I’m transitioning out of the military and going back to college in the spring 2020 semester where I’ll be playing collegiate club rugby union. It’s a club sport so I won’t have a strength and conditioning coach (hence me doing 5/3/1). I will more than likely adhere to 5/3/1 for Athletes in season. What program should I adhere to offseason? I’m aware of the offseason programs in 5/3/1 for Powerlifting but am under the impression that said programs are for offseason competitive powerlifting. I may be overthinking this as my original plan was to follow original 5/3/1 in the offseason in order to improve strength and hypertrophy while maintaining conditioning. I just want to be sure I’m setting myself up for success in the offseason. Thank you!
Your in-season routine should build on your off-season routine. I played club rugby too, here’s what I did in short:
In Season: 2 Days/Week, 1 Day Squat/Bench 5’s Pro + 3-5x5 FSL + 50 Rows, 1 Day DL/Press 5’s Pro, 3-5x5 FSL + 50 Chins/Lat Pulldowns. Other assistance was mainly band pullaparts or facepulls.
Off Season: 4 Days/Week, one main lift per day, either PR Sets or 5’s Pro + Supplemental (5x5 FSL or BBB) + Assistance (25-100 Reps per category).
I always like Jim’s program in his “Letter to Young Jim” article for athletes.
Day 1: Squat & Bench
Day 2: Deadlift & Power Clean
Day 3: Front Squat & Overhead Press
There’s some assistance stuff as well.
Your in-season programming is 100% dependent on your off-season programming. It also depends on your practice schedule. No one can remotely answer this unless they work with your team/coach and have a tentative plan AND evaluate your training on a daily basis.
Work with your coach - there is NO WAY a sport coach doesn’t know how to do this. A qualified one, anyway.