Let me ask you a question. As a football player, when do you want to be your strongest during the year? In March? June? Or in October, when it matters most? If you guessed October, give yourself a pat on the back! For the life of me, I cannot understand the phenomenon that still seems to exist in high school football that you need to lift your behind off in the winter and spring, only to stop once the season starts. It doesn’t matter how strong you are in March! Your strength in the 4th Quarter of an October Friday night could be the difference between winning and losing, and as strength coaches, our goal in season is to maintain the gains you have worked so hard for all off season.
Listen, I see a lot of football players in season, and I know you guys are tired. I know the mindset after practice: “forget this, I can’t lift like I used to off season, so I’m just going to go eat dinner and go to bed!” As a football player, this is the single WORST decision you can make. Your muscular strength and power affect your resistance to injury, your speed, your explosiveness, and the amount of lean muscle tissue on your body. When you stop training, your body will literally start shrinking after just 2 weeks, and I know that none of you want that!
The thing about in season training is that you CAN’T lift like you did off season (multiple times/week for over an hour each time)…there isn’t enough gas in the tank. That is why I recommend lifting twice a week during the year, and lowering the intensity level, volume, and duration of each lift. In the past, I have recommended 2 Full Body Workouts, but I have found that these workouts “gas” the athlete a little too much, so now I simply recommend 1 Lower Body/Core/Grip workout, and 1 Upper Body workout. Here is a sample plan for those of you that play on Friday Nights to maintain your strength in season. If you play on Saturdays, just shift everything back a day:
Saturday (Day After Game)
Core, Grip, Neck Exercises may be used as “Fillers” between lower body lifts.
Always perform a THOROUGH dynamic warmup!
1.)Box Squat OR Squat, Work up to 2 Sets of 3 Reps at 75% of your 1RM
2.)DB Reverse Lunges, 2 Sets of 6 Reps on Each Leg
3.)Partner Glute Ham Raises X 8
4.)Neck Harness/Machine, 2 Sets of 20
5.)Abs Choice, 2 Sets of 20
6.)Abs Choice, 2 Sets of 20
7.)Wrist Roller, Up & Down, 2 Sets
Monday OR Tuesday
After the Bench Press, “Superset” the exercises in pairs to make your workout more efficient (2 with 3, 4 with 5, 6 with 7).
1.)Box Jumps, 5 Sets of 2 Reps
2.)Bench Press, Work up to 2 Sets of 3 Reps at 75% of your 1RM.
3.)Chinups or Inverted Rows, 2 Sets of 8 Reps
4.)Incline DB Bench Press, 2 Sets of 8 Reps
5.)DB Shrugs, 2 Sets of 12 Reps
6.)Plate Shoulder Raise, 2 Sets of 12 Reps
7.)Bicep Choice, 2 Sets of 10 Reps
8.)Tricep Choice, 2 Sets of 10 Reps
Eat well, rest, foam roll, stretch and recover ! This plan is sure to keep your strength up in season, which in turn will keep your weight up, injuries down, and your performance at an all time high.
Good luck this season, please e-mail me with any questions,
If there’s one thing I have noticed in this big wide world of brawn and iron is that you simply can’t put enough emphasis on exerting max effort while training. Press, pull, squat or pull that bar like you were hit with a healthy dose of gamma radiation and had a new affinity for purple pants. This holds true for any max effort lifting or max sprinting. Approaching either like a sloth and you can bet those wheels will be spinning like a carnivals tilt -o- whirl!
Whether it’s something dark and brooding or manic and energetic, that heightened sense of awareness has to be present when you step on those rubber mats. Obviously everyone has their own little quirks and methods for reaching that state of mind. From talking to themselves, the bar and any other inanimate object in their line of sight to applying chalk like an aging Vegas show girl does makeup, pick something that works for you.
Its universal, the guys who really get their CNS jacked up and motor units firing like a V12 Lamborghini are the ones who seem to consistently hit their lifts. What I can promise you is if your training persona resembles droopy dog after a long nap then don’t expect to make any considerable gains. The intent is key and the intent has to be there, even if the bar is moving an inch a second. Forget what the weight on the bar is; push it like you are going to throw it through the ceiling and into a parallel universe of fire and brimstone.
Don't approach your training like this guy!
Don’t completely disregard form to achieve this; we want to hit the muscle the lifts were designed to hit. But we want to hit them hard and intensely causing your body to say “whoa, I gotta make a change.” With proper rest and recovery, your body will grow and strength will be sure to follow.
I am a big believer in training for a REASON, whether you are a 17 year old middle linebacker or a 64 year old grandmother. If you train for a reason, and VISUALIZE this reason becoming a reality, you are far more likely to reach your goals. And don’t give me any BS reasons why you train, like “to keep in shape” or “to look good?” That is such a cop out, I want to know EXACTLY why you are training. What are your goals? What do you want from the program? Do you want to lose 2 inches off of your waist? Do you want to run the 300 yard shuttle in 50 seconds? Do you want to squat 400 pounds when your team is tested in mid August? Go ahead, take 5 minutes, and record your goals on a small piece of paper.
Now that you know what your goals are, I want you to tape them where you cannot hide from them, on one corner of your bathroom mirror. This way, you will never forget them, you will look at them every night, and every morning, and consequently, you will be far more likely to realizing your dreams.
For the life of me, I cannot understand our society. Why do people miss a workout and then say "screw it I'm not training this week." Then, "I'm not training this week" turns into "Ahhh, I'll just take the month off." Before you know it, training has been halted altogether because of ONE missed session. Why! This is insane to me, we are all human beings, nobody is perfect, if you hit a bump in the road don't swerve off and drive into a ravine, just pull over, change the tire, and continue on your way. Whether it is a cheat meal or a missed workout, whatever it is, don't let a small glitch get in the way of your goals and dreams.
Remember, "If you aren't getting better, then you are getting worse." Life is a journey, there are bumps and twists, but let's stay on the wagon and improve ourselves on the way. DON'T let one small failure intefere with the potential for success!
Aside from genetic predispositions, there are many factors that contribute to your gains in the gym.
1.)Intensity of training. Are you working our hard and fatiguing the muscle fibers or are you barely breaking a sweat while telling jokes every 5 minutes?
2.)Volume. Too much volume will quickly deplete your glycogen stores and fry your CNS. Too little volume and you haven't induced anything despite what Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer might tell you! So where does this leave us? We have found that 4-6 intense sets per muscle group works best, split up among 1-2 exercises. Obviously not every body part is the focus in a given training session. Cut the fluff sets and get to the point after intelligently conducted warmup sets.
3.)Frequency. Are you training once a week? While in season this can help maintain your gains, don’t expect to get much stronger on this training split. Conversely, are you hitting it 6 days a week? Spinning your wheels? It is probably because you are doing TOO much. If you train hard, 2-4 days a week is your best bet.
4.)Exercise Selection. We are talking about “bang for your buck” exercises that force multiple muscle groups to engage and fire, providing an excellent stimulus for growth and strength throughout your body. Squats, Bench Presses, Chinups, Deadlifts, etc are great selections. Leg Extensions, Flies, Curls, and Leg Curls have their place, but we (IF we do them) throw them at the end of a workout after we have hit the big stuff.
AND Finally…The King of the Hill …
5.)Progressive Overload. Let’s say last year you could bench press 185 pounds 9 times. You spend a year scouring the pages of every bodybuilding magazine, and read every internet article there is to read on “the secret” of making gains that none of us strength coaches know about. You perform pre-exhaustion, post-exhaustion, drop sets, strip sets, 3 Way Splits, blah, blah, blah..one year later, you lay back on the bench, and perform 185 pounds…9 times.
Disappointed, you look into the mirror and break into a cold sweat (you know, the kind that you get when you are receiving a bad haircut). You have not added ANY size to your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Those muscle mags lied to you! What you failed to account for in your training is the MOST important of all in determining your progress: Progressive Overload.
Not only do you need to work with the right amount of intensity, volume, frequency, and with the proper exercises, but you need to SLOWLY increase the resistance in all of these exercises in order to make strength gains. I don’t care what the “experts” say, strength (in the hypertrophy rep range of 6-20 reps) and size are related. Go to any commercial gym and you will see this phenomenon play out, the big guys are pushing big weights! Sure, there are freaks out there, skinny guys that can move weight, but this stuff is all relative people! Those skinny guys who are rowing the 110’s for 7 for reps are bigger than they were when they rowed the 85’s for 7 reps.
Do finishers have their place? Sure they do, 21’s for biceps or widow set squats are great growth stimulators, but intensity is just one piece of the pie. Progressive Overload is HALF of the pie, if not more.
The best weapon in your gym bag is not the latest Nitric Oxide product (please throw that crap away)…it is your workout log. Record EVERYTHING you do, try to break records, deload and back off a bit every fourth week, eat well, sleep at least 8 hours a night, and watch your body grow as you get stronger!
