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Nate Harvey - Conjugate U
Nate Harvey - Conjugate U
The Proven and Practical Guide for Using the Conjugate Method With Athletes
By Nate Harvey
Ryan Groneman
Before starting any training program, get clearance from your primary
care physician first. None of the enclosed information is intended to
diagnose or treat any orthopedic conditions.
1 Acknowledgments 7
2 Purpose 9
4 Conjugate Defined 13
6 The 3 Methods 16
15 Daily Workouts 46
32 Accessory Lane – Options for Lower Body Days – Second Barbell Movement 96
33 Accessory Lane – Options for Lower Body Days – Isolation Movements 108
34 Accessory Lane – Options for Upper Body Days – Second Pressing Movements 121
35 Accessory Lane – Options for Upper Body Days – Isolation Movements 127
36 Ab and Torso Training – Options for Upper and Lower Body Days 146
44 Deloading 178
49 4 Week Training Block for Fall Baseball – Position and Pitchers 186
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
All of the amazing student athletes who came and busted their asses in our weight room
every day. You were pushed aside, marginalized and even told by your coaches that what
you were doing was not how to train. Fortunately, you knew better, and you continued to
push and came to get better, because you wanted to excel at your passion. You bought
into ‘unconventional’ methods that others did not believe in and you proved the naysayers
wrong. Scoreboard! You are ConjugateU!
To my mentors - Paul Childress, Ryan Groneman, Julia Ladewski and Buddy Morris for
putting up with my daily barrage of one million and one questions. Pretty impressive list
of ‘cast offs’ if you ask me!
To Rocco Salomone - Thank you for your sincerity, treating us like men, belief and no
bullshit approach. The reach of your impact is immeasurable. #getstronghurtfeelings
To Dave and Traci Tate, Matt Goodwin, Steve Diel, Sheena Leedham and anyone else
responsible for my spot with ELITEFTS. I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity.
To My parents - for instilling in me the ability to work hard and chase dreams and in turn
the ability to pass this on to my athletes and my own kids.
Most of all, to Hillary, Natalie, Rocco and Reece - you have given this meathead a
purpose in this crazy life and shown me happiness and love I had no idea existed.
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PURPOSE
The purpose of this book is to expose the simplicity and the effectiveness of the
Conjugate Method. During my time in the collegiate setting we implemented the
Conjugate Method with great success, not only showing increases in sports performance
but large decreases in injury reduction. The more people I interact and communicate
with the more I realize how the simple concepts of this system can make a huge
difference in their athlete’s performance. There are a lot of unanswered questions
regarding the system and how to implement it. We are NOT attempting to regurgitate
the Westside Method because as we all know you are not Westside unless you are AT
Westside. My mission is that this book will help support what Louie has been preaching
to people regarding training of athletes. We are attempting to show how WE took some
of the concepts of the system and helped improve the performance of thousands of
athletes. More so than any of this, there is a current trend in ‘strength’ and conditioning
away from the strength aspect that we want to neutralize. Strength is the mother of all
special strengths and in turn sporting traits (Siff). The Conjugate Method will get your
kids strong AND explosive. In fact it addresses explosive power more effectively and
efficiently than most methods that are popular today. We are highlighting the efforts
of our former student athletes and the Conjugate System, not any of my personal
accolades. Without them and this system I do not have a thing to stand on except the
balls to put this system into place when others stuck to the status quo.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I started my quest for strength when I was 12 years old (27 years ago). Like many of
you reading this, my parents got me my first Weider weight set from Sears and the rest
was history. When I was 14 my dad mentioned that you could be a strength coach as a
profession, from that point on I knew what I wanted to do. I was lucky enough to work
myself to a point where I was able to play college football, albeit Division III. To me it
may as well have been the NFL. It was my life and a huge part of my identity. Being at
a small school we did not have a full time strength coach so workouts were basically
printed out by our Offensive line coach and laid out in the weight room for us to follow. I
have always been somewhat anti-establishment and of course knew better than anyone
else at the age of 19, so I was doing my own thing. I had been experimenting with every
program under the sun since the age of 12 and still hadn’t found THE ONE. Growing up I
was always a fan of the biggest, strongest, freakiest athletes. As a fullback for my first
two years of college this obsession led me to research the training methods of former
Tampa Bay Buccaneers great, Mike Alstott. If you are unfamiliar with Alstott, please
lose my number now. In my research I stumbled across an article that mentioned he was
using chains for his benching and squat workouts and why he was implementing them.
From this moment I became obsessed with this training. Of course, my search of this
info eventually led me to some articles from Louie Simmons and Dave Tate. As I was
doing this research and learning all these new concepts started to make sense to me.
This was especially true with Dave’s Periodization Bible Part II article. Going into my
senior season I had a decent idea of the concepts and had implemented them going into
camp over the summer and throughout the season. During my senior year, I felt the best I
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ever had. I was keeping my strength, I felt explosive and my body was not beat up like it
usually was. After the season I gave myself a week off to recover, then tested my bench
and I was only 15lbs of my all-time best! This was my Dr. Gru “lightbulb” moment. Anyone
that has played ball knows those first few sessions back after the season are typically
brutal. Everything is supposed to hurt and 135 is supposed to feel like 405…but it didn’t.
At this point I knew I was on to something big. Unfortunately, I was a 22 year-old kid
ranting and raving about chains and bands and squatting off a box so I did not really have
any evidence or credibility to try to implement the system anywhere except on myself.
You have to prove that what you are doing works before people are going to listen to
you and even that is not a guarantee. So fast forward almost 20 years later we now have
the results to back up our claims and it is time to make being strong as hell, top priority
again.
Over the course of 18 years I have witnessed the system outperform virtually all types
of periodization and schemes. It’s very hard to objectively evaluate a strength and
conditioning system, I get that. One of the indicators that spoke very loudly to me was
when we started getting athletes achieving things athletically that, by all previous
indicators, shouldn’t be doing. The last school I used this system at was in it’s infancy
of competing at the Division I level, not even 15 years. Subtract the ten years of my
time there and you have 5 years as a Division I program when we started to implement
the system. When you are as young as we were, you are not getting top tier athletes.
After about a year of the system being in place, we were starting to see some surprising
performances and some eyebrows were starting to raise, this was another moment of
validation and reassurance that we were on to something big. Fast forward 10 years
later, and we had the following results form a very young lower level DI school using the
Conjugate Method:
- Men’s shot putters have won 7 of the last 8 indoor track and field Conference
Titles and 8 of the last 8 outdoor track and field titles
- Men’s Swimming and Diving won their first ever Conference Title
- 18 Olympic Trials Qualifiers (shot put, swimming diving), two of those qualified for
the final round in their sport
- Baseball - Softball
- Wrestling
In addition to all these indicators, was the overwhelming feedback from our athletes. The
ones who trained with it then had to go put their asses on the line told us, this method
was a major factor in their success.
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CONJUGATE DEFINED
When speaking of the Conjugate Method you HAVE to give credit to Louie Simmons.
Louie has developed and popularized his version of the method to a point where almost
any program you look at today has some influence of the Conjugate Method in it. His
influence on our program and our athlete’s success has been tremendous! It is my hope
that this book can help validate what he has pioneered because of the large number of
athletes we have worked with over the years.
The original Conjugate Method was adapted from Russian methods used to train
multiple sports in the old Soviet Olympic sport training system. Many of the successful
components of the system were adapted from Olympic weight lifting and Olympic sport
training and programming. The problem is, too many people associate this method
exclusively with power lifting. I hope that this book can dispel some of those myths.
For the purpose of this book, the term Conjugate will be defined as training multiple
special strengths throughout the year by using varying methods within the weekly plan,
in an effort to raise multiple traits the entire year as opposed to only during certain
blocks of training. The opposite of this would be the old western or linear model of
periodization.
In order to maximize results, it is important to have some direction to your training and
prioritize the traits you are pursuing as your athletes near competition season. As you lay
out your athlete’s training, they should always work from general to specific. This is how
you are supposed to obtain sport specificity, NOT by replicating sporting movements in
the weight room.
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WHY THE CONJUGATE METHOD WITH ATHLETES?
There are many faults in the traditional model of periodization. In the linear model of
training most of the progress you made in the first month is lost by the end of the second
month because that special strength was not being trained during the second month.
Think about this, if you spent your first month doing sets of 10 on squats then did 5’s
for your second month; if you go back and try to do a heavy set of 10 after you finish
your second month you will be SMOKED after that set of 10. If you actually train, you
know this to be true. That is because you have detrained your endurance strength that
you built up in your first month. The Conjugate Method allows us to continually raise
multiple strength traits throughout the year without detraining supporting traits that are
important for sports.
Athlete burn out is a very common problem because you are doing the same movements
over and over. I have seen some models where the movements stayed the same for
months on end. If you are honest with yourself you KNOW you start dreading squat days.
A major reason for this is the anxiety of knowing what movement you have to do. So,
you as a strength coach who is supposed to love training feel this way, how do you think
your athletes feel. If you are the coach that read that last sentence and say to yourself “I
don’t care how they feel”, then you are an out of touch ass and your athletes are turning
on you as you read this. I can say this because I have witnessed it multiple times. Kids
are smarter than we were and you have to treat them as such otherwise you are setting
yourself up for failure. Most of the time, most of your athletes are not really into training,
unless you can get them to truly buy in, by constantly using the same movements in your
programs you are pushing your athletes away from buying in and increasing their chance
for injury and mental burnout. Movement variation is built into the Conjugate model. This
variation creates athlete buy in because they are constantly surprised and challenged by
the program.
This system is hands down the best system I have witnessed for developing athletes. I
was so confident in its structure that we did not have to act like drill sergeants in the
weight room and hover over our athletes. Its effectiveness allowed us to teach and let
our athletes take ownership of their training and let the results speak for themselves.
Most of the time we were able to get very high rates of athlete buy in because of
the system allows you to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above. Recovery is also a
large component that is built into a properly run conjugate model which athletes can
immediately feel and appreciate. I also feel this was a big player in our surgery numbers
dropping significantly (20% department wide) the more we were able to put the system
into place.
While all of these attributes are great, there is one final piece to a successful weight
room program; the coach. YOU have to know how to assess your athletes lifts and
correct them. They can smell your bullshit a mile away so you’d better know your stuff.
It is my belief that this is why you have to train with a similar system that your athletes
are using. I can’t remember where I heard it but someone once said “if you wouldn’t do
your program then it probably sucks”. Training and chasing some goals not only gives
you credibility with your athletes it gives you a better understanding of how to coach
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and teach your athletes. All exercises can be corrective if programmed and coached
properly. If you can coach a squat, lunge jump correctly you will get the proper firing
sequence most of the time. Proper and improper coaching can make or break your
program.
Athletes are terribly weak in hips, gluts, hamstrings, back and core. We can make the
biggest impact on their athletic performance by raising these areas up and letting them
work on their sport skills. Everyone talks about training and bringing up these areas
but are they really addressing them? Or are they trying to do too much in the weight
room by implementing ‘sport specific’ movements and ‘drills’ when all they have to do
is make these areas stronger. These athletes have been doing their sport since they
were 6 years old. How much of an improvement are you going to make by doing more of
that???? Do your 1/11th (the job your assigned) and bring up their strength, power output
and mobility and watch their performance take off.
Possibly the greatest attribute of the Conjugate Method is the fact that it is so simple to
implement. If you can learn some basic coaching skills (pay attention when we go over
coaching ques in the movements sections) and learn how to direct your training you can
implement it on a large scale. If I did it, so can you! As you make your way through the
book it may feel like a lot of info but hang in there, it’s important to have all the back
ground info so you can advance when your athletes do. At the end of this book, you will
see how simple it can be to take your athletes performance to a new level.
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THE THREE METHODS
1 Dynamic Effort – Also referred to as ‘speed work’ in our system. Depending where your
athletes are in their training use between 30% and 75% of your max. Although according
to the graph the force output in this range is low, we are going to make it high because
of the high acceleration you will put on the bar; F=ma. Move that bar like your life
depends on it!
2 Repeated Effort – This will be the zone used for the ‘accessory lane’ when you get into
laying out your program. Get ready we’re going to use a bad word here….bodybuilding!
This is not referring to posing trunks and tanning oil but we are building tissue to build
the body for sport. Use sub-maximal loads for repeated efforts to bring up weak areas of
the body. Rep ranges can be from 5 reps all the way up to 1 minute straight!
3 Max Effort – Also referred to as ‘heavy’ days in our system. Please note, true max
effort work refers to 90% and above. For our population the object was to get the athlete
to push hard and possibly strain whether it be on rep one (1RM) or on rep 3 (3RM). This
is done on your main lift on max effort day. The rep ranges can be anywhere from 1-8
although going above 5 is very rare. Heavy singles and doubles (sets of 1 and 2) are
preferred. Even though the velocity is low in this range, the intent to move the bar fast
must always be there! This will make your kids explosive.
By training the above three methods we can more effectively shift the entire Force/
Velocity Curve to the right/upward and raise many sporting traits year round.
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DYNAMIC EFFORT – SPEED DAYS
Going from 0-60 as fast as possible or static overcome by dynamic (same type
contraction used to perform box squats and speed pulls). The Dynamic day helps build
this ability. Max effort day gives you the strength to overcome inertia. Dynamic day
gives you the ability to apply your strength. Buddy Morris said the difference between
a good athlete and a great athlete is the ability to recruit motor units. Looking at the
Charlie Francis Motor Unit Recruitment chart we can see that Olympic variants recruit
more than Squat and Deadlift. I don’t know how this data was collected or how the tests
were performed but I will guarantee that if the squats and deadlifts were performed
dynamically (with compensatory acceleration), coupled with the fact that you can
use more weight on the squat and pull, that they would be right next to the Olympic
variants. This is why we did no Olympic variations in our program unless the sport
coach requested it. There was not one time when the group doing Olympic variants had
significantly better testing results than a non-Olympic group. HOW you perform your
movement is far more important than WHAT movement is being performed. Most of our
athletes HATED doing the Olympic variations after their coach insisted they do them
and after not doing them in their programming beforehand. Any movement can be used
to develop explosiveness if done right. So why not pick movements that are easier for
the athlete to master and still produce great results. The Dynamic System is also self-
regulating because your speed weights are based off of YOUR max. This is why 100lbs
and 1000lbs squatters can use the same system. Stronger athletes will do more work
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because of this but they also get stronger because they are doing more work…it’s a
snowball effect. This is also why we have to train all three methods, they build on each
other.
We also typically use dynamic day as a high volume lighter weight and less taxing
movement day to aid in recovery. To help achieve this try to pick accessory lane
movements that are less taxing to the body. For example a reverse hyper as opposed
to doing Romanian deadlifts. We do a lot of single joint movements for accessory work.
This allows us to bring up weak areas without crushing the athletes in the weight room.
REMEMBER, your training has to aid in the athlete’s performance. If they are constantly
smashed from your training program and can’t perform in practice this process can’t
happen. Pick your movements wisely.
You can also get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. Below is a dynamic lower
(dynamic lane only portion) day done by one of our shot putters in the fall who was a
600ish pound squatter at the time (stronger athletes will do more work because bar
weight based off of their max):
3 Rep set with speed pull weight (not typical, he just felt like doing some reps)- 20
easy/ fast reps
BREAKDOWN:
Total work done – 15,000 pounds all fast and explosive reps , IN UNDER 20
MINUTES
BREAKDOWN:
1. Hang clean – 10 x 2 x 275lbs = 5500lbs
2. Hang Snatch – 10 x 2 x 225lbs = 4500lbs
Keep in mind this is not an actual experiment, I get that, but it’s a very simple equation
to make a point. We did a ton more work and we used movements that are not going
to beat our athletes up and we’re going to develop explosive MFs in the process. I also
didn’t include his rep set because that wasn’t typical. Funny thing is at least 12 of his 20
reps on that set could have been counted as speed reps because they were that fast.
This system not only builds tremendous strength and explosiveness but it also builds
work capacity! One of the keys to the Dynamic Methods effectiveness is the short rest
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periods between sets. Unlike most ‘explosive’ training where you get to fully recover
between sets, keep your rest periods short between sets on dynamic days. Typically 30-
45 seconds if possible. If you have your athletes training in groups of 2-4 just have them
get through their sets with as little rest as possible. As soon as their partner is off, the
next person should be lifting. Encourage them to try to kick each other’s ass. I want my
training partners leaning on stuff by the end of the workout while I’m standing tall! If
you are not fully recovered from your previous set your body will tap into muscle fibers
it normally would not if you were fully recovered. Sounds pretty similar to the theory
behind French Contrast Training which is all the rage lately doesn’t it?
With the wide stance speed squat and sumo pulls we are also able to attack a weak point
(hips) on the athletes without destroying them because we are using light weights and
improve hip mobility at the same time. This is why speed squats are always done with a
wide stance (unless an injury prevents this and speed pulls are done with a wide stance
90% of the time. Everyone talks about developing the hips and hamstrings but those
same people have their athletes squatting with a close stance and quarter squatting?!?!
This makes NO sense. Wide stance squatting builds the hips and hamstrings more than
narrow or medium stance squatting. Louie said it best, wide builds narrow but narrow
will NOT build wide. Keep in mind ‘wide’ is relative. Your athletes are all built differently
so what is wide for one kid may not be possible for another. Usually through proper
coaching you can have their feet out where they need to be within one or two sessions.
“But how do they stay strong if they don’t have heavy weights on the bar?” (That last
sentence should be read in your whiniest voice possible)
Physics! That’s how! I will never understand how so many coaches can be such ‘experts’
on training if they don’t do it themselves, that’s another book though. If F=ma, we can
increase the a(cceleration) greatly and continue to produce a large amount of force.
Speed work is also a great way to continue to build or maintain strength while in-season.
Because we lowered the m(ass) or weight on the bar we can take a large amount of wear
and tear off of the athlete’s body. I’m not saying take the max effort out completely in-
season but know that you can build strength in season with speed and accessory work!
We always had very good testing results post season (one week off after season, then
test) and kept injuries down relying heavily on speed and accessory work while in-
season. SSSPEED!
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REPEATED EFFORT – ACCESSORY WORK
-Accessory Lanes-
The purpose of the accessory work is to bring up weak areas of the athletes. It is the
time when we do what most people would consider bodybuilding. The difference is we’re
building the body to better perform at a sport not go on stage in posing trunks. The
Max Effort Lanes and Dynamic Effort Lanes are aimed at primarily training the nervous
system while your accessory work is building tissue.
The Accessory Lane is a great opportunity to do a couple things. First, we can add a lot
of volume in the off-season for athletes that need developed. If you are wise on exercise
selection you can do this without over training. Typically we will start the volume low
and build it up over the course of 3 weeks, and then we will switch the exercises. This
allows the body to adapt and builds in an automatic volume deload on the first week of
a new program. Utilizing your accessory work correctly can also have a great effect
on your injury rates. All too often I see people making the mistake of thinking bigger
is better when picking Accessory Lane movements. This is not always the case. For
example, during in-season programming most of the time choosing smaller single joint
accessory work is the better option because these movements are less taxing on the
player but still stimulate the muscle groups we need to keep active and firing. That being
said, when we are in off-season training we can push harder and use more compound
movements in the training if that’s what will benefit our athletes the most. We typically
did one day of more taxing accessories (max effort day) and one day of less taxing
accessories (speed days) this allowed us to follow a high/ low model of programming
in order to help our athletes recover. The accessory lane is also a great opportunity to
specialize your programming for various sports and populations. This can be done with
exercise selection, rep tempo, contraction types and set and rep schemes. Your options
are nearly endless here as accessory reps can be as low as 5 and as high as 300 total
or even reps for time. We will go over volume manipulation examples and exercise
variations when we put the lanes together at the end. DO NOT underestimate the
importance of this lane.
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MAX EFFORT – HEAVY DAYS
I’m not going to list all of the special strengths here but if you read Supertraining you
will see many of the special strengths listed are direct precursors to our most desired
sporting traits such as change of direction, first step ability, speed etc. On our force
velocity curve it may look like max effort work and top velocity are very distant, but in
reality they are very closely related. If they aren’t then why do sprinters use steroids?
It sure as hell isn’t because being strong makes you slower. Athletes have been running
and jumping their whole lives, you are going to get minimal improvement by beating
the athlete over the head with the same stimulus. We need to train the area of the force
velocity curve (Max Effort) they have spent the least amount of time on for the most
profound results. Please do not think we leave the other pieces of the puzzle out, we will
go over those later. This IS the Max Effort chapter.
When we first discussed why to use the Conjugate Method we talked about shifting the
force velocity curve to the right and upward. The final piece to the puzzle to do this is the
Max effort method, or in our system, Heavy Day. The most effective way to gain strength
is to train at 90% and above. While this is very true you need to know how to manipulate
this method to avoid over training. Athletes need to be strong. Most great athletes are
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really strong. They may not squat 1000lbs but they are physically very big and strong.
Why are so many people afraid to train their athletes to get strong? There are many
examples of ex-football players coming into powerlifting and doing very well with very
little experience. This happens because they are strong to start; they just had to learn
the skill of lifting correctly to surpass people who had been lifting their entire lives.
Many times people would say “sure he can squat X weight but how would that help my
athlete in Y sport?” Once again I’ll defer to middle school physics, F=ma. Another reason
we HAVE to get athletes strong is that a strong athlete is a durable athlete. You are not
going to reach an athlete’s true strength potential without tapping into the 90% and
above range on a regular basis. We proved this with our low injury rates on the field and
court. There were also ZERO injuries while doing Max Effort work. Another argument I
hear against this method is “mehh, I don’t need my athletes to be THAT strong”. Okay, so
you don’t want your athletes to have every tool available at their disposal? Being strong
is NEVER a detriment to athletic performance. Have you EVER heard an athlete say “I
was just too strong today, it really held my performance back”? What sealed the deal for
me was athlete feedback. Most of the athletes we worked with over the years loved this
style of training and attributed many of their results to the training, and were not happy
with the results they got from other methods when they were forced to use them.
In our model, we also used rep maxes to tap into this final piece of the puzzle. One of
the great abilities that gain through the Max Effort Method is the ability to strain. By
strain I mean the ability to hold a safe position and keep applying max force into the
bar even if it is barely moving. Many athletes are so speed dominant that if they have
to strain on something for longer than a split second, their nervous system shuts down
their musculature and they lose the ability to resist outside force. Training with the
max effort method inhibits this shut down and allows the athlete to produce force for a
longer amount of time. So, whether we use a 1 rep max or a 5 rep max to get the athlete
into this state of straining, we are still getting the training affect we are looking for. Our
preference was 1 and 2 rep maxes and multiple sets of 2. Typically we would use rep
maxes to ease athletes into the singles and doubles and for athletes that needed to put
size on or for variation every 4-6 weeks in the max effort training.
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HOW TO PREP NEWBIES FOR MAX EFFORT WORK
When we have athletes who have not trained in this system before we DO NOT put them
in max effort training from the start. Our progression usually looks like this:
Week 1- Teach squat, bench and pulls on respective days. Then get some sets in with
a weight we feel they can move with acceptable speed and form. We may even spend
30-40 minutes on techniques of the main lift then teach a couple simple accessory
moves then get them out. Whatever it takes to get a solid understanding of their main
lift.
Week 2- Speed sets on both max and speed days. The weight is slightly increased
from week 1. Form and bar speed are priority.
Week 4 - this is the week we typically introduce some sort of max effort work. It is
usually the same protocol as the returners but we are more cautious working them up
and shut them down when form breaks.
If you are experiencing issues getting the majority (about 80%) of your athletes ready
for max effort work after this progression then seek help. This is the main focus of my
clinics; learning how to coach effectively and how to fix technical aspects of the lifts.
There are also MANY very good lifters around the country who are willing to help.
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HOW TO ‘WORK UP’ ON MAX EFFORT DAYS
On all max effort movements we start with the bar for 15- 20 reps. Such reps allow the
athlete to get some practice at the movement. This should also be when the coaching
starts, don’t let your kids half ass their warm ups. Fixing mistakes with an empty bar
is easier than fixing them with 90% plus on the bar. It should take approximately 7 sets
to hit your max. This is what has been found to be optimal by people way smarter and
stronger than me. When we max out in an athletic setting the process of working up
and getting the work in is just as important as setting a new record on the movement.
Athletes have a lot more external factors to take into account than powerlifters do. That
said, get your kids to work up and strain and break a record. Remember it is not the end
of the world if a record isn’t broken every time. Below are two examples of two very
different athletes working up on the squat and their jumps in weight.
600 pounds squatter – Cambered bar 1RM 135 pounds squatter – cambered bar 1RM
Bar x 20-30 Bar x 20
135 x 5 65 x 3
225 x 2 85 x 2
315 x 1 95 x 1
405 x 1 105 x 1
495 x 1 115 x 1
525 x 1 125 x 1
545 x 1
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TRAINING LANES
In order to maximize results it is important to have some direction to your training and
prioritize the traits you are pursuing as your athletes near competition season. As you
lay out your athlete’s training they should always work from general to specific. The
simplest way to achieve this and keep it organized is to divide the days up into ‘lanes’.
This is a concept Dave mentioned to me on my first trip to the compound that really hit
home with me. I had always mapped it like this but describing each portion of the daily
training layout as a ‘lane’ really made this point easy to understand and teach.
In the graphs below we lay out the lanes and how to periodize each. This shows lifting
only. When you program there are many factors to consider when working from general
to specific. The ones that we focus on are: sport duration, energy systems, sport
movement, type of contraction, and speed of contraction, special strengths required and
recovery modalities. Some of the considerations and examples will repeat. There are no
absolute rules when programming your way through each lane. The important part is that
you have some reasoning for progressing each the way you do. The lanes just show how
to think about progressing each portion of the workouts. We will show specific examples
at the end. The order of the days in the example below is also not set in stone. You will
see various options later on.
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MAX EFFORT UPPER TRAINING LANES
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LOWER LANES
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DYNAMIC EFFORT UPPER LANES
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MAX EFFORT LOWER LANES
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THE BIG THREE
While this is not a book on powerlifting Squat, Bench and Deadlift ,or some variant of
these, are the backbone of any good strength program. If these are not then you need
to check yourself and your program. Athletes, if your coach doesn’t agree with this…
find a new coach! Doing the movements correctly are the heart and soul of a successful
program. Coach your ass off because correct movement and intent to move weights
explosively and with purpose makes the most impact. This can be the biggest difference
maker for carryover to the athletic field. This is how your athletes get explosive. We
would often tell our kids ‘kill the bar’ or ‘pull on the bar like grandmas stuck under a car’.
You want dynamic correspondence? Get your kids to move weight with violent intent! It’s
not that hard!
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THE BOX SQUAT
(Parallel box!)
Why would we box squat 90% of the time if we’re training athletes? It is the superior
method, that’s why. Box squatting is easier to recover from. Remember we’re working
with athletes who have to still go to practice and compete in their respective sports on
top of training. The wide stance used on box squatting will better prepare the athlete
for the many different foot positions they will encounter during their sport. Proper box
squatting teaches lateral force production. We rarely ever trained ‘agility drills’ and our
agility scores consistently improved, box squatting was a key player in this. Squatting
with a wide stance will also build mobility in the hips while also raising strength. You
can dictate the depth of your athletes squat with-out yelling “deeper”, “get down there”,
“siiiiiit” etc all day long. Learning to box squat is much easier to learn than a free squat.
Like I mentioned before we can get most of our athletes training on day one instead of
a 2-3 week learning period. It is better for your knees because you put more stress in
your hips and hamstrings. Your athletes get enough wear and tear on their knees in their
sport, don’t add to it in the weight room. It is a more effective way to train first step
speed (static to dynamic).
1 Have the athlete stand in front of the box as if they were about to squat
a. Make sure the hips are far enough back on the box so the athlete’s shin is
perpendicular to the floor
3 Adjust the height of the box until the top of the knee cap is parallel with the
crease of the hip. Check the knee cap/ hip crease angle from the side of the
athletes. Knee angle has NOTHING to do with squatting to parallel
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By powerlifting standards this would be slightly high. For athletes making sure the femur
is parallel with the floor will suffice.
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HOW TO BOX SQUAT
Squat Setup
• Pushing out on feet, pinky toe/side of foot out the side of shoe.
• Head in bar.
Squat Descent
• Push stomach and knees out until you are on the box.
Squat Ascent
• Once we get this, a lot of other things seem to fall into place.
• As long as the knees and pressure stays out, which usually does, glutes and hips
activate in the proper manner to stress the hips, glutes, and hamstrings.
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Coaching Cues: Should Be Limited 1-4 Words
“Chin Up” — Chin should be slightly up before unracking the weight and before you start
your decent.
“Fill Your Stomach” — Big breath into your stomach before you start the squat.
“Back and Open” — Hips back, knees open until you’re on the box. Many people won’t
open through the whole decent. The result is usually dropping onto the box instead of
keeping tension in the glutes and hamstrings
“Stomach Out, Knees Out” — Pushing your stomach out will usually keep your back
arched and stomach tight.
“Head in the Bar” or “Drive Your Shoulders” — Aside from trying to kill the bar, this should
be top priority when the athlete is about to come off the box. This will keep their
head coming up first and the right muscles firing in the right sequence.
“Stomach out”
“Knees out”
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OR
“Back and open”
Both of these work well
THE ASCENT HAS TO BE FAST/ EXPLOSIVE/ VIOLENT however you want to describe it.
When you stand up with the bar it cannot be soft. Getting your kids to understand and do
this is a huge component of this system working for you and them!
We box squat 99% of the time. On Dynamic Days it is always with a wide stance. On Max
Effort days we’ve had best results alternating wide and narrow or medium every other
week. We DO NOT recommend alternating stances until the athletes are proficient at
the wide stance. If we do free squat, one option that has worked well and allowed the
athletes to perform with some sort of proficiency is putting them in after speed squats.
After the speed squats we reduce the weight about 20%, leave the accommodating
resistance on, pull the box out and bring their feet in to a medium or shoulder width
stance. All the coaching ques are the same. If kids are having trouble hitting depth
simply tell them to ‘bend their knees” in the bottom. It sounds real simple but has worked
very well. Keep the bar speed on the ascent! When we did this, we would typically take
out speed pulls or Kettlebell swings for the day.
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BENCH
and Variations
SET UP:
2. Grip – we usually let them pick their grip to start unless it’s extremely close or
wide
6. Set your feet in the ground so there is tension from the ground to your feet and
all the way up to your hands
2. Have your spotter lift you out when you take the breath in
6. Keep your shoulders back and feet pressed into the floor
2. Turn your hands into the bar (like you are trying to break a wood stick)
3. Push your stomach up towards the bar/ squeeze your shoulder blades together
a. Usually make sure the hands look good before coaching leg drive
a. “Elbows first”
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b. “Stomach up”
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Pulls
Deadlift and Variations
Teach and become proficient at sumo variations first. The athletes are weak in the hips
so this is our priority. This is also the most complex to teach so once they learn this the
other variations come easy. Every time they pull their stance will be opposite of what it
was last time they pulled. If some kids are really struggling to get down to the bar in a
good position (maybe tall basketball players) you can pull off of pins or blocks and lower
the bar to the floor as they get better at the movement. Once they are proficient at sumo
pulls we will alternate between a sumo and conventional pull on their max effort days.
BE STRONG AT ALL ANGLES!
SUMO PULLS:
SET UP:
1. Make sure athlete is centered behind the bar (seems simple but…)
3. Bar should be over the athlete’s big toe knuckle when athlete looks down
5. Make sure there is tension going out the sides of the shoes
a. Demonstrate flaring your knees out until you are close enough to
grab the bar
5. Pull bar into shins and roll knees out BEFORE you pull
2. SIMUTANEOUSLY drive your shoulders back and drive OUT on your feet
a. Athletes tend to leg press it up which results in the hips coming up first
then shoulders
c. Typically have to over emphasize pull back to get them to raise their
shoulders at the same rate as their hips come up
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CUING FOR THE PULL:
1. Setting up:
c. “squat up pull back” – for kids that tend to ‘RDL’ the weight up
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CONVENTIONAL PULLS:
SET UP:
1. Make sure athlete is centered behind the bar (seems simple but…)
2. Stance:
3. Bar should be over the athlete’s big toe knuckle when athlete looks down
5. Pull bar into shins and roll knees out BEFORE you pull
c. Typically have to over emphasize pull back to get them to raise their
shoulders at the same rate as their hips come up
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CUING FOR THE PULL:
1. Setting up:
c. “squat up pull back” – for kids that tend to ‘RDL’ the weight up
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SETTING UP DAILY WORKOUTS
• Warm Up Lanes
In the next few chapters, we will review some of the options that were popular in our
system for each of the lanes. These are not the only options but they are what seemed to
work best. As you build your program from the Daily Templates you can go through and
plug these into the corresponding sheets.
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TEMPLATES
Use the layouts in this chapter to build your daily training sessions. There is no BEST
exercise/ modality just using the right one at the right time. What we have below are
templates, these are not set in stone. These follow the exact order of the Training Lanes
graphs so you can keep everything in order when planning your training. All you have to
is:
1. Review the ‘Daily Outlines’ listed below and plug your movements in.
2. Plug the Daily Outlines you design into whatever weekly template (chapter 21, 22) you
are using. (4 day off season, 2 day in season etc.)
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MAX EFFORT UPPER OUTLINE
1. Tissue Prep – pick one or two of these depending on the athlete’s need. Use the more
aggressive option during your most crucial times of the year. Minimal needed dose.
e. Car buffer – shoulders/ pecs/ lats/ all fascia around ribcage, sternum and pecs
b. Light Dumbbell bench – 3-4 x 20@10% (300lb bencher uses 30 pound DB)
3. Throws Lane –
a. Non- Reactive Explosive strength – 3-6 x 5 – Typically off season options. Pick
one movement per workout. Do not use the same movement twice in one week.
iii. Overhead med ball slam w/ seated jump – NON BOUNCING MED BALL
iv. Lying overhead med ball throw – from a dead stop/ non-reactive
i. 1, 3 or 5 Rep Max (review ‘How to Work Up’ in the Max Effort Chapter)
ii. 1 rep max followed by 1-2 down sets with 80% of the 1RM taken to near
failure
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iii. 4-5 sets of 2
5. Accessory Lane
c. Sets X reps
d. Take each set to positive failure (when form breaks down). The reps are just a
guideline, we are trying to really fatigue these muscles. Especially in the off
season.
e. Max effort days usually have more intensive movements and lower rep range
E.g.; bent barbell row instead of seated cable rows.
b. Dead hangs
Summary:
1. Tissue prep
2. Warm up
3. Throws
5. Accessory movements
6. Mobility/ reset
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LOWER OUTLINE
1. Tissue Prep – pick one or two of these depending on the athlete’s need. Use the more
aggressive option during your most crucial times of the year. Minimal needed dose.
3. Jumps Lane –
a. Non- Reactive Explosive strength – 3-8 x 5. Pick one movement per workout.
i. Box jump
ii. Weighted box jump – hold dumbbells, med balls…
iii. Seated box jump
iv. Seated weighted box jump
v. Seated box jump with foot slam – slam feet into ground when you jump
off floor
vi. Seated weighted box jump with foot slam
vii. Kneeling jumps –
viii. Kneeling jumps with weight – hold med ball, weighted vest…
i. Sets x reps
ii. 6-10 x 2
1.Week 1 – 10 sets @30%, week 2 – 8 sets@ 35%, week 3 – 6 sets@ 40%
iii. 3-5 X 5
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1. Week 1 – 5 sets @30%, week 2 – 4 sets@ 35%, week 3 – 3 sets@ 40%
b. Speed pull –
i. 6-10 x 2
1. Week 1 – 10 sets @30%, week 2 – 8 sets@ 35%, week 3 – 6 sets@ 40%
5. Accessory Lane
c. Sets X reps
d. Take each set to positive failure (when form breaks down). The reps are just a
guideline, we are trying to really fatigue these muscles. Especially in the off
season.
e. Dynamic days usually have less intensive movements but higher reps. E.g.; rev
hyper instead of RDL.
i. Single leg movement – doesn’t have to be on this day. Just get one in once
per week
ii. Hip extension hamstring - 3-4 x 10-60 (many times we’ll get up to 60 reps
on reverse hypers)
iii. Knee flexion hamstring – ankle weight or banded hamstrings. Ultra-high
reps. Start at 100 total and build up to 300 total over 4-8 weeks. This dropped
hamstring issues significantly.
iv. Adductor movement – 3-4 x 20-30. Groiners or Thompson Hips
v. Weighted abs – 100 total
Summary:
1. Tissue prep
2. Warm up
3. Jumps
5. Accessory movements
6. Mobility/ reset
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DYNAMIC EFFORT UPPER OUTLINE
1. Tissue Prep – pick one or two of these depending on the athlete’s need. Use the more
aggressive option during your most crucial times of the year. Minimal needed dose.
3. Throws Lane –
a. Non- Reactive Explosive strength – 3-6 x 5 – Typically off season options. Pick
one movement per workout. Do not use the same movement twice in one week.
a. Speed bench
i. Sets x reps
ii. 6-8 x 3
1. Wk1 – 8sets @ 30%, week 2 – 8 sets @ 35%, wk3 – 6 sets @ 40%
iii. 3-5 x 5
1. Wk1 – 5sets @ 30%, week 2 – 4 sets @ 35%, wk3 – 3 sets @ 40%
5. Accessory Lane
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a. Use 4-6 movements
c. Sets X reps
d. Take each set to positive failure (when form breaks down). The reps are just a
guideline, we are trying to really fatigue these muscles. Especially in the off season.
e. Dynamic days in general have less intensive movements but higher volume.
Summary
1. Tissue prep
2. Warm up
3. Throws
4. Dynamic effort movements
5. Accessory movements
6. Mobility/ reset
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MAX EFFORT LOWER OUTLINE
1. Tissue Prep – pick one or two of these depending on the athlete’s need. Use the more
aggressive option during your most crucial times of the year. Minimal needed dose.
a. Baseball/ lacrosse ball in glutes/ lower back/ psoas
b. Foam/ pvc pipe roll TFL and IT bands
c. X-wife on entire posterior chain (Donnie Thompson)
d. Reflexive Performance Reset wake up drills
3. Jumps Lane –
a. Non- Reactive Explosive strength – 3-8 x 5. Pick one movement per workout. Do
not use the same movement twice in one week.
i. Box jump
ii. Weighted box jump – hold dumbbells, med balls…
iii. Seated box jump
iv. Seated weighted box jump
v. Seated box jump with foot slam – slam feet into ground when you jump
off floor
vi. Seated weighted box jump with foot slam
vii. Kneeling jumps –
viii. Kneeling jumps with weight – hold med ball, weighted vest…
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5. Accessory Lane
c. Sets X reps
d. Take each set to positive failure (when form breaks down). The reps are just
a guideline, we are trying to really fatigue these muscles. Especially in the off
season.
e. Max Effort days usually have more intensive movements lower reps. E.g.; good
morning instead of Back Extension.
ii. Single leg movement – doesn’t have to be on this day. Just get one in once
per week
iii. Hip extension hamstring - 3-4 x 10-60 (many times we’ll get up to 60 reps
on reverse hypers)
v. Hip flexor movement – 3-4 x 20-30. Hanging knee raise or weighted knee
raise for example
Summary:
1. Tissue prep
2. Warm up
3. Jumps
5. Accessory movements
6. Mobility/ reset
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OFF SEASON WEEKLY TEMPLATES
It is best to keep the max effort days as far away as possible but this is not always an
option when you start programing for practices etc. Worst case scenario, just don’t do
the max effort workouts with in a 24-hour period if you can help it.
WEEK 2
Monday – Max Effort Lower
CYCLE STARTS OVER
Wednesday – Max Effort Upper
Friday – Dynamic Effort Lower
…and so on
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IN SEASON WEEKLY TEMPLATES
4 DAYS PER WEEK OPTION (this was our throwers template…and meathead sprinters)
2 DAYS PER WEEK OPTION (common with basketball. Would also work with travel
football)
Monday – ‘Max Effort’ or Dynamic Effort Lower – depending where in the season
Wednesday – ‘Max Effort’ or Dynamic Effort Upper – depending where in the season
2 DAYS PER WEEK OPTION (common with swimming. If we took strength work out too
soon, they felt lousy at conference. This was our common set up late in the season up to
4 weeks out from conference or championship time)
Tuesday – Dynamic, Heavy lower – speed sets followed by some work up sets then
accessory work
Thursday – Dynamic, Heavy upper – speed sets followed by some work up sets then
accessory work
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TISSUE PREP LANES
When you are rolling out it should not feel good. It should be uncomfortable. You have to
get in and get some pressure on the tissue to get it to let go.
a. Psoas
b. Glutes
a. IT bands
b. TFL
c. Quads
d. Glutes
a. IT bands
b. TFL
c. Quads
d. Glutes
a. Pec
b. Delt
2. Partner pec smash – lay on your back and have a partner press their heel into your
pec/ delt tie in area while you internally and externally rotate your arm.
a. Sternum
c. Outline of pecs
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WARM UP LANE OPTIONS
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JUMPS LANE
Choose one options for each lower body day. Do not perform the same movement more
than once per week.
Do 3-8 sets of 5. Starting eight to ten weeks out from your peaking phase you should pair
your jumps with your Dynamic and Max Effort movements. Post-Activation Potentiation
(PAP) is a great tool but should not be drawn on all year long.
Explosive strength options vary from plyometric options because there is less of a
stretch reflex involved when performing them. For this reason, we use them for the
majority of the year. The nature of these jumps also allow us to train explosiveness at
a higher frequency and volume than we can true plyometrics. If you were to train true
plyometrics at 80 jumps per week there is a greater chance for injury. This is especially
true when you take into consideration the athletes practice schedule and often times
lack of physical preparation for true plyometric exercises.
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JUMPS LANE
1. Box Jump
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
2. Weighted box jump – dumbbells, ankle weights, weighted vest or med ball
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
7. Kneeling jumps
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
d. Knees should stay externally rotated slightly. Do not let them cave or roll in as
they take off.
e. Jump from heels, don’t roll onto your toes until the last possible moment
f. Land soft
g. Watch their knees as they land, they should look the same as when they take
off! See ‘d’.
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JUMPS LANE
PLYOMETRIC OPTIONS
2. These methods are very stressful on the athletes. We use them sparingly
and typically save them for when the athletes most important competition is
approaching IF this is the stimulus they need. Not all athletic activities are
reactive in nature. Some require maximal acceleration from a static position
3. Start low intensity and volume and build your way up. Typically do not increase
volume more than 20% week to week.
4. These are usually paired with our max effort work and dynamic effort work in
a super set fashion to take advantage of post activation potentiation (PAP). We
usually only pair our jumps/throws lane when we start our peaking cycles. If you
draw on a resource (PAP) too often or for too long it will lose its effectiveness.
REMEMBER: with high CNS stimulation comes higher risk for fatigue.
5. Take into consideration the TYPE of movement your athletes perform (reactive
vs. static to dynamic). As they near their peaking phase use the type of jump
movements that most closely resemble their athletic needs.
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JUMPS LANE
b. Can be used all year and as a prep method for more intense jumps to come
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JUMPS LANE
a. Moderate intensity
d. Jump as high as possible but not at the expense of being on the ground longer
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JUMPS LANE
a. Moderate intensity
d. Jump as high as possible but not at the expense of being on the ground longer
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JUMPS LANE
4. Hurdle hops
a. Set as high as you can but still have great performance by athlete
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JUMPS LANE
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THROWS LANE
Choose one option for each upper body day. Do not perform the same movement more
than once per week.
Do 3-6 sets of 5. Starting eight to ten weeks out from your peaking phase you should pair
your throws with your Dynamic and Max Effort movements. Post-Activation Potentiation
(PAP) is a great tool but should not be drawn on all year long. Again, save your ace cards
for when you need them.
b. Reach up tall
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THROWS LANE
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THROWS LANE
b. Start seated
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THROWS LANE
c. On the last rep throw the ball as high as you can in the air
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THROWS LANE
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THROWS LANE
PLYOMETRIC OPTIONS
2. These methods are very stressful on the athletes. We use them sparingly
and typically save them for when the athletes most important competition is
approaching IF this is the stimulus they need. Not all athletic activities are
reactive in nature. Some require maximal acceleration from a static position
3. Start low intensity and volume and build your way up. Typically, do not increase
volume more than 20% week to week.
4. These are usually paired with our max effort work and dynamic effort work in
a super set fashion to take advantage of post activation potentiation (PAP). We
usually only pair our jumps/throws lane when we start our peaking cycles. If you
draw on a resource (PAP) too often or for too long it will lose its effectiveness.
REMEMBER: with high CNS stimulation comes higher risk for fatigue.
5. Take into consideration the TYPE of movement your athletes perform (reactive
vs. static to dynamic). As they near their peaking phase use the type of jump
movements that most closely resemble their athletic needs.
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THROWS LANE
c. SNAP it off your chest and fully extend arms as rapidly as possible
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THROWS LANE
a. use hips and abs to throw ball into wall as hard/ fast as possible
c. repeat throw
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MAX EFFORT LANE
In our system, we stuck with bench variations for max effort movements. This is not
to say you could not do some overhead variations but for our athletes I felt it was best
to keep the extra stress off of their shoulders and play it safe. Below are some of the
more popular movements that we utilized. By using all bench variations the cuing and
movement criteria are basically the same. To review these see the ‘BENCH’ chapter. We
would use accommodating resistance whenever possible. Also use fat bars and football
bars to get more variation in the athletes training. Remember, we want to be stronger in
more unfamiliar planes, pressures and angles.
Common Movements:
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
1. Speed Squats
a. Wide stance
b. To a parallel box
c. CUES
i. SET UP
2. “Chin up”
ii. DESCENT
1. “Stomach out”
2. “Knees out”
iii. ASCENT
2. “Head back”
3. “FAST”
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
b. SUMO CUES
i. Setting up:
iii. “squat up pull back” – for kids that tend to ‘RDL’ the weight up
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
b. CONVENTIONAL CUES
i. Setting up:
3. “squat up pull back” – for kids that tend to ‘RDL’ the weight up
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
4. Kettlebell Swings
b. Roll knees out. Do not fight the weight down. Just let it go.
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
b. Match total volume (sets x reps) of speed squats and speed pulls on the belt
squat
c. CUES
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DYNAMIC EFFORT LANE
1. Speed Bench
b. Vary grips
c. CUES
1. “Elbows first”
2. “Stomach up”
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MAX EFFORT LANE
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MAX EFFORT LANE
2. Pull Variations
a. Cuing and movements are the same as the speed pull variations. Simply match
the stance for correct cuing and movement patterns.
3. PULLS
a. Conventional out of a rack off pins or off of boxes
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ACCESSORY LANE
1. Train each set to positive failure. When the reps start to look like shit, cut the
set. This being said, if the workout says 8 reps and 8 is easy; keep going until
it’s awful. The rep ranges are only guides, muscle fatigue is priority. You have to
put work in on these!
2. In general, increase your volume from week to week. If the set range is 3-6 start
week 1 with 3 sets. Week 2 will be 4 sets, etc. This slowly builds tolerance to
an increased work capacity and runs opposite of the dynamic work (decreases
volume). By doing this you will get the athletes in better shape still allow for
adaptation without over training.
3. In this section, we will cover some of the more popular movements we did and
had success with. These are not set in stone. You need to decide what is best
for YOUR athletes. This is what worked for us.
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ACCESSORY LANE
b. Then with the same exercise, reduce the weight to 80% of what you hit
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ACCESSORY LANE
2. Close stance or wide stance Good morning with same bar and resistance as max
effort movement
a. 3 x 3-8
b. Use the stance OPPOSITE of what your max effort movement was
c. If your max effort squat was a wide stance, do a close stance good morning
with the same bar and resistance as the squat movement
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ACCESSORY LANE
b. Dumbbells or barbell
c. Close stance
d. Wide stance
vi. Look straight ahead if athletes is having trouble keeping back straight
iv. Save these for your more advanced lifters – if they can’t do a regular RDL,
DO NOT prescribe these
a. We use these more often than a forward lunge because they take a ton of
pressure off of the knees
b. Use a bar, DB, specialty bar, sand bag, chains on neck….
e. Bend back knee and drop down until thigh is parallel to the floor
f. Roll front knee out slightly as athlete drops down into lunge
g. Keep chest up
i. Alternate feet
a. If performing the jumping variation do them on dynamic day and keep weight
light. Jump height and speed off floor is more important than weight!
b. Big step out forward so knee stays behind ankle
c. Bend back knee and drop down until thigh is parallel to the floor
d. Roll front knee out slightly as athlete drops down into lunge
e. Keep chest up
b. Reach hips back and lean forward until you’re on the box
e. Without rocking come of the box as fast and forceful as you can
a. Step front foot out so heel is in line with back foot toe
g. Lower until athlete gets a good stretch in the glut and hamstring of front foot
ii. Advanced – reach back leg out behind you, don’t let it touch ground
c. Keep chest up
i. Alternate legs
b. Typically done with opposite stance as the max effort movement that day
c. Movement is the same as a regular squat. See “SQUAT’ chapter for review
d. Also, popular in our system when we did time specific squats for track events
ISOLATION MOVEMENTS
ADDUCTORS
HAMSTRINGS/ ADDUCTORS
HIP FLEXORS
GLUTES
UPPER BACK
Upper back movements (vertical rowing) movements are being done on lower body days
in an effort to traction the spine after squatting and pulling variations.
1. Pull up
a. pull shoulder blades together and down before pulling
b. vary the grip at least every two weeks
c. wide
d. narrow
e. neutral (palms facing)
f. close grip neutral grip
g. wide grip neutral grip
h. towel grip
i. fat grip
UPPER BACK
UPPER BACK
UPPER BACK
UPPER BACK
1. Train each set to positive failure. When the reps start to look like shit, cut the
set. This being said, if the workout says 8 reps and 8 is easy; keep going until
it’s awful. The rep ranges are only guides, muscle fatigue is priority. You have to
put work in on these!
2. In general, increase your volume from week to week. If the set range is 3-6 start
week 1 with 3 sets. Week 2 will be 4 sets, etc. This slowly builds tolerance to
an increased work capacity and runs opposite of the dynamic work (decreases
volume). By doing this you will get the athletes in better shape and still allow for
adaptation without over training.
3. In this section, we will cover some of the more popular movements we did and
had success with. These are not set in stone. You need to decide what is best
for YOUR athletes. This is what worked for us.
b. Then with the same exercise, reduce the weight to 80% of what you hit
d. Keep your torso as neutral as possible, try not to lean back too much
e. Squeeze the dumbbell out of the bottom, don’t jerk them. Keep the motion
smooth
ii. This will stimulate your ext. rotators and take stress off the front delt
area
iii. Don’t let the band pull your hands inside of your elbows
b. Cuing and movement for this lift is basically the same as a regular bench
a. Incline
b. Floor press
d. Presses for time – try 10% for 1 minute (300lb bencher uses 30lb dumbbells)
i. Palms facing
iii. Put a doubled micro mini band around your wrists to alleviate shoulder
pain
SHOULDERS
a. Double a micro mini band and put it around your wrists while performing any
dumbbell pressing movement
b. Do not let the band pull your hands inside of your elbows
c. This will help alleviate anterior deltoid/ bicep tendon pain while pressing
TRICEPS
TRICEPS
a. Set up like a dumbbell bench but your palms face your feet
d. Touch chest
TRICEPS
TRICEPS
b. 8 reps to forehead
c. 8 reps to chin
TRICEPS
TRICEPS
TRICEPS
MID/LOWER BACK
Rowing to your stomach or lower chest will put less stress on the shoulders than any of
the upper back or vertical pulling variants mentioned before. This is part of the reason
we programmed them on upper body days, to give the shoulders a break.
MID/LOWER BACK
1. Cross Body Scap Rows 3-6 x 10-15 – these came about because for years I would keep
my scapula totally retracted/ depressed for ALL rowing movements. Then, I realized I
was missing out on some upper back development and scapula mobility by not letting my
scapula protract during the eccentric phase of my rowing movements. With the athletes
make them master the retraction/depression before implementing these. Once they get
this, mix in both variations.
a. High row w/ a band or cable
b. Low row w/ a band or cable
c. Low on a reverse hyper
d. start rowing motion by retracting scapula
e. on eccentric let scapula protract (roll out)
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
MID/LOWER BACK
Typically, we would do sagittal plane movements on our lower body days and rotational
or oblique type movements on our upper body days. This was more for organizational
purposes than anything. In your program just make sure you are training many variations
of abs. Most abs are weighted, unless athlete isn’t ready. Do 4 x 25 or 100 total reps for
all ab work.
3. Hanging abs
a. hang from bar or use arms slings
b. raise knees to chest
c. lower legs slowly
d. aim feet slightly in front of body to avoid swinging
e. keep elbows in front and down to keep stress off shoulder
5. Landmine abs
a. interlock fingers
b. arms straight as possible
c. turn hips with shoulders
d. bend back knee
e. back heel comes off floor
f. rotate until bar is on thigh
g. pull back with stomach
h. alternate sides
7. GHR sit-ups
a. set roller height and depth so legs are straight while butt is on rounded pad
b. flex abs
c. lay back until body is parallel with floor
d. flex abs to come back up to start position
9. Ab wheel
a. keep arms straight
b. flex abs
c. roll out as far as possible, should try to put nose on floor
d. keep stomach tight
e. start back motion with abs THEN arms
f. do a crunch in the top to get extra contraction
g. can add a band around athlete’s waist to assist if they can’t do them unassisted
3. Dead hangs
a. hang from a bar and relax shoulders
b. let shoulders go up into ears
c. hang for a total of 60 – 90 seconds
Notice we have almost finished the book without mention of bands and chains.
Accommodating resistance is a very powerful tool but it is not necessary to implement
with the Conjugate method. Just because someone uses bands or chains does not mean
they train conjugate or vice versa. This is just like saying you follow the Charlie Francis
method because you do some medicine ball throws in your training. Accommodating
resistance is one of the many tools that help make the system great, it does not however
make or break it.
In our system, we put them into play within the first 3-4 weeks. Many would say you
shouldn’t use these methods with beginners. They say the athletes aren’t ‘ready’ for
them. I understand some athletes may not be the best lifters but if the bands or chains
put the athletes that much further from being able to squat correctly then you have
much bigger worries than accommodating resistance. Putting the correct amount of
accommodating resistance on the bar does not make the movement much more difficult,
it simply gives your athlete an opportunity to recruit more motor units and become more
explosive at a faster rate; efficiency. Our thought is, why wouldn’t we want our athletes
to learn to accelerate through the full range of motion of a lift? Without chains or bands
your brain will tell your muscles to slow down and not push as hard as you reach the end
ranges of motion. Would you want your wrestler to slow down half way into a double leg?
I sure as hell wouldn’t! Unfortunately, to the detriment of their athletes, some coaches
can’t wrap their brains around this. It has nothing to do with lock out strength or sticking
points when dealing with athletes. All we have to do is scale the chains and bands
accordingly to the athlete's strength level and we can start taking advantage of this
powerful training tool from the get go.
It’s not overly important that you know the exact tension of every band setup. That being
said, you do need to have a consistent setup for your bands that will give you the same
tension every time. This setup should give you tension similar to those that have been
consistently used in the Conjugate model.
In the video below we demonstrate how we set-up our bands for squatting in a standard
power rack so that they match the tensions in the monolift.
This video also shows how to correctly line up your box with your bands.
5. Record weight
After you use the above technique, use this formula to calculate your band tension:
(Total weight on scale) – (your body weight) – (bar weight) = band tension.
Here is what your approximate tension should be. Once your setup is correct for one set
of bands, it will be correct for all the rest. Keep in mind these are for the squat.
If you’re anything like me, when people start talking about percentages and other
various mathematical terms, my brain seems to shut down. I’ll be honest; I started
following the Conjugate Method in the early 2000’s and it wasn’t until about 2008 when
the percentages in band tension that Louie talks about started clicking in my head. I DO
remember a chart that elitefts put out as sort of a cheat sheet for using bands in your
training for various strength levels. Guess what, I followed the chart in my own training
and my lifts went up. Weird.
Below is a similar chart for tensions and movements with some modifications that
have worked well for our athletes. Keep in mind, this is just general dynamic effort
work and not when we are peaking for any competition. These are also guidelines, not
commandments of the weight room that will cause lightning strikes if not followed.
Chains are the other half of the accommodating resistance equation. Chains differ from
bands in that they do not pull you down faster than gravity. In short, they slow you down
(during the lift, not in your development). Bands tend to speed you up during the lift
because of the accelerated gravity effect. Typically, we would utilize chains more often
in the off-season because of what we just talked about. Also, the athletes are worse at
them because they can rely less on speed and have to use more strength. Then as we
get closer to competition bands receive more priority because they make you faster than
chains. This being said, you should never switch to one exclusively. A good guideline
would be off season alternate bands and chains every other week. As you approach your
season and speed becomes more of a priority use a bands: chain ratio of 2:1 or 3:1.
Chain Guidelines:
Chains are ~20lbs each
Bands and chains can also be used as a way to make your accessory work more
challenging and simply add needed variation to your movements. For your athletes, it’s
not about fixing sticking points but more so keeping their bodies guessing.
Examples:
- Hanging KB bench
GPP TO SPP
Our peaking usually start peaking our kids 12 weeks out from their big competition.
All this meant is we started looking at the training lanes and started thinking more
about moving all of them from general physical preparedness to specific physical
preparedness. There are different ways to set this up, the important part is you have
to look at each lane and start to have more rhyme and reason as to why you are doing
each movement. In the off season for 99% of the kids you work with you can simply plug
movements into the daily workout master sheets and they will make great progress
because all of the major sporting traits we are after are accounted for. THEN, when
you’re 12 weeks out have a plan ready to go. This plan doesn’t have to be set in stone
just have an idea of where you are headed, you’re going to have to change as you go
anyway. Use the lanes section of the book (print them out) and program each lane
independently but keep in mind how they will affect each other. For example; squats,
jumps accessories all have their own programming scheme but you have to account for
how they will affect each other. This is one of the greatest lessons powerlifting taught
me. If you haven’t planned for a meet or competition you are missing out on a great
advantage. Being a competitor myself, took years off of my learning, and allowed me to
experience what my athletes were experiencing. When it’s time to start peaking get a
calendar out and work your way backwards from your big competition day.
Typically, our athletes will do a squat cycle going into their conference meet modeled
after the infamous circa max phase popularized by Westside Barbell. Circa max just
means near-maximal weights, in this case referring to a weight close to the lifter’s best
competition squat. I don’t know or care what their best straight bar squat is as long as I
know they are getting stronger. Most of the time when we hit circa max, everyone has a
personal record.
The setup and timing is based on the theory of delayed transformation or super-
compensation. Very simply, this theory suggests that what you train will show up three
weeks later. This is why the hardest day is done three weeks out from the big meet. Not
only have I seen this work in practice but I have also witnessed it work in reverse. If
an athlete stops training or starts using an inferior training program, it’s usually around
three to four weeks that they start feeling like shit. I have also seen overtraining work
this way. Just like clockwork, three to four weeks in after too much stimulation (volume,
too much high-taxing movement selection, not enough recovery, etc.) on the kids, they
start falling apart.
Guidelines
• Use a rackable cambered bar. There is no point beating your kid's shoulders up if you
don’t have to.
• Almost double your normal band tension. Typical band use is one blue (for around 200
pounds) while circa max band use is a blue and a grey (for around 350 pounds).
Week 1
• Make this your max effort day (approximately 21 days out from your big meet).
• For speed day this week use the cambered bar and the same band tension.
• Use approximately 30% of the bar weight you got on max effort day (if the sets are
slow you can decrease bar weight).
• Pair each work set with three reps of a box jump variation. Pick a jump you feel is
closest to your sport in muscle action (reactive, iso to dynamic). Rest one minute
before squatting again.
Week 2
• Max effort day at 14 days out can be any squat or pull variation.
• If kids seem like they aren’t too beat down, do a true max effort day. We will usually
take a true max effort. We still have two weeks to recover.
• If they are looking beat up, tired, and lethargic then take them up to what feels like
80% of a max (eight points on a scale of 10).
• Speed day this week is cambered bar and same band tension as week one.
• Approximately 30% of the bar weight you got on max effort day (if the sets are slow
you can decrease bar weight).
• 6 x 2
• Pair each work set with three reps of a box jump variation. Pick a jump you feel is
closest to your sport in muscle action (reactive, iso to dynamic). Rest one minute
before squatting again.
• Take the lesser band off. For example, if you were using a grey and a red in weeks one
and two, take the red off.
• Approximately 30% of the bar weight you got on max effort day (if the sets are slow
you can decrease bar weight).
• 4 x 2
• Pair each work set with three reps of a box jump variation. Pick a jump you feel is
closest to your sport in muscle action (reactive, iso to dynamic). Rest one minute
before squatting again.
We normally build the volume on the accessory work each week or add sets. Since
this cycle is so taxing we keep all the sets moderate in number (three to four sets). On
meet week, we may decrease them as low as two if the athletes need it. Most of our
accessory movements are also not very taxing (such as reverse hyper as opposed to
Romanian deadlift).
There it is, the mythical circa max phase broken down and applied to athletes!
Scoreboard MFs!
When I first started coaching I would force the athletes to delaod every fourth week.
Over the course of a couple years I got away from this due to athletes feedback. They
didn’t like it and felt it was holding their progress back. Now we build the volume on
accessories in weeks 1 to 3 then start back at low volume on the 4th week. For Dynamic
work weight is increased in weeks 1 to 3 then on week 4 it is dropped back down. This
works pretty well for built in deloads. The max effort work usually doesn’t need deloaded
unless they start looking like someone shot their dog when they walk in the weight room
for a few days in a row. The BEST indication you need a deload is your indicator kids.
These are the kids who come and train hard every day. If they start looking like they
need a down week then stick a delaod in. On deload weeks keep them doing something.
Usually taking out max effort work for a week and keeping the volume low on dynamic
and accessory work did the trick for us.
Max Effort work - movements are varied weekly. A change in week is separated by a /
in the log. Accessory work on these days are typically lower volume but more taxing
movements for us.
Repeated effort work - movements are varied every 3 weeks. A change in week is
separated by a / in the log. You will see the weekly volume changes here. Typically we
try to push the pace on these to help build work capacity.
Speed work - Usually, not always, this matches the Max effort movement for the week
on lower body. The percentages are just guidelines. For example, if you think you’re
going to get 4 plates on that week's max effort movement, you can use 205lbs on the
corresponding speed day. I stole this from Donnie Thompson and it has worked really
well for us. The reps should be fast, we want some pop on the bar. Upper body is
typically bench. Accessory work on these days are typically higher in volume but less
taxing movements for us.
Variations from week to week in movements and sets x reps are separated by “/”
Our emphasis is starting to shift this week. We want the guys to be faster so that is the
emphasis on our main movement. Think of the transition as going from strength-speed
to speed-strength. While this is not exactly by definition what we did, we followed this
trend. In the last block we were using two plates on each side of the belt squat with one
band on. In this phase we’re going to use one plate on each side and two bands. So, we
decreased bar weight but are increasing bar SPEED because this is our priority. When
you follow the appropriate loading more bands will make you faster. We like to follow
this trend on any of our sports where speed is our priority going into the most important
competitions of the year. While there are no absolutes in programming you do have to
have an idea of where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.
In the third wave, all of our accessory movements stayed the same. The weekly
adjustments will be separated by a / and be bolded. I’m also leaving the descriptions in.
This is also a good example of how the 3-day per week Conjugate template (4-
day plan while lifting 3xs/ week) can work very well. We›ve had a lot of success with this
model with a few of our teams. How it works is you just train whatever day you are on
when you come in. For example:
Week1:
Monday- ME upper
Wednesday - DE lower
Friday - DE upper
Week2:
Monday- ME lower
Wednesday- ME upper
Friday- DE lower
Etc....
Instead of labeling these by weeks I’m going to say wave because each wave was not
completed within a calendar week.
Day 2: Speed Lower
1. Dynamic Warm up
2. seated abduction - doubled up mini band- 80 reps
3. Seated box jump - 4x5 or 20 total / 5x5 or 25 total
Below is the third phase of a four-week training block for baseball. I am leaving Phase 1
and Phase 2 numbers in so we can see the progressions phase to phase.
The weekly changes will be bolded and separated with a «/.» Phase 3 sets and reps will
be in bold.
1. Single-Leg Back Extension: 3x10/4x10/ 4xfail
2. GHR: 3xFailure/4xFailure/ 4 x fail
3. Rollout Abs: 4xFailure/ 4x fail
4. Chin-Ups: 3x6-8/4x8 Dead Hang in Bottom (to traction shoulders and spine)/ 4x fail
- Hang in Bottom (to traction shoulders and spine)
5. Banded Hip Mobility
1. Bull Kicks: 3x20/4x20 (AKA Snoop Dogg Sets)/ 4x30 use light band
2. Prone Banded Hamstring Curl: 100 Total Reps/150 Total Reps/ 200 total reps
3. GHR Sit-Ups: 4xFailure/4xFailure with Band/ 4 x fail with weight
4. Wide Grip Lat Pulldown: 3x12, Slow Eccentric/4x12/ 5x 12
5. Groiners: 100 Total Reps/ 140 reps
186 Table of Contents
Pitchers