First posted in 1996

Profile:

Name: William A. Patrick

Birthdate: December 24, 1929, Wheeling, W.Va., USA

Ocupation: Retired, Union Carbide July 1984; Independent contractor, EDP Services

Home: Conway, South Carolina, USA

T&F Background: In high school, I put the shot 45 feet and threw the discus 150 feet. Did not compete in college. Officiated major track meets in West Virginia for 18 years.

Masters achievements: Started in the Senior/Masters program in late 1991, competing in one or two meets per month from March to September. All events are the throwing events (shot, discus, hammer, weight, superweight and javelin). Recent marks include a PR in December 1995 in (2.2-pound) discus of 37.18 (122-0) and (11-pound) shot April 1996 of 11.17 (36-7 3/4). Recent achievements are 4th in shot, 5th in the weight throw and 2nd in superweight at the 1996 USATF National Indoors. Member of the Mjolnir Throwers Club.

In 1991 when I decided to begin competing as a masters thrower, I had no previous formal experience in training. School training was virtually non-existent and in those days we had little exposure to weight training.

I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but there is very little information pertaining to the senior athlete. As a result I have developed my own training program that incorporates differing exercises, weights and repetitions through a trial and error process altering various elements as I feel they impact the ultimate goal.

To get to the point at the age of 61 (1991) I started active competition on the shot put and discus. Over time I have added other throwing events including the javelin, which I only enter for the weight pentathlon. The following is my progression through the early summer of 1996:

YEAR SHOT DISCUS HAMMER WEIGHT SUPERWEIGHT
1992 9.59 32.64 ------ 7.92 3.98
1993 10.46 36.82 22.30 8.26 [4.98]
1994 10.13 36.66 25.50 9.22 4.22
1995 10.42 [37.18] [28.20] [9.3 ] 4.32
1996 [11.15] 37.16 24.78 9.2 4.32
Note: [ ] are Personal Competitive Records

On January 27, 1996. I made a major change to my weight lifting program to a more conservative, and I feel more beneficial, program. I should say that my weight lifting is geared mainly to the bench press. I do other exercises, but not in such an organized fashion.

Prior to this date, I was bench pressing many sets at low repetitions with progressively heavier weights until peaking and then with lesser weights almost to exhaustion. The following is an example of the last day before the change:

BENCH: FLYS:

100# 1 x 5 15# 1 x 15

150# 1 x 5 23# 1 x 10

170# 1 x 5 1 x 15

190# 1 x 5 28# 1 x 10

210# 1 x 3 1 x 15

230# 2 attempts

200# 1 x 4

180# 1 x 6

170# 2 x 10

Other lifting was done on alternating days.

I was not giving my body a chance to recover and was getting exhausted. What evolved was a two-phase approach: a strength or power phase in 4-week cycle using a base weight and varying the percent of base weight, sets, and repetitions each week. Six weeks before a major competition, you would switch over to a maintenance phase for the remainder of the season.

I started my maintenance phase on March 25, 1996, one week before the indoor nationals in Greensboro, N.C., but 5/6 weeks before the SE Regional in Raleigh, NC.

As I had very few meets scheduled over the summer this year, I backed off completely in May.

In brief, the strength/power phase consists of a four-week cycle using a base weight that is adjusted through testing in the week in preparation of the next four-week cycle using the new weights as follows:

WEEK 1: WEEK 2: WEEK 3: WEEK 4:
70% 1 X 5 75% 1 X 5 75% 1 X 5 75% 1 X 5
80% 2 X 5 80% 1 X 5 80% 3 X 5 85% 1 X 5
85% 1 X 5 85% 2 X 5 90% 5 X 1 90% 2 X 5
90% 5 X 1 90% 5 X 1 95% 5 X 1

I also do squats on these days and other exercises on alternating days such as cleans and dead lifts. During this phase I attempt to throw implements as frequently as possible. The maintenance phase for the bench press consists of 2 sets of 5 repetitions after warmup and 3 sets of 6 repetitions using 70 - 80% of the establish base weight.

As you can see from the above performance chart , I have been fairly successful but still have a way to go to meet my goals of 12m in the shot, 40m in the discus, 5m in the 56-pound weight throw, and to meet or exceed the All-American Standard in the hammer and 26-pound weight throw.

This program seems to work for me. In August, I started my fall program and being in a rush to get back to where I had left off, I started a fairly aggressive program using a base weight of 200 pounds and lifting three times a week for the first three weeks but will back off to two days a week beginning the fourth week.

Your body needs more that one rest between heavy lifting schedules. As a result, I plan to bench press on Monday and Friday and do cleans/dead lifts on Tuesday and Thursday. Normally I do my lifting in and am and throw each evening when possible and on the weekends.