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Old 09-23-19, 01:45 AM
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carleton
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One word of caution: The gym is a significant, but still relatively small part of winning on the track.

For the average racer who races a fair amount, the changes that come from adding a gym workout are minimal. And having a great gym program, some small gain on top of that. And having the perfect gym program, another small gain on top of that.

Here is a very rough chart that I just made to illustrate how adding gym work makes gains for a trackie (especially a sprinter). A similar chart is in the book Practical Programming for Strength Training used to illustrate a similar idea.

The Y axis illustrates the "gains" a rider will achieve. Basically how fast they are. The X axis is the amount of "Work" put in. The red line is a typical athletes path. Notice how for a given amount of Work, you get gains, but at a smaller and smaller rate. YES they are gains, but at a great cost. If you are at the tip top of the field in this sport, you have to do this to win. But, all of us will achieve a huge percentage of our gains early on.



Having any gym workout (e.g. squats, bench press, military press, all done progressively 3x5) pays off. Getting sophisticated with it won't pay as much.

Last edited by carleton; 09-23-19 at 01:46 AM. Reason: fixed image
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