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Hey guys, just wondering what everyone thinks is appropriate lifting-strength for a vaulter. This is probably a question I should have asked back in high school, but I thought I was in pretty good shape back then, so I'm asking now haha. I was always very strong, gymnastically, but right before my surgery, I learned the power of a solid lifting program. This year, in my pre-season, I'm gonna be hitting the weights harder than ever to make me faster than I've ever been.

NOW, I know a lot of people are anti-lifting, with the argument that if you don't do enough vaulting drills, you can't add your strength to the vault anyway, making it pointless. But with many days dedicated to vault-drills, I'm gonna just believe that I'll be able to put everything I can into the vault.

ANYWAY...so far i've heard that a stud can:

powerclean: 1.75x body-weight
squat: 2.5x body-weight
snatch: ?? maybe 1.25x or 1.5x body-weight?
deadlift: ?? 3x body-weight??
bench: ?? I don't see how pectoral's are that important with vault, but I coulda sworn I head agapit once say that the pectoral's are the weak link in the vault...maybe I heard him wrong?

What are your guys thoughts? For all the anti-lifting guys...don't bother posting. But for the record, before my surgery, I lifted hard for 2 months, packed on 10lbs of muscle and felt I could (without any training), pick up a 4.90 pole and just take-off with it. To me, that mental-edge was worth it's weight in goal...you know what i mean. -6P

I'm not completely sure on what percentages of body weight someone should aim to lift because I think some of that varies on height and stuff but the goal should be to get as strong as possible without any weight gain slowing down your run. So as long as you are getting faster you are doing it right, you may could do it better, but as long as you get faster with the added weight and you are using stiffer poles then your not doing it 'wrong'. So I think the best goal you can have is MORE.

As far as bench press I think you are thinking about it wrong when you say pectorals and what they contribute to the vault. For starters they help with the chest drive and pre-stretch. But beyond that bench press is a PUSHING exercise, and uses most of all the muscles required in straighting your arms. So it really works the triceps too when done right. Actually the way I lift and have the vaulters I work with lift, I think it uses mostly triceps. You get a lot of chest movement from the point where the bar is touching your chest until your arms are at 45 degree angle, then from that point on you are really locking out those arms and really using the triceps, the same triceps you use to plant the pole over your head and hit a big strong plant!

This is so predicated on limb lengths, muscle insertions, and like 1000 other factors that it is quite literally impossible to give you even rough numbers. Just remember that if you can produce X amount of force slowly (i.e. in the squat or deadlift) that doesn't mean you will be able to produce a relatively large amount of force quickly. Americans need to get out of this powerlifter mindset if we want to dominate events with minimal external resistance (javelin, pole vault, hammer, discus).

EIUvltr wrote:Just remember that if you can produce X amount of force slowly (i.e. in the squat or deadlift) that doesn't mean you will be able to produce a relatively large amount of force quickly.

yea, cause i didn't just list a bunch of explosive power-lifts -6P

since i know your a petrov guy, i once heard him quoted as saying if you can snatch your body weight your strong enough to jump 6m. doesn't mean fast enough, or technically good enough. i forget where i heard that though. i wouldnt get hung up on many numbers though, if your making progress thats the bigger thing, but when you get to the point where you can snatch your body or clean body=100lbs, squat 2x body, probably just need to maintain and work on other areas

joebro391 wrote:

EIUvltr wrote:Just remember that if you can produce X amount of force slowly (i.e. in the squat or deadlift) that doesn't mean you will be able to produce a relatively large amount of force quickly.

yea, cause i didn't just list a bunch of explosive power-lifts -6P

Not sure if this is sarcasm or not but the term "explosive power lifts" is quite contradictory. Although the term power lifts is redundant as well since time has no meaning in power lifting. You listed power lifts and olympic lifts which accomplish different things. Are you incorporating them into a complex-parallel method or conjugate sequence method??? These things are very important when it comes to programming to peak at a certain time.

"This year, in my pre-season, I'm gonna be hitting the weights harder than ever to make me faster than I've ever been.""

Is that what you meant to write????? Because that is not the best way to get faster - certainly not at the instant of take off.

I know you dont want to hear -or read - this -- but with a pr of 4.70M I suggest that you should concentrate on learning to vault properly before you get into a detailed lifting program. Yes I know that - as a wise man once said - 'what is technically desirable must be physically possible' -but it is all about priorities.

Perhaps someone can detail Feofanova's lifting program - since she has jumped 4.88m at 5'3 and a bit and probably weights less than 130 lbs it should make interesting reading.

Vtechvault wrote:since i know your a petrov guy, i once heard him quoted as saying if you can snatch your body weight your strong enough to jump 6m. doesn't mean fast enough, or technically good enough. i forget where i heard that though. i wouldnt get hung up on many numbers though, if your making progress thats the bigger thing, but when you get to the point where you can snatch your body or clean body=100lbs, squat 2x body, probably just need to maintain and work on other areas

Thanks Brian, that's the answer I was looking for

EIUvltr wrote:Not sure if this is sarcasm or not but the term "explosive power lifts" is quite contradictory. Although the term power lifts is redundant as well since time has no meaning in power lifting. You listed power lifts and olympic lifts which accomplish different things. Are you incorporating them into a complex-parallel method or conjugate sequence method??? These things are very important when it comes to programming to peak at a certain time.

Sorry if that sounded sarcastic, you're right, I meant Olympic Lifting. And I with I knew what that meant, I'm getting my degree in CS, not Ex-Phis. Care to elaborate? I'm basically thinking about how I can explode after take off the best and get inverted before the pole begins to unbend.

altius wrote:Because that is not the best way to get faster

I also got a sprint/plyo workout from DJ that I'll be starting in November.

-6P