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Weight Lifting Exercises
By Jacob Flores
Lifting
weights is vital for every pole vaulter.
It increases strength, size, and muscle coordination. It is also helps you run faster, get on
bigger poles, and overall succeed in the vault. Here are 5 upper and 5 lower body lifts that every vaulter
should consider doing to help them in their vaulting. Please be responsible when lifting heavy weights.
Upper Body Lifts
1. Bench Press (flat bench, incline bench,
dumbbell variations, military press) — this lift builds strength in the chest
and triceps. Be sure to vary the lifts
you do so you work the full range of muscles. Also, isolation with dumbbells
will increase stability in the shoulders.
These exercises will help you have power and create space when you plant
the pole.
2. Rows (body weight rows, cable rows,
flat bar rows) — With rows, you build great strength in the back, biceps,
deltoids, and in the traps a bit.
Doing rows is a great exercise, which also simulates the inversion stage
of the pole vault, swinging to vertical and being active with the arms by
pulling through. Again, variation
is encouraged so all muscles are trained equally.
3. Overhead press (upright rows, raises,
etc) — These exercises greatly benefit the shoulders and traps. When doing these, they help build up
the strength to keep your arms straight at take off when you plant the pole.
4. Tricep extensions (barbell, single arm
dumbbell, cable) — These are all great lifts that will immensely strengthen
your triceps. It may not seem like
it, but your triceps are very active throughout the top part of the vault, from
pulling through your inversion, to pushing off of the pole.
5. Body weight exercises such as push-ups,
pull-ups, chin-ups, and abs — You can do most of these with added weight if
needed. These are fundamental exercises that are key to the pole vault, and
that every vaulter must strongly consider doing to improve. You can hit a lot of the same muscles
doing weighted activities, but these exercises are great to do in circuits, or
when you don’t have access to weights.
Lower Body Lifts
1. Squats (single leg as well) — Squats
are probably the main lower body lift that is going to increase strength in the
legs, and also improve your running speed. Squats engage your quads, a little bit of hamstrings. You also use your abdominals/core to
stay steady with the weight.
Always be sure to include a warm up set when doing heavy lifting,
starting without a warm can cause harm to the body and muscles if you are
lifting a significant amount of weight.
2. Step-ups — Much like squats, low and
medium height box step-ups are a great exercise to build strength in our run.
You can do these with and without dumbbells at roughly 20% of your body weight.
When doing this exercise focus on the good mechanics by being tall with a proud
chest and bringing the leg and knee up when stepping onto the box. If you don’t
have boxes, you can use a bench or stairs.
3. Lunges (weighted or not weighted) —
Lunges are great to focus on each leg separately. Doing lunges is also a great way to improve balance, and
muscular coordination throughout the body. Weighted lunges are one of the better substitutes for squats
if you are unable to do them for whatever reason.
4. Calf raises (seated or standing) —
These will help to strengthen the calves, and help you run. When you do sprint workouts you are
definitely working the calves there too.
5. Box jumps — These really get your legs
and core active. It helps with
your explosiveness, which benefits your run and take off greatly.
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