This Old Dog Learns New Tricks! Football Programming Part 2

As I mentioned in part one of this blog, knowing the context in all aspects of an athletes’ life is important in order to succeed when training them. This is especially true when it comes to a sport that relies on multiple components of athleticism to achieve high performance, as it requires sufficiently complex training to address many aspects of physical fitness. With these athletes, weight training is only piece of the whole training pie. What better way to learn all the available context than to live with an athlete right?  It just so happens this is the specific circumstance I have with my son Xander. 

In my last blog I outlined 4 seasons or mesocycles that we have created for Xander in his year-long training macrocycle. Breaking down those 4 seasons, here they are in a bit more detail.

• Football Season – September to November
  1. Weight training
     1. Not a lot of weight training. Loads largely consist of 60% of 1-3RM with 40 to 50% of off season volume and a once per week frequency per body part/movement. Exercises are limited to the squat, bench, deadlift/kb swing, row and OHP. If there is an injury from the sport/game that causes pain when performing a lift, any of these exercises are eliminated.
  2. Conditioning/Cardiovascular
     1. A great deal of conditioning including running/sprinting, skills and of course actual game time. This is in addition to this high school P.E. classes which provide some stretching and running.
  3. Body weight
     1. Usually a bit of body weight loss occurs even with some force feeding of food and fluids.

2.) Recovery/Strength Season “A” – November to January (Recovery Portion)

While this whole season is tuned toward improvements in strength, lingering injuries and soreness from football season prevented us from going all out into a strength block. As a result, we ended up splitting the strength block into 2 seasons with the first one being more for recovery while trying to improve strength.

1. Weight training
   1. A subtle increase in weight training. Loads largely consist of 70% of CURRENT 1-3RMs as strength levels on the lifts may drop during football season. Small bump in volume to roughly 60% of Xanders Strength season volume (see below). Most of that increase in volume comes from an increase in frequency to twice per week per body part / movement and some additional exercises.
      1. NOTE: We did 1RM test on the big 3 and AMRAP tests on the secondary lifts (OHP, ROW) during and toward the end of the Football season to get us in the ball park for intensity during this mesocycle. Another test at the end of Recovery season is done to outline Strength Season Intensities.
   2. Conditioning/Cardiovascular
      1. Tremendous drop in conditioning to recreational levels. In Xanders case, P.E. class only.
   3. Body Weight
      1. Body weight should be regained and no significant or planned drop in food.

2.) Recover/Strength Season “B” – January to March (Strength Portion)

1. Weight Training
   1. This depends greatly on the lifting level of the athlete. In this case, Xander is a solid novice and we can make linear increases throughout the entire block in both intensity and volume. Intermediate/Advanced athletes MAY need to choose one or the other to avoid overtraining.
   2. Based on the results of our test in the previous mesocycle, increased intensity to an average of 82% of 1RM. We also Increased volume (tonnage) over the previous “recovery season” block.  Most of this is from increases in intensity and adding back in some exercises from Xanders previous Strength Season training block in 2017.  New PR levels of volume were accomplished during this block of training.
2. Conditioning/Cardiovascular.
   1. Still present though in P.E. or recreational activities. Running, stretching, sprinting all done once per day in P.E. Class.
3. Body weight
   1. Xander is a Novice weight trainee at most and he also a teen. Therefore, we are letting him gain weight. His body weight has gone from 185lbs to well over 190lbs. A more intermediate weight trainee who is fully matured may not gain that kind of weight.

3.) Conditioning/Speed and Football Skills Season “A” – March to May

We’ve split this season into 2 segments. Mostly to save us money on the fees for Speed coaching.  We’ve taken what we learned from past years and started incorporating it into an “A” season.

1. Weight Training
   1. During this season we will start to replace the traditional exercises with more of the sport specific exercises incorporated by Xander’s Speed coach.
      1. 2x/week Squat to 1x/week squat and 1x/week box Squat.
      2. Replace Sumo deadlift with Hex/Trap Bar deadlift.
      3. Added sport specific exercises like split squat, bent leg calf raises and RDL, all for the purposes of increasing starting speed from a dead stop.
   2. We’ve maintained overall intensity with speed strength and what little hypertrophy work we are doing done around 60% 1-3RM with 85-90% 1RM for heavy strength training.

• Volume is allocated differently, but overall it has gone up. We have reduced the number of sets and reps significantly on his main lifts. However, we’ve added more speed-specific exercises, resulting in a net increase in work.

1. Conditioning/Cardio
   1. Conditioning will be improved but that is not our intent. The skills that Xander needs to brush up on and improve are going to be added back in. Each done once per week. These are inherently more taxing then previous activity. P.E. Class is still present, so this is on top of conditioning already done there.
      1. Warming up for the drills (general conditioning and agility).
      2. Cross over drills dragging a sled.
      3. Interval sprints and hill sprints.
      4. Running and recording 20-yard dash times.
   2. Body weight
      1. Body weight should be maintained from the strength season block, but a drop is expected. Some force feeding may be needed to keep weight from dropping too fast.

3.)   Conditioning/Speed and Football Skills Season Part “B” – June through July

As mentioned above, this is the second half of the mesocycle where I need to take my own advice and “stay in my lane.” During this mesocycle, I turn Xander’s training over to his speed coach. However, based on what I saw last year, this is what I expect.

1. Weight Training
   1. Volume will go up with even more added exercises, but intensity will either drop or stay roughly the same.
2. Conditioning/Cardiovascular
   1. Obviously, an increase. Running with every workout prior to weight training. Every session will include a good dose of conditioning through skills work.
3. Body weight
   1. There may not be any amount of food that can be dosed to maintain weight so a slight drop may occur. Perhaps a good thing so that speed on the field can be maximized.  That is still yet to be investigated.

4.) Football pre-season – Contact starts, injury risk goes up. – August

1. Weight training
   1. Volume down, and intensity up. With so much conditioning, which could be interpreted as volume, heavy doubles, triples and singles are done 1x per week with auto-regulated load to maintain strength as best as possible.  If injury occurs from the sport some of these movements need to be eliminated.
2. Conditioning/Cardiovascular
   1. Through the roof with double days of conditioning and skills practice with the team. Could be interpreted as a transition/replacement of all the weight training volume.
3. Body weight
   1. Nearly impossible to maintain unless you have an unlimited grocery budget and an ability to force feed like no other. Some loss will occur and again, could be a good thing for speed/performance on the field.

Finally, in late August/early September Football season begins and the entire process starts again. As I write this blog, we have completed the recovery season and the Strength season. Xander was able to set new 1RMs at the end of the recovery season. Our main mission during the strength season is to get Xander as strong as we possibly can with the time we have available. So far that goal has been met. He added 8lbs to his 1RM on bench press (185 to 192lbs respectively). He also added 32lbs to his 1RM on squat (250lbs to 282lbs respectively). With some testing still needing to be done, Xander is at an all-time high level for strength. As we transition out of strength season, now is not the time to continue to make him stronger in these lifts. Instead, we need to start making him a better football player. Stay tuned in future blogs for updates on his progress as we transition into his Conditioning/Speed and Football skills season.