Alright,
I need some explanation, if there is one. I just had a young girl come up to me with a workout program from her college’s lacrosse coach and on it were the usual 3x10 set and rep scheme for exercises such as bench press, bicep curl, etc. However, for exercises for the lower body (leg extension, leg curl, and squat) the program has her doing 1 set for 90 reps and 1 set for 50 reps on squat!!! Can someone explain to me what is the purpose of this??? Cause I am clueless. I have never seen this before.
I don’t have a clue, and I’m pretty sure the person who wrote the program doesn’t either.
let’s hope it was a typo.
Wow, that coach is smoking some sweet grass I think.
a good while back Fred Hatfield wrote that doing 40+ slow, rythmic reps over about 6 weeks time would increase the number of capillaries (spelling?)
he cited some anecedotal evidence that in 6 weeks you would sort of have this increased work capacity all at once-like whoops, there it is!
over a period of time you may also get some fiber conversion (fast=>slow)
cook or not? he is not the first time i have seen this recommendation
whatever you have to say about fred-he was the first bastard to squat over a grand! 
THANKS YOU Irondoc!!! I thought I was missing out on some new, breakthrough routine that I have never heard of!!..haha. Seriously…I have no idea what this coach’s rationale is of doing 1 set of 90 reps for leg extension and leg curl and 1 set of 50 reps for squat. With a sport like lacrosse…(which is a sprinting and power sport…correct?). Wouldn’t you want to focus on the fast twitch muscle fibers and do low rep training with heavy weight for legs??? Along with sprint work???
I am so perplexed by this routine this coach as set up, that I am speechless.
I don’t think you can change fiber types, but you may be able to change fast oxidative glycolytic fibers which have properties of fast and slow. those I think you can convert, but fast to slow … I don’t know about that.
Maybe he’s right, but I’ve never heard that before.
Explain to the girl that the coach put the decimal in the wrong place for those exercises. Sound very official when you do.
Yes, lax is mostly about sprinting. But some positions run more or less than others, and some postions require you to play all game long while others have you play in short shifts, like hockey. At least that’s how mens lax is. I bet her coach thought he was helping her to increase her lower body endurance. Of course you are right that there are better and more specific ways to do this. But I know my coach made us do 5-mile runs in college when we probably should have been sprinting.
Just goes to show that a LOT of coaches are still stuck in the good-ole throws of “tradition” when it comes to training. No matter how worthless their programs are. Pick up a paper copy of T-mag and smack ye ole coach upside the head with it.
And just so everyone knows…I dont think it was a “typo” cause the 90 reps appeared in more than 1 section of the program on seperate days. So, I have no idea what this coach is thinking. it was a printed out program which I am assuming is given to ALL the players. The girl seemed clueless too…so hopefully I will see her again soon and point her in the right direction. You know…deadlifts, squats 5x5 style!
And sprints! She should be sprinting her butt off!
I think that the coach has his head up his ass training her that way, but the fact is that I’ve used 100-rep sets in the past with good results. The idea is one or perhaps two exercises per bodypart, one set of 100 reps per exercise.
Hundreds training was all the rage there for a while in the late 80’s, and it’s a great way to change your workout up and kick-start your growth. However, it’s not for the faint of heart. Word up.
I think it’s so the person doing the workout will feel so trashed and shitty that…“it must be a good workout” bull crap. Then the athlete has confidence in the coach because he has great workouts planned. Of course it is a shitty workout. But many people judge how good a workout is by how crappy it makes them feel. Now in the coaches defence he may not really have these alterior motives. He may just in face be an idiot! 
I remember the hundreds program char dawg. I guess the girls only get 90’s since they don’t want to get to big and aren’t as hardcore as the guys.
LOL. That must be it.
Hey is there any room on the bandwagon for me? I haven’t read the program but surely it must be crazy, whoever wrote that is clueless blah blah blah … there I feel so much more enlightened now.
I wonder … how would you feel if she told you she got some program off the internet to help, oh I don’t know, say improve her chin ups - and part of it had her doing lat pulldowns for 2x40?