also, i dont mean to steal this man’s thread but im looking for a workout this summer. ive done the vernon davis workout and it just seems to take a long time and my heart rate drops. im looking for something more fast paced but w/ an emphasis on a little more strength in the chest and legs than the olympic based workout we do at school. so maybe someone has something that can help me and chrunops.
Here’s the dilemma with what you’re looking for: it’s hard to maximize strength AND size gains while keeping a workout “fast paced”.
In order to gain maximal strength, you need to lift close to your 1rm for a lot of sets, and you also need to gain size through hypertrophy in order to increase the cross-sectional size of your muscles, which leads to more strength. Mass moves mass so to speak.
But even hypertrophying will not be the absolute best way to increase functional strength for sports. You need power, which is measured by weight x velocity. To increase power, you have to be strong but also able to recruit your fast twitch fibers as efficiently as possible in order to move the weight quickly. This happens thru explosive and ballistic movements and thru lifting super heavy weight for lots of sets.
But the catch is that you must rest for at least 3 min. between each set for any of these types of sets so that you are fully recovered and able to fire off all your fast twitch fibers again. When the FT fibers tire, the slow twitch fibers take over, which happens when working to failure on sets of 5-15 reps. You don’t want your FT fibers to start petering out earlier and earlier when lifting explosively or maximally because it defeats the purpose, so you have to rest.
In order to gain size, strength and keep the heart rate up, here’s what I would do, but keep in mind this is not the most effective way to reach any of these goals in and of themselves.
Bench press: 6-8 sets 1-3 reps with 85% of your 1rm. Rest for 3 min. between each set, but spend the rest time performing the same set/rep/weight pattern with or squats.
Don’t go to failure on any set but the last one. Keep one rep “in the tank” until the last set, and on the last set, after failure, take 25% of the weight off, go to failure, take 25% more off, go to failure, and so on with 30 sec. max rest time between each set, then move to the squat and do the same thing. Take weight off until you’re using just the bar.
The last “stripping” set is simply to hit all the other fibers that don’t get worked during the previous sets, leading to more size gains, plus the fact that you’ll be going straight into each stripped set with no rest will really jack the heart rate up. You might want to rest a little after the stripped bench set before going into the last squat set.
Every set but the last one will increase power gains, the last set will serve as a “mini-hypertrophy” effect and the entirety of the sets will keep the heart rate pretty jacked, especially towards the end.
Try this and let me know how wiped out you are at the end of it. I’ve never seen this workout pattern recommended anywhere and I kinda just made it up myself. I’ve done it in the past and it’s really kicked my ass and it’s worked.
I increased my squats by 75lbs, my bench by 20 and my deadlifts by 120 in two months doing this. My bench would have gone up more but I’ve had some nagging shoulder issues from an old baseball injury. I’m also naturally slender and a “very hard gainer” so these increases are pretty significant for me. Plus, I got a little more ripped and still gained about 7lbs, so the gains made are very efficient strength gains.
I supplement it with various fullbody exercises like power cleans, deadlifts, clean and press, etc. Since this workout uses both chest and legs, just do this once a week whenever it fits into your team’s workouts and make this day full body day.
thanks art, i never heard of anything like that before and will definitely try it. ill be doing sprints hills and agilities right after my workout so i guess a lot of stretching will be called for right after the workout. really interesting stuff man