You can train 2x/week in-season -- if you'll eat. At 5'9" you need to weigh 240-245. You'll be very hard to handle at that bodyweight with a 550 squat and a 600 deadlift.
Hi Rip,
I play d2 College football (Running back), I've been "lifting" for years but never made much progress until I stumbled upon your work last year. My numbers are as follows:
Age - 20
Hieght - 5' 9"
Weight - 215
Vertical - 31"
Squat - 480
Deadlift - 535
Press - 225
Bench Press - 345
Power Clean - 275x2x7
My goal is to perform really well this season, transfer to D1 next year, and then make the NFL. I'm less athletic than the average nfl running back but I feel like I can get a lot stronger and that can be my x factor. There's not a whole lot of time, so I'm wondering if there is any way I can increase my squat and deadlift in season, and what programming for that would look like. I believe your current suggestion is just to squat and deadlift once a week (or is it alternating weeks?) But I feel like I could probably squat 2x/week (Monday Volume Squat + Powercleans, Thursday Intensity Squat) and continue my linear progression like that and maybe just don't deadlift at all.
Thoughts?
You can train 2x/week in-season -- if you'll eat. At 5'9" you need to weigh 240-245. You'll be very hard to handle at that bodyweight with a 550 squat and a 600 deadlift.
You didn't ask me, but here on my thoughts nonetheless.
I assume you guys play most of your games on Saturdays...we play ours on Friday nights, but here is something that has worked well for my HS kids.
Monday - Squat, Bench and Deadlift
Wednesday - Squat, OHP and Power cleans.
Rep scheme as as follows:
Wednesdays are ALWAYS 6x2 using about 80% of maxes
Mondays start out at 6x2 then move to sets of 3, 4, 5 all at about 80% of max. Once you complete the 6x5 cycle, bump the weights up and repeat the process.
Open week(s) we lift on Friday at 6 sets at 1 rep higher than Monday's workout, unless it happens on a 6x5 week, in which case we bump the weights and start the process again. This is a simplified version of what we do. This has allowed us to get stronger in season and fall right into an off season program at the end of the season.
Here is my "why." The volume is the primary variable we manipulate here and it is harder to recover from than intensity. We don't increase both at the same time as a general rule. There is some leeway to manipulate the OHP and PC intensity as you move thru the season, as the volume remains constant to allow recovery for EOW game day. This is the biggest short fall of this "program" in my opinion.
We average a 5-10% increase in max in the upper classmen in-season and HUGE improvement in the underclassmen using this, while allowing full recovery for Friday night games. Which is impossible according to the current crop of high school coaches, yet we do it every year.
Full disclosure - we do NOT test 1rm at our school with the exception of the kids who participate in HS powerlifting, and I am basing my claims above on that data along with the 5 rep work sets the kids are able to handle coming out of the football season.