Mk WS4SB Log

Training Bodybuilding
1

Hey Im 21 and looking to gain size and speed for this up and coming football season. Im currently at the bottom of the barrell in the league at my position Linebacker, and I was told I better be doing someing in the offseason otherwise Im cut. I have nice vison but just cant make the play. So I have to gain the 2 main physical qualities Strength and Speed. Here is my routine I am starting today. Thanks and I hope you all subscribe I will be doing it until March which is when tryouts start:

Monday:
Max upper Lift day:
Close Bench Press: 5x5
(will be switching with regular Bench Press)
Incline Dumbell Press: 4x8
(will be switching with Floor DB Press)
Seated Cable row: 4x8
Seated Rear Delt Machine: 4x10
(will be switching with Sholder Shrugs)
Swiss Ball Crunches: 3x20
Side Bends: 3x20

Tuesday:
Max Lower Lift Day:
Straight Bar Deadlift: 5x5
(will be switching with DB Squats)
One Legged Dumbell Squat: 3x12
(will be switching with Lunges)
Leg Curls: 3x12
(will to be doing something else but what??)

Weds:
Cardio/Speed
Sled workouts: 3 20yrd Sled Pulls (running back facing the sled) 30secs rest
3 20yrd Sled Drags (Dragging chest facing Sled) 30sec rest

4 20yrd sprints 30 sec rests
3 30yrd sprints 30 sec rests
2 40yrd sprints 1:00 rests.

Thurs: Rest

Friday:
Upper:
Max reps bench press of 135 lbs: 4xMax
(will be switching with bodyweight dips)
Rope pulldowns: 4x12
Seated Dumbell Power Cleans: 4x12
Front cable Lat Raises: 4x12
Tricep Pulldowns: 4x12
Cable Curls: 4x12
(will be switching with Hammer curls)
Swiss Ball crunches: 3x20
Jacknifes: 3x20
Leg Lifts: 3x20

Saturday: Cardio
Mild bike ride or walk.

Day 1:

Close Grip Bench Press:
Set 1: 90x5
Set 2: 140x5
Set 3: 140x5
Set 4: 150x4 (couldnt lift anymore wrist kill me)

Incline Dumbell Bench Press:
Set 1: 70x8
Set 2: 80x8
Set 3: 100x8
Set 4: 120x5

Seated Cable Row:
Set 1: 220x8
Set 2: 220x8
Set 3: 240x8
Set 4: 260x5

Seated Rear Delt Raise Machine:
Set 1: 50x10
Set 2: 50x10
Set 3: 60x10
Set 4: 70x8

Day1 complete. Hopefully Im doing this right. I added 2 sets of Machine Bnech Press just to tighten up my chest a bit.

2

The routine looks good there. I would ditch the leg curls- if you are a football player, either throw deadlifts in there, or some type of explosive lift- when I played safety in HS, we used to do hang cleans.

But Defranco knows what he’s talking about, so follow this for a while and see what you can do.

–I’ve been on this routine for a while, so if you have any questions send me a PM.

3

Any chance you have a GHR machine available to you? You could replace Leg Curls with those and they are supposedly a lot better than leg curls for your hammies.

It just seems a bit odd to me that you only have one day of lower body exercises … Does this seem odd to anyone else?

You said you can’t make the plays, why is this? If you have vision then you can see the play developing, is it that you can’t get there in time or you can’t make the tackles? If you can’t get there then obviously speed is what you need.

There’s a great Hamstring article by Mr. Thibaudeau here:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=826798

It just seems odd to me that there’s only one day of lower body … But I don’t know nearly what everyone else here knows, so listen to them over me. :slight_smile:

Also, you said you added a couple sets of bench to the end of your workout. Just be sure not to overtrain as that will end up slowing your progress.

Set what you’re going to do that day, do it, do it HARD, do it RIGHT and then go home (and EAT RIGHT). =D

4

What are Hang Cleans and GHR machine??

5

Joker, Defranco only uses 1 lower body day for his athletes because he found that they often have problems recovering from two intense leg days.

6

[quote]mk0325 wrote:
What are Hang Cleans and GHR machine??[/quote]

Hang clean not the BEST vid but this is it pretty much a clean from the hang.

GHR= Glute Ham Raise

7

[quote]buckeye75 wrote:
Joker, Defranco only uses 1 lower body day for his athletes because he found that they often have problems recovering from two intense leg days. [/quote]

Ahh, thank you for clearing that up. :slight_smile: Does that account even for the off season, though? I could see it being harder for them in season, but when it’s off season, they’re just like regular weight trainers, no?

A GHR machine is a “Glute Hamstring Raise Machine”. The exercise looks like this:
http://www.defrancostraining.com/pics/images/pics/female/glute-ham-raise.jpg

Basically you raise your body up using your ham strings/calves (I believe I read an article here on T-Nation that said it’s technically called a GHCR “Glute-Ham-Calf Raise”).

8

Here’s three pictures of all positions of the exercise:

http://www.mnfkorea.com/upload/image/news/glu_ham_rai04.jpg
http://www.mnfkorea.com/upload/image/news/glu_ham_rai05.jpg
http://www.mnfkorea.com/upload/image/news/glu_ham_rai06.jpg

9

if it hurts your wrists doing close grip bench, go a little wider

10

Thanks guys for all the help on the Hammies. But I dont think my gym has the GHR machine. What is it thats so bad about Leg Curls?? Also I never did deadlifts what is a good starting weight to start with for good form and then go up? 2 45’s??

11

[quote]JokerFMJ wrote:
buckeye75 wrote:
Joker, Defranco only uses 1 lower body day for his athletes because he found that they often have problems recovering from two intense leg days.

Ahh, thank you for clearing that up. :slight_smile: Does that account even for the off season, though? I could see it being harder for them in season, but when it’s off season, they’re just like regular weight trainers, no?

A GHR machine is a “Glute Hamstring Raise Machine”. The exercise looks like this:
http://www.defrancostraining.com/pics/images/pics/female/glute-ham-raise.jpg

Basically you raise your body up using your ham strings/calves (I believe I read an article here on T-Nation that said it’s technically called a GHCR “Glute-Ham-Calf Raise”).[/quote]

WS4SB is an OFF-SEASON program. I believe it was intended only to be performed in the off-season. Remember, the legs are also trained with any type of running, most types of GPP, or any type of strongman work the athletes may be doing as well. The “regular” weight trainer rarely performs this type of work, and I would be willing to bet that the leg sessions of the athletes he trains are much more intense/taxing/prodcutive/consistent than those of the regular weight trainer as well.

Also, I am pretty sure the target audience for this program is high-school and college level athletes, who have other commitments and sometimes sub-optimal recovey abilities as well. Therefore I think that the author feels that the format the way it is presented is the best possible one for the purposes intended.

Hopefully, this clears up your confusion.

12

Would dumbell squats work my hammys better then a leg curls?

13

[quote]mk0325 wrote:
Would dumbell squats work my hammys better then a leg curls?[/quote]

Deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts, and lunges are the best for your hamstrings. The leg curl machine is hated because 1) machines have little favor here 2) Its a single joint exercise. You are better off putting deadlifts in there then using that damn machine.

14

[quote]Tags wrote:
JokerFMJ wrote:
buckeye75 wrote:
Joker, Defranco only uses 1 lower body day for his athletes because he found that they often have problems recovering from two intense leg days.

Ahh, thank you for clearing that up. :slight_smile: Does that account even for the off season, though? I could see it being harder for them in season, but when it’s off season, they’re just like regular weight trainers, no?

A GHR machine is a “Glute Hamstring Raise Machine”. The exercise looks like this:
http://www.defrancostraining.com/pics/images/pics/female/glute-ham-raise.jpg

Basically you raise your body up using your ham strings/calves (I believe I read an article here on T-Nation that said it’s technically called a GHCR “Glute-Ham-Calf Raise”).

WS4SB is an OFF-SEASON program. I believe it was intended only to be performed in the off-season. Remember, the legs are also trained with any type of running, most types of GPP, or any type of strongman work the athletes may be doing as well. The “regular” weight trainer rarely performs this type of work, and I would be willing to bet that the leg sessions of the athletes he trains are much more intense/taxing/prodcutive/consistent than those of the regular weight trainer as well.

Also, I am pretty sure the target audience for this program is high-school and college level athletes, who have other commitments and sometimes sub-optimal recovey abilities as well. Therefore I think that the author feels that the format the way it is presented is the best possible one for the purposes intended.

Hopefully, this clears up your confusion.
[/quote]

I’m not an athlete who does tons of GPP, but it still takes me a while to recover from the ME Leg day. I figure when my numbers get a little higher, I will add a rep day for legs- however, I work a heavy job where lifting all sorts of shit is regular, so that may be GPP in its own right. This guy has to get faster though, so leaving a sprinting/sport specific workout day may be the best course of action.

How big are you MK- height, weight? Because these are pretty intense workouts, you are going to have to up the eating if you are looking to get heavier, which I assume you have to playing linebacker.

15

Im 5’10 210lbs but Im not a cut 210. Im pretty puggie around the edges. So hopefully when I do these workouts and GPP I can shred some body fat.

16

mk,

While I would not ALWAYS do leg curls, I see no problem with using them occasionally- in fact, I would reccomend it. Leg Curls and GHR’s are pretty much the only exercise I can think of that works the knee flexion function of the hamstrings. The hamstrings factor in both hip extension and knee flexion, the latter being very important for running speed. A better substitute for leg curls if you don’t have access to GHR’s would be the lying plate drag:

www.physev.com/Exercises/lying_hamstring_plate_drag.htm
You don’t need the swiss ball, just lie on your back. Also, you could do natural GHR’s, look in this artcile:

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=826798
You won’t be able to do the concentric at first, just try to lower yourself slowly and under control.

17

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Tags wrote:
WS4SB is an OFF-SEASON program. I believe it was intended only to be performed in the off-season. Remember, the legs are also trained with any type of running, most types of GPP, or any type of strongman work the athletes may be doing as well. The “regular” weight trainer rarely performs this type of work, and I would be willing to bet that the leg sessions of the athletes he trains are much more intense/taxing/prodcutive/consistent than those of the regular weight trainer as well.

Also, I am pretty sure the target audience for this program is high-school and college level athletes, who have other commitments and sometimes sub-optimal recovey abilities as well. Therefore I think that the author feels that the format the way it is presented is the best possible one for the purposes intended.

Hopefully, this clears up your confusion.[/quote]

Thanks for clearing up the confusion, ya’ll, I appreciate it. :slight_smile:

Also, since you said you were looking to shed some pounds of fat, I wanted to bring this little passage to your attention. It was in an article here (Cardio Round Table, I think it was called) and it’s something Dr. John Berardi said:

[quote]Dr. John Berardi Said:
Athletes need to use nutrition to drive body comp, not training.

Here’s an important lesson. I teach all my Olympic coaches and athletes that nutrition needs to be the body comp control variable ? not training. Look at how typical athletes look at body comp. They’re out of shape in the off-season and then they “train their way into shape.” Oops, there’s a knee injury. They get fat. Oops, they’re tapering. They get soft. Whew, they can train with high volume/intensity again. They get lean.

Notice the pattern? Most people use training specifically to dictate their body comp. This is a mistake. If they’d learn good nutritional habits and follow them year-round, adjusting based on training volume/intensity, they’d always be in the driver’s seat of their physiques and would always be able to maintain a respectable body comp.

So, when it comes to athletes, I prefer that they train their skill set and sport-specific energy systems and then recover the rest of the time. Now, recovery doesn’t only mean sit on their asses or sleep. Light exercise can be considered active recovery. And maybe that’s what Lonnie and Christian mean by low intensity cardio. But we have to be clear ? it’s gotta be very low intensity cardio.

Yet I still don’t prescribe it for fat loss in my athletes. If my athletes do this type of low intensity cardio, it’s for recovery ? if they need it. If not, they do sit on their asses or sleep. And they control their body composition with nutrition.[/quote]

18

Day2: Lower:
Deadlifts: 90x5, 140x5, 160x5, 180x4

Leg Press: 360x8, 450x8, 500x5

1 Dumbell Squat: 100x8, 100x8, 100x10

I tried GHR but I cant do them I dont think my hammies are strong enough yet.

19

Yea real GHR’s are awful tough to do by yourself. If you can’t do a appreciable number of reps to work your hammies you have a couple options.

1 - Use a partner and have them give you a little boost out of the bottem to help you out. Gradually try and lessen the help that you recieve

2 - Stress the eccenctric portion of the lift at this point more than the concentric. Try and control youself down for a long count.

3 - For awhile use multiple sets of low reps instead of the standard 3x8. It will be much easier/effective for you to do 8x3 of these until you develop the strength you need to do high reps. It will also help against getting frustrated with the lift.

4 - Work the crap out of your PC!

20

Well I took another guys advice and what I did was put my feet under a barbell with added weight more then my body weight. It held me but I Just couldnt hold my body up. I almost fell on my face but I caught myself. So Im going have to build up my hammies or find a way to elevate myself so Im not so close to the ground.