My stepbrother asked me to help him with an offseason lifting program. He is going to be a high school junior next year. He played on varsity last year at LB. He wants to play LB and FB this coming year and I told him he needs to add some weight. Currently he is 5’11" and about 185 BF% around 16-18%. He has worked out in the offseason last year but not very consistant.
Here is what his strength and conditioning coach gave him.
Weeks 1,2,3 3x10
Weeks 4,5,6 10,8,6,4
Weeks 7,8,9 5x5
Week 10 Rep Test
Tues. & Thurs.
Bench
Military Press
Dips
Upright Rows
Curls
Tricep Ext.
Situps 150 (100 leg raises 50 crunches)
I don’t think we will use this program. I was thinking Westside for Skinny Bastards (I’m doing this right now). I need some suggestions of when and what to do for cardio, GPP, sprinting etc. Also should I try to get him to shed some fat before I get him to bulk or just start making him eat and worry about the fat later. I watched most of his games last year and he has good technique and it helped him when he was matched up with someone bigger and faster. I think if I can help him get a little bigger and faster he should be able to dominate.
That is a hell of a lot of volume for someone with such low training age, but he sounds like a genetic freak, so he might be able to do it. I’d keep reps low on olympic lifts and jammer, and moderate to high on everything else, just to help him not burn out badly.
Make tues and thurs ab low rep high intensity, because you want to change it so that he is working on different aspect different days.
I’d take off one exercise from leg day, doesn’t matter.
Take off tri extension and curls on upper day. I’d also take off military press, and add hang and jerk, making sure to perform it first off in the workout. Switch Upright rows with chins or pullups.
But even if you left it like that, at such a young age anything will work. Plus the fact (it seems)he has good genetics will help WONDERS.
Owen,
I would definetly not put him in the genetic freak category. He started playing football when he was like 9 so compared to the everyone else on the team he has 2-3 times more experience. This helps him even though he is up against bigger, stronger, faster kids.
BM,
Thanks for the program. I think I will give it a try. I think it will keep his interest and not burn him out. Thats the program he used last off season and he made little to no progress. When he handed me this sheet I just shook my head. It makes me want to get into being a S&C coach.
Westside for skinny bastards is a great start. Make sure he cleans up his diet as well. Obviously high protien intake. He is going to need speed work as well. Sprints, agilities, plyometrics, and footwork drills. Dont just concentrate on the weights, you need to incorporate both. Also check out Joe defrancos websitedefrancostraining. he’s the best out there in my opinion. Good luck and train like an animal
While I agree with BigMartin’s attitude, dont be so tough on the poor coach. He more than likely has an education in something other than strength and conditioning and his expertise is in football. this program is actually better than a lot I have seen.
For the love of Dave Tate, get him to EAT SOMETHING. Just two things to keep in mind: Dont let him eat all the same crap he’s probably eating right now. When I was bulking for football my senior year I just ate twice of everything I had before. While this could be good when i was having chicken and rice for dinner at home, my lunch of 4 slices of pizza and a liter of coke, was somewhat less than optimal. Secondly, I wouldnt be too worried about the fat. I lost about 10 lbs of it in the first 2 weeks of camp - and camp wasnt even all that rough on me that year
P.S. I’m showing my ignorance here, but bm, other than the insanely high volume, is there anything else wrong with the conditioning coach’s program? i was just impressed that it consisted of mostly compound movements. I mean, 30+ sets is insane, but was there anythign else wrong with it?
Wow…you big bully!!! Easy big guy, too much Mag-10!!! LOL…good one.
Goldberg~
Heck, that program is better than what I was doing in the early 90’s at an SEC school. Probably as good as what PSU is doing today… and the football coach isn’t receiving any prestigious rewards for being a guru like PSU’s coach has this past year…
Ahhh… long gone are my days of doing 35+ sets to failure, 4 times per week, plus 4 anaerobic endurance sessions…
amazingly enough, I now have almost zero tendonitis, the same level of displayable anaerobic andurance, and can put on weight… wow,… how amazing!!!
here is the thing…goldberg is right if this is a football coach then yes i can forgive the guy…but looking at the fact that he is from californa and i know that a lot of medium-big high schools in cali are now hiring full time strength coaches who do nothing else…then he isnt doing his job if that is his position…that thursday work out is a shoulder injury waiting to happen…and the intensity of the low body volume is way too high…you would think a strength coach could follow preipillins table…but the thing that bothers me the most is all the direct shoulder work…espicially for football players it is scary…bm
but, “thinking” in the S&C college world will move you directly out of the “system” and into the hired gun realm…
being that you are concerned solely about performance enhancement, and not about being political, or an indentured servant, you may have to make a ton of money training a few athletes, and let the college kids bodybuild while at school…
silverback…were actually looking at a few commercial buildings right now for the facility…were going to look at our options and then hopefully get set up around the fall of this year…it should be heaven for those looking to train hardcore…bm
Big Martin,
Do you use Prilepin’s chart for determining volume on your strength lifts or do you just use it during explosive lifts such as O-lifts and DE movements?
I use it for when I do rep based programs like the tier football program for the major lifts…it really helps one learn to control volume so they dont just throw things togther… I liek ot use it to understand the intensity to volume ratio so you can get really good waves that will keep the intensity low throught the wave but allow for a good volume based program witht he intensity high for the last set…this is really what the max effort pricipal is based on…a max effort set can be used from really any thing up to 6 reps…you can use a wave to find out the best set for high intensity at 6 reps and then wave from a low % to keep the volume high instead of doing several sets at the high intensity wich will lead to overtraining…for things like speed strength phases and and strenght speed phases i really always resort to louie simmons becuase those type of systems are beter learned in the weight room and cant be learned wearing a white coat in a lab…but preipillins is a great tool and needs ot really be learned and understood by all strength coaches to help learn to contorol the volume to intensity ratio’s…for assitant work i have found the “stop before 4” rule to be the best what i mean by that is stop atleast 4 reps before failure on all your assitant work so if you would fail on the 12th rep stop at 8…bm
BM man that was an awesome post! Thanks for the link, I would have never read that had you not posted the link in this thread.
I have been considering doing a power movement like an explosive medicine ball chest pass and then immediately doing bench press with a volume/intensity/tempo of maximal strength… I would imagine that that would not overload the central nervous system too much, would it?
I have some tight shoulders, hip flexors, hamstrings, and calves and I was considering taking 2 weeks off of weight training and just pulling/pushing cars, loaded sprints, tons of static and active stretching, and farmers walk. Any other strongman events that you think could carry over extremely well to the football field? I appreciate any advice you have bro!
T-M@tt
Soemthing to think about…if you are building a Westside Barbell type facility, then build it anywhere…they will come… as will I…
But, if you want to train HS athletes correctly, then you must go where there is disposable income… i am not sure that is on the south side… you know better than I…
just depends on your desires…
i am excited either way…
i spent some time at acceleration indiana last week… pretty kool technology… but expensive… nice people there… and i think they are doing well with the kids… not a complete program (frappier), but it is getting some local corn-feds in shape, and results are easy to produce if you can get a nintendo player in shape… the Nelson’s are good guys…
btw- if you want to borrow either parisi video, let me know… i have both… they are nice, as are charlie francis’s DVD… i know you are a big boy, but these are good to view so you understand better what makes us little guys tick… nothing earth shattering, but very, very good.
t-matt… if you having flexibility problems i would add in 2-3 lower body mobility sessions a week…you can do these before a work out as a warmup or on your off days before your gpp strongman work…i assume your a football player and you need to take care of this right away…start looking at some dyanmic felxibility stuff by martin rooney and learn the dills to incrase shoulder flexibility i have a good routine for shoulder flexibility i can show you…if i was you i would not cut out the weights keep them in and add in the gpp-strongman work on 2 off days a week…for football add in things like sledge hammer work, whell barrell walks, med ball circuits - much like you explained but add in throws for the post chain,tire flips,…work hard …bm
try to get your hands on some speed chutes, they helped me a lot in track and football. Don’t over do it though, can easily result in hamstring injuries. I think the WSSB approach is a good start, and eat a lot! Maybe buy some grow!