The most important thing to understand when developing a strength-training program is to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Programming specific lifts, for a certain number of reps, for a particular number of sets with no specific goal established limits the effectiveness of developing size and strength. Unfortunately, unfocused strength-training programs are a common occurrence. Basing a training program on what the winning teams are doing at the next level of competition or because it’s what has been done in the past is not efficient nor is it relevant: it’s simply taking the easy way out.
Individualizing a training program that addresses the general limitations of a team and works on developing the size and strength that is needed in a logical progressive manner is key to developing leaner, bigger, stronger and faster athletes. Many winning teams understand the importance of proper strength and conditioning and seek out qualified professionals to develop their training programs and individualize it to suit their teams’ needs.
Programs that are mass produced and downloadable from the internet certainly do not help matters. These programs may work in the short-term, but they will ultimately cease being effective because the designers of these programs have no idea what kind of imbalances athletes have as pre-existing conditions. Following a program that Arnold Schwarzenegger followed does not automatically mean you’re going develop a physique like his. The same can be said for mass-produced strength-training programs. They may have worked for some athletes, but it most certainly will not work for all of them. Any training program found on the internet promising to make your athletes bigger, faster and stronger, obviously, is trying to sell you something.
Before off-season training begins coaches should consult with or hire qualified strength coaches and spend the necessary amount of time carefully planning their annual training plan with a clearly defined goal. Qualified strength and conditioning coaches should have an educational background in an exercise related field and the higher their level of education the better. A qualified strength coach should also be a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. If a strength coach’s only qualification is that he/she played a collegiate sport, they are most likely not qualified to teach the fundamentals of program design.
Training Goal
When designing a training program the first thing that should be determined is the overall desired training goal: to increase size, strength, power, etc. The training goal influences all other loading parameters such as exercise selection, reps, sets, tempo (or lifting speed), and rest intervals. When the overall training goal has been decided a periodized training plan should then be developed that maps out how that training goal will be achieved.
Periodization is essentially the method by which the loading parameters of a training program are manipulated in order to ensure that athletes will perform their best when they need to. Periodizing an athlete’s annual training program is important because the different components of athletic performance can’t all be improved upon simultaneously. Attempting to improve too many components of fitness concurrently confuses the body as to what it is supposed to adapt to and performance suffers as a result. A periodized training program allows emphasis to be placed on the different components of fitness in sub-phases in a progressive manner where the progress made in each sub-phase is built upon in the next phase.
For example, at the beginning of the off-season athletes should be in a general preparation phase that should be aimed at balancing strength between muscle groups and between limbs, which better prepares athletes for the heavy compound exercises to follow. As the off-season continues athletes should begin working on functional hypertrophy and begin conditioning. Functional hypertrophy is characterized by an increase in muscular size with a corresponding increase in strength. As the season grows near, training should begin shifting towards increasing and maintaining maximal strength while also maintaining muscle size. As mentioned in a previous article (In-Season Training, Part 1) it’s important to maintain muscle size in season because a loss in muscle size precipitates a loss in strength.
No program should ever neglect in-season training. Strength coach Charles Poliquin tells the story of talking with a Division 1 football strength coach who knew of a team that made in-season workouts optional. That season the team who made in-season workouts optional suffered 11 torn ACLs. I recently read a post by a fellow Poliquin coach who said that a few of his football players, whose season recently ended, just set personal bests in the bench press. This achievement demonstrates that, when programmed properly, strength levels among athletes can actually increase while in-season. Increasing strength levels in-season has the added benefit of increasing confidence on the field.
Reps
Once an overall training goal has been determined, the correct rep brackets for the sub-phases need to be selected. The amount of weight that’s lifted in relation to an athlete’s one rep max on a lift dictates how much tension a muscle produces. The amount of tension imposed on a muscle directly influences the type of training response. For example, heavy loads used for 1-5 reps elicit increases in maximal strength with little increases in muscle mass. Reps of 6-20 with moderately heavy loads produces increases in muscle mass with little increase in strength.
There are two primary categories of muscle fibers: Type 1 and Type II. Type 1 fibers produce low levels of strength and power, but are very resistant to fatigue. Type I fibers are the kind of fibers that are often associated with long distance runners. Type II fibers can be further broken down into Type IIa and Type IIx . Type IIa fibers produce a higher level of strength and power than Type I fibers, but are not as resistant to fatigue. The Type IIa fibers are the predominant fibers in mid-distance running, like a 400 meter run. Type IIx fibers are the strongest and most powerful of the muscle fibers, but they also fatigue very easily. These are the fibers that enable an Olympic weightlifter to snatch 400+ pounds (overhead) in seconds. It is the Type II muscle fibers that a strength-training program for football should be aimed at developing.
For muscles to grow bigger and stronger the strength-training principle of overload must be applied. The overload principle is simple: if muscles are not overloaded they have no reason to grow bigger or stronger. Periodically overloading the muscles with heavy loads forces the body to recruit as much muscle mass as possible to produce force. This is a very important aspect of strength training because the number of reps performed heavily influences the training response. Football is a strength and power sport; therefore the majority of the training should be spent developing strength, power and functional hypertrophy.
A strength-training program should alternate between periods where the total volume of work (accumulation) is the stressor that the body adapts to and periods where the load lifted (intensification) is the stressor. Reps between 1-5 are ideal for developing maximal strength and reps between 6-12 are ideal for developing size. It is important to let the reps dictate the loads used because a specific load for a certain number of reps on one day may be too heavy or too light on another, but if the selected rep bracket is met the desired training effect will be achieved.
If an athlete is training for strength and is using a 3-5 rep bracket the weight selected should enable the athlete to complete 3-5 reps. If they can only complete 2 reps the weight is too heavy and if they can complete more than 5 reps the weight is too light. A 13-week periodized program to develop maximal strength could look like this:
Weeks 1-3: 5 x 5 reps (accumulation; on 3rd week only perform 3 sets)
Weeks 4-6: 6 x 2-3 reps (intensification; on 6th week only perform 4 sets)
Weeks 7-9: 6 x 3-4 reps (accumulation; on 9th week only perform 4 sets)
Weeks 10-12: 6 x 3,2,1,3,2,1 reps (intensification; on 12th week only perform 5 sets)
Week 13: active recovery
A 13-week periodized program to develop muscular size could look like this:
Weeks 1-3: 3 x 12-15 reps (accumulation; on 3rd week only perform 2 sets)
Weeks 4-6: 4 x 8-10 reps (intensification; on 6th week only perform 3 sets)
Weeks 7-9: 4 x 10-12 reps (accumulation; on 9th week only perform 3 sets)
Weeks 10-12: 4 x 6-8 reps (intensification; on 12th week only perform 3 sets)
Week 13: active recovery
The training goal and the number of reps selected should also dictate exercise selection. Exercises can be classified into 3 groups: complex skill, compound movements and isolation exercises. Complex skill exercises, such as clean and snatch variations or the front squat, involve multiple joints and performing excessive reps (more than 6) will bring about faulty technical and motor-learning changes, which basically means the body is learning the improper way to execute the movement. For example, performing more than 6 reps in the front squat will cause the rhomboids (a scapulae stabilizer) to fatigue before the quads or hamstrings. Complex skill exercises should be used to develop strength and power and performing more than 6 reps in these exercises means the loads used will be sub-maximal to elicit any kind of strength or power response.
Sets
The next step after choosing rep brackets for each sub-phase of training is the selection of the appropriate number of sets. There is an inverse relationship between sets and reps: the more reps per set, the fewer sets are needed and the fewer reps per set, the more sets are needed. Also, the more exercises per workout an athlete performs the fewer sets per exercise are needed. Performing multiple exercises without reducing the total volume of work means too much time is spent in the weight-room and this will eventually lead to overtraining causing performance to deteriorate.
Strength is best developed when performing multiple sets: 1-2 for beginners, 3-6 for intermediate athletes and as many as 6-12 for elite athletes, usually for 1-5 reps. Using maximal, or near maximal loads, when training for strength is very taxing on the nervous system. The nervous system takes at least six times longer to fully recover than the muscular system, which is why a thorough understanding of periodization and exercise physiology is important when designing strength-training programs. As the saying goes, fatigue masks fitness. In other words, overtrained athletes will never be able to demonstrate their true strength levels until they are fully recovered. This also explains how athletes can increase strength levels in-season with only 1-2 sets with maximal or near maximal loads.
Size is best gained when using 3-6 sets for 6-20 reps per set. When training for size the loads used will be lighter than the loads used when developing strength. The relatively lighter loads used when training for size allows more reps per set to be performed, which is more taxing on the muscular system. The adaptation of the muscular system to the higher volume of work with relatively lighter loads is why these parameters are best suited for increasing muscular size.
Strength coach Charles Poliquin uses the principle of the “critical drop-off point”, which is when an athlete reaches a 5-7% drop in performance. The drop-off point can be identified when an athlete has to reduce the load in order to maintain the selected rep bracket or there’s a drop of two to three reps in successive sets with a specific load. In both of the 13-week programs above performing fewer sets every third week reduces the total volume of work. This is known as an unloading week. Reducing the volume of work but maintaining the intensity, i.e. still using heavy loads for the prescribed number of reps, acts as built-in recovery providing the appropriate amount of stimulus, but not enough to overstress the nervous system.
If an athlete reaches the critical drop-off point before all of the prescribed sets are completed it’s time to move on to the next exercise or conclude training for the day. This concept is known as auto-regulation and simply describes the fact that every individual’s daily physiology changes slightly depending on the overall level of stress they’re under. How much sleep they’ve had, how much they’ve eaten, if they’re hydrated and how much “life” stress they’re under can all influence how an athlete will perform in the weight-room.
Having athletes keep track of how much weight they’re using, for how many reps of each set and monitoring their loads, reps and sets each week can provide critical feedback on when to back off of training. Forcing athletes through workouts when they’re not physiologically capable of performing or recovering is counterproductive and should be avoided at all costs. A strength training program should make athletes stronger not break them.
In conclusion, when developing a strength-training program you must understand exactly why you’re having athletes do what they’re doing. Defining an overall objective for the training program that is aimed at addressing the global limitations of the team and logically progressing reps and sets is crucial for continued size and strength development. Qualified professionals should be brought in to assess the limitations of the team and assist in the development of the annual training program in order to maximize the effectiveness of training, because after all, the bigger and stronger the athlete, the superior the athlete.
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For more information on program design or to schedule a consultation about program design contact me at cdellasega@darisports.com.
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