How to Follow a Track Conditioning Program

Track is not just a single sport, but many sports rolled into one. Distance running, sprinting and hurdling fall under the umbrella of track. Field events include throwing and jumping, requiring athletes to train several different muscle groups. Circuit training is an effective way for all members of the team to work out without risking injury.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Partner
• Dumbbells
• Stairs
• Medicine ball

Follow a Sports Conditioning Program for Track

1. Begin your practice session with some in-place jumping drills. These may include lunges, butt kicks or squats. Follow the in-place jumps with bounding drills across the floor.
2. Follow an abdomen circuit to strengthen your abdominal muscles. Exercises can include crunches, toe touches, v-sits and opposite-knee chinnies. Find instructions for doing chinnies on BodyBuilding.com (see Resources below).
3. Use a 10 to 15-pound medicine ball for throwing practice. This type of conditioning program makes your stomach muscles stronger and works on your arms. Some of the medicine ball throws include overhand partner tosses, on-knees partner tosses, squat throws and lunge throws.
4. Continue your program with a generalized circuit for strength training. Several versions of push-ups are part of this routine, including standard push-ups, hand clap push-ups and hand stand push-ups. Additional exercises are repeated from the abdominal circuit.
5. Participate in weight training two to three times per week. Do the bench press, squats, leg curls and leg extensions with dumbbells.
6. Complete your track conditioning with mechanics drills. The journal "American Track and Field's Running Network" contains a lot of good information and training tips for runners (see Resource below).
7. Choose drills that fit your track focus. Distance runners may run a route that includes hills to improve endurance. Sprinters and hurdlers may do sprint intervals while discus and javelin throwers practice their techniques.

Tips & Warnings

• Yoga can be helpful for promoting fluid, loose muscles.
• Timed circuits are more effective than a specific number of repetitions. See how many crunches you can do in 30 seconds. Then rest for 30 seconds. Over time, you will be able to increase the number of repetitions you can complete in 30 seconds.
• Jumping to increase height and distance is the goal for high and long jumpers. However, jumping exercises can benefit athletes in a number of sports, helping them to build stronger legs.

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