. I was lucky to have great coaches both in high school and college. But any track coach that doesn't have at least a basic weight training program for their throwers should be fired in my opinion.

Well, we've been using the BFS program for the past few years, but thats designed mostly for football players, and not throwers. He wants more emphasis on the shoulders, chest, and leg strength that the BFS didnt really provide.

Cool. So, he's basically looking to switch things up and wants you guys to give suggestions and input?

Cool. So, he's basically looking to switch things up and wants you guys to give suggestions and input?


Yeah, pretty much. If you didnt know already, the BFS is based on the four core lifts, the bench (and towel bench), the squat (and box squat), the clean and the deadlift. We supplemented those lifts with the incline bench and such, but we never really had it down on paper exactly what muscles we need to strengthen. We just werent really strict with the specific lifts, thats all. I just hope the program I came up with can help push the team to the next level and become stronger, more explosive throwers.