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Weight Training
Here is a list of weight training exercises for the thrower.
Lifts can be categorized in terms of three general movements: pulls, presses, and squats.
Pulls are all of the movements that drive weight up from the floor to as far as the chest. Pulls usually involve hamstrings, lower and upper back, lats, traps, biceps, forearm (brachialis), and grip strength.
A muscle group that flexes the limbs, decreases the joint angle, or brings the extremities toward the body center is usually involved in a pulling movement. When your toes or fingers touch something sharp or hot, your body will reflex by activating muscle groups involved in pulling movements that will pull your body away from the source of pain.
Presses involve all muscle groups that involve pushing weight away from the body center. They include the overhead lifts and the supine (bench) press. The muscle groups involved include the chest (pecs), shoulders (delts), triceps, and forearms (finger and wrist extension). Presses include all muscle groups that extend and increase the joint angles.
Squats: the legs are in their own category because they are involved in both pulls and presses.
Lifts can also be categorized according to explosivity: basic strength/nonexplosive, moderate explosive, or highly explosive.
Most beginner throwers have some experience with weight training. This experience is usually of the bodybuilding-fitness flavor, where most of the exercises are single-joint, controlled, isolated movements. This is good for basic strength, but we also want to train for speed.
Most weights should be lifted at the fastest possible controllable speed, then lowered in a moderate, controlled speed. I don't think it is eve useful for throwers to do the concentric movement slowly, e.g. 2-second count. Throwers should use light enough weight that they can complete the set without losing significant speed in the up movement. When they start slowing down, they should stop rather than do forced assisted reps.
The lifts can also be categorized by the number of joints involved in the movement. The categories are multi, double, and single. Examples of multiple (3 or more) joint exercises are the power clean and the squat (ankle-knee-hip). Double-joint exercises are the bench press (shoulder and elbow) and lat pulldowns. Single-joint exercises include the triceps pushdown, arm curls, leg curls, leg extensions, and calf raises.
The general rule is: prioritize the multiple-joint exercises by doing them first. Plan each workout around 1 or 2 multiple-joint exercises. Then do the double-joint exercises, then finish with a few single-joint exercises to hit weaknesses.
Squats: Front squat, Back squat With or without box specialty squat variations lunges and stepups one-legged squatsI 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.
Presses: Bench press Incline press Overhead presses: standing and sitting, from a clean start (in front of the neck) with a shoulder-width grip, and with a wider grip behind the neck.Strict press involves no lower body movement.
Push press: first dip by bending knees a few inches, then initiate by driving the bar up with the leg and hip power while keeping the bar on the shoulders. Then finish by pressing out the bar to straight arms overhead.
Push jerk: First dip, then push, as in the push press. But instead of pressing out the bar, bend your knees again, while pushing yourself against the bar, positioning yourself under the bar with straight arms. Then stand up straight.
Pulls:
Full clean (from the ground with a full squat) power clean (power means without a full squat) hang clean (hang means starting from holding the bar in a standing position, not with the bar on the floor) hang power clean similarly, full-, power-, hang- and hang power snatch similarly with a clean grip snatch and hammer-grip snatch (hammer grip is both hands almost touching together at the middle of the bar) clean/snatch hi-pull (to the nipples) clean/snatch lo-pull (to the navel) Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) RDLs with a shrug at the topProper technique for the olympic lifts: We are usually taught in weight training class to always lift "in control," with strict form, and not to cheat The Olympic lifts are the opposite of your typical exercises because you are supposed to use the momentum of the bar. Olympic partial lifts are wonderful exercises for the thrower because it teaches the thrower to be loose, dynamic, and explosive with weight. These are momentum, multijoint, full-body lifts.
Start with the hang power clean. Before you try hang cleans, take a few vertical jumps without the bar. What do you do? You bend your knees and hips to about 60 degrees, then you drive with your legs and hips. Your heals leave the floor first, and your toes last.
The power clean starts essentially like a vertical jump, but then just before your body leaves the ground, you transfer that vertical momentum into the bar so that you can clean it--i.e. catch it on the tops of your shoulders.
Take the bar from a low rack, palms face in, stand like yo are going to do a standing vertical jump with feet shoulder with, toes pointed slightly outward. Hand grips are slightly wider than shoulder width so that the thumbs are just outside the thighs.
Bend your knees a few inches and let the bar slide down to the tops of your kneecaps. Now jump with your legs, driving your hips forward. Keep your elbows straight. The bar should slide up your thighs to your hips.
When the bar approaches your hips, you should lift your heels off the ground and be standing on your toes. Simultaneously, you should do a powerful shoulder shrug.
At the finish of the shoulder shrug, with your elbows still straight, and standing on your toes with your knees straight and hips forward and in contact with the bar, this is the point in which the bar has the maximum vertical speed.
Now, you want to pull yourself underneath the bar. You bend your legs and elbows, and actually pull yourself under the bar while the bar is losing vertical speed. You should catch the bar on your shoulders just as the bar stops going up and starts to fall down.
You want to catch the bar high on the shoulders, in the grove between your neck and the anterior deltoid. Yuo should be able to rest the bar on your shoulders without your hands. It helps to shrug your shoulders forward. Also, the bar should be high on your fingertips--not tightly gripped. If your wrist flexibility is limited, you should stretch your wrists on the wall before doing cleans.
Returning the weight to the starting position: There is no negative movement in the Olympic lifts. Release the weight from your shoulders back to the thighs. Bend your knees to cushion any jerky movement that might stress the lower back. Keep the back straight when lowering the weight to the starting position.
Later, I will describe the power clean from the floor.
Torso work: Core integrity is a high priority for throwers. We need to do a lot of core (torso) exercises to develop strength, flexibility, and mobility.
A good rotary torso machine is highly recommended, if available.
Trunk twists with barbell plates. Front, back, and side hypers. All kinds of abdominal machines with heavy weight.A thrower should train his torso like a large muscle group--once or twice a week with heavy weights, with the same reps as a squat. Not like a bodybuilder or "fitness" person that does crunches for high reps on a daily basis. The goal here is not to trim your waistline, it is to develop a superstrong, flexible torso that can absorb and remit great forces from the legs and hips to the arms and implement.
Swiss balls, Pilates benches, or glute-ham machines are good for doing ab hypers. Use a small medicine ball held overhead. Russian twists: lay crosswise with abs across the bench, twist side to side with plate held at arm's length. Event-specific or weakness-specific exercises For javelin throwers: Nautilus rotary shoulder machine for the rotator cuffs. This machine also stresses the bones and ligaments around the elbow.
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