2x Week Programming question for teenage female

[Tank50]

I have a 6th grade daughter who began training using the SS LP last summer. (She is in the proper tanner stages for training). She took a break in the fall/winter during basketball season, but now wants to get back to training. We have determined that training 2x a week would be best for her and doable within our family schedule. Although I understand this is not “optimal” for her training, it is realistic for us at this time.

I plan to have her squat each workout at prescribed and deadlift each session initially until we add in power cleans and alternate those.

My real question involves the pressing exercises. If she alternates presses with bench, I am concerned that she would have a hard time making progress because of the 1x a week frequency on these lifts. Would it be better to just press each workout and not bench, thus pressing 2x a week? Or, stick with alternating and just micro load as necessary?

Goals are general strength and athletic performance ( particularly basketball).

Thanks in advance for your insight.

[Satch12879]

I would say, yes, alternate and fractionally load as necessary, probably right away. You need the development from both sets of exercises. Pushing off an opponent is just as important as reaching for a rebound. You may end up going to pressing and benching twice a week sooner than later.

[Maybach]

Yeah the heavy weight on the bench is going to be incredibly important. That's the real struggle with upper body programming for female trainees: getting the weight heavy enough that their body pays attention, and the bench is invaluable tool to that end. Like Satch said, if you find pressing volume lagging, you can just press AND bench each session. Don't be afraid to switch to triples early. She;s athletic so she might go with fives for a while but pretty much as soon as the upper body lifts start to look wobbly.

[Tank50]

Ok guys. Sounds like doing both is the way to go. That makes sense about including bench since it is weighted heavier. If needed, we will see if we can fit both per session.

When we switch to triples, we would use 5 sets of 3, correct?

[Colby]

I'm having to do the same thing with my freshman (14) son, who is currently in lacrosse season.

It looks like Mon/Fri are going to be our best days to train...so I'm thinking of programming the presses like:

Mon- Bench
Fri - Press
Mon- Press
Fri - Bench

Repeat.

Any concerns with this approach?

[Maybach]

Yes, triples for five sets. The 15 rep "target" is important to keep in mind.

Colby: I don't know why you would stagger them like that. Why not just alternate bench and press? Eleven days without ANY heavy weight (on a double press interval) is a long time.

[Tank50]

Yes. We’ll be hitting those 15 reps. Thanks.

We’re getting started this week.

[TommyGun]

My son and daughter are in college now but it seems like yesterday they were that age and I had them under the bar.
Amazing times, but it’s not easy. For my son I had to reprogram the typical boy mentality of junk volume.
For my daughter, and this may be typical of teenage girls, I really had to hit home how important eating enough was.

Introducing Your 14 and 15 Year Old To Strength Training: One Parent’s Experience and Advice | Tom Bailey