Establishing Strength Training Program Football(1)

7/27/2019 Establishing Strength Training Program Football(1)

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Establishing a Yearly Strength-Training Program for American Football

Shawn Dassie, MS, CSCS, NASM-PES, USAW

Director ofSports Performance and Fitness

360 Sports Performance and Health Club

As I have previously mentioned in my article regarding pre- and post-testing guidelines. Any

conditioning program must begin with an appropriate testing and evaluation process. This alsoholds true when developing a good strength program for any team. A baseline must be

established for each individual player to assess their particular starting point and ensure they

progress in a step-wise manner from that point. Without first determining each athletes startingpoint, how can a coach evaluate any progression in that athlete or assess the success or failure of

their strength program?

The first step in this evaluation process is to establish what lifts are specific to developingstrength and power in muscles and muscle groups specific to and involved in the movements and

skills associated with a football game. Skills such as sprinting, jumping, blocking, tackling, andthrowing are all skills essential in football and the exercises used in your strength-trainingprogram should try to follow the same sequential movement and recruitment patterns associated

with these skills to ensure that the movements mentioned above can be performed with balance,

coordination and power. Athletes should not be concerned with how they look, but rather howthey perform on the field; therefore, exercises that isolate certain muscles and provide a pump

and bodybuilding effect should not be the focus of your training, but rather a variety of multi-

joint exercises focusing on the muscle groups involved in sprinting, blocking, jumping, tackling,

and throwing should be employed. A good strength-training program should include explosiveexercises, exercises that build base strength, as well as accessory exercises used to isolate muscle

groups that aid in injury prevention and joint stability. The table below provides examples of

explosive exercises, base strength exercises, and accessory exercises specific to developing theexplosive power required in football.

Explosive Exercises Base strength exercises Accessory exercises

Power Clean Back Squat Leg Extension

Hang Clean Front Squat Leg Curl

Power Press Romanian Dead-lift Bench Press

Hang Snatch Standing Shoulder press Incline Bench Press

Power Press Good Morning Seated Shoulder Press

Forward Lunge Barbell Curl

Backward Lunge Triceps Extension

Side Lunge Back Extension45 Forward & BackwardLunge

Neck Machine

Clean Dead-lift Crunches

Shawn Dassie,

MS, CSCS,

NASM-PES,

USAWDirector of

Sports Performace

and Fitness360

Sports


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Now that proper exercise selection has been established, the coach can now formulate a testing

program to determine each athletes starting point. To gather the information needed to assignthe appropriate training load the coach has the option of determining the athletes:

1 RM Estimated 1 RM from a multiple-RM test (2-10 RM) Multiple-RM based on the number of repetitions performed (selecting a goal number of

repetitions)

For time restraint considerations, I suggest using a couple, if not all of these options to determine

each athletes starting load for a given exercise. My personal suggestion would be to perform a 1

RM test for a few base strength exercises and than use a multiple RM test or goal reps test forpower and accessory exercises. I know some of you out there are saying Are you crazy, I dont

have time for that. I once would have responded similarly, but once you have a valid testing

regimen and get it in place, you should be able to keep testing to an hour or so, with the help ofyour other coaches. The following is an example of a 1 RM testing protocol:

1. Have the athlete warm-up thoroughly (sweating) and than choose a resistance that easilyallows 5-10 repetitions.

2. 1 minute rest interval (RI)3. Estimate warm-up load that will allow the athlete to complete 3-5 reps by adding:

10-20 lb. or 5-10% for upper-body exercise 30-40 lb. or 10-20% for lower-body exercise

4. 2 minute RI5. Estimate a conservative, near maximum load that will allow the athlete to complete 2-3

reps by adding:

10-20 lb. or 5-10% for upper-body exercise 30-40 lb. or 10-20% for lower-body exercise6. 2-4 minute RI

7. Make a load increase by adding: 10-20 lb. or 5-10% for upper-body exercise 30-40 lb. or 10-20% for lower-body exercise

8. Instruct the athlete to perform 1 RM9. If the athlete was successful, provide a 2-4 minute RI and go back to step 7.If the athlete failed, provide a 2-4 minute RI and decrease the load by subtracting:

5-10 lb. or 2.5-5% for upper-body exercise 15-20 lb. or 5-10% for lower-body exercise

Repeat step 8.

Continue adding or subtracting the load until the athlete can perform one complete repetition

with proper technique. Ideally a 1 RM will be performed within 5 testing sets.

Adapted from: Earle, R.W. Weight-training exercise prescription. In:Essentials of

Personal Training Symposium Workbook. Lincoln, NE: NSCA Certification Commission.1999.


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Now that we have established proper exercise selection and a testing regimen, which has

produced baseline information on your athletes, we can address the annual strength-training plan. Again, the primary goal of this program should be to improve each

athletes on-field performance throughout the season by improving their upper and lower

body explosiveness. As you have discovered after testing and evaluating your athletes,

no two are created the same and in a perfect world, you could develop a program for eachand everyone of them, but with the time constraints often faced by high-school and

college level coaches, this is not possible. For this reason, each year should be divided

into subunits of training, all with different goals. Probably the best way to do this wouldbe to first divide the year into 3 parts; which include off-season training, in-season

training, and transition or rest periods. Typically major adaptations resulting from

training will only occur in the off-season period, which is also referred to frequently asthe building phase of training. The in-season period should only be considered as a

maintenance-training phase, where results and improvements gained in the off-season are

maintained to insure optimal on-field performance. The transition or rest phase oftraining is incorporated to allow the athletes to heal both mentally and physically from

the rigors of the competitive season. A sample year-round approach or periodizationmodel for football is listed below:

Football Periodization Model:

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

Transition Off-Season (Preparatory) Transition In-Season

Active Rest AA

(4)

Hypertrophy (10) MxS (6) Power

(4)

Peak

P-PE

(4)

Contact Maintenance

* Numbers in parenthesis represent number of weeks dedicated to phase of training

Off-Season Training

Phase 1 : Anatomical Adaptation (AA) training A good anatomical adaptation phaseshould utilize a circuit training (CT) routine which incorporates a wide variety of

exercises and devices, such as your own body weight, surgical tubing, medicine balls,light dumbbells and/or strength training machines. A circuit can be short (4-6 exercises),

medium (6-9 exercises), or long (10-12 exercises) and may be repeated several times.

Always consider each athlete's training status and work capacity when deciding ontraining duration and training load. The total workload of this training phase should not

cause pain or discomfort to any athletes, because the purpose of the anatomicaladaptation phase is to prepare the athletes physiological and neurological systems for theintense rigors of the training phases in the future. CT exercises should allow alternating

muscle groups to allow for better and faster recovery. Typically the rest intervals between

stations are between 60-90 seconds with 1-3 minutes between multiple circuits. Thisphase should constantly challenge each athlete's skills and, at the same time, should keep

them motivated, but always remember that the goal of any preparatory phase is to choose

exercises and training loads that develop the core area of the body, as well as the prime

movers. The following table presents training parameters for an anatomical adaptation

phase of training utilizing circuit training.


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Duration of AA (weeks) 4-6

Load (if weights are used) 30-60 % 1 RM

Number of stations per circuit 4-12

Number of circuits per training session 2-5

Total time of CT session 20-40 minutes

RI between stations 60-90 seconds

RI between circuits 1-3 minutes

Frequency of training 2-4 x/week

Phase 2 : Hypertrophy (HYP) training The hypertrophy phase of training consists ofhigh-volume, low-intensity workouts designed to develop muscle size, improve technique

of explosive lifts, and increase work capacity. For explosive lifts, only perform sets of 4-6 repetitions with 65-85% of 1 RM.

Duration of HYP (weeks) 8-10

Load (if weights are used) 65-85 % 1 RM

Number of sets / core (muscle) area 3-6

Number of reps / set 6-12

RI between sets 30 sec. 1.5 min.

Frequency of training 3-4 x/week


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Phase 3 : Maximal Strength (MxS) training The primary objective of the maximalstrength phase of training is to increase each athletes ability to recruit more muscle fiber

to give them a greater ability to move near-maximal to maximal loads, which in turn will

give them greater potential for generating power. Typically, no accessory movements

will follow this type of training, but should continue to be trained using the hypertrophyguidelines (6-12 reps @65-85% of 1RM).

Duration of MxS (weeks) 4-6

Load (if weights are used) 85-105% 1 RM


Number of reps / set 6

RI between sets 2-5 minutes

Frequency of training 2-4x/week

Phase 3 : Power (P) training The primary objective of the power phase of training isto increase each athletes ability to produce an even greater amount of muscle fiber

recruitment and therefore produce an even greater potential for generating power and

speed. More emphasis is placed on core exercises during this type of training withaccessory work focused on joint synergy and/or injury prevention.

Duration of P(weeks) 2-4

Load (if weights are used) 90-110% 1RM






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Phase 4 : Peak (P-PE) training The primary objective of the peaking phase of training

is to transfer all of the muscle strength, size, and power into speed. Complex training, ora combination of strength-speed work is done utilizing medicine ball training,

plyometrics, and explosive lifts in combination with strength training to produce an

optimal effect.

Duration of P(weeks) 2-4

Load (if weights are used) 50-80%





In-Season Training

Maintenance (Competitive Phase) Training - The primary objective of the

maintenance phase of training is to perfect all of the training factors; which enablesathletes to improve their abilities and thus compete successfully in their competitions.

Among the objectives of the competitive phase are to improve motor abilities and

psychological qualities according to the demands of their sport, to perfect and consolidatetechnique, and to perfect tactical maneuvers and gain competitive experience. The coach

should dedicate 2-4 sessions per week to maintaining the required strength to perform

optimally on the field during each competition. A general guideline to follow would be

to rotate MxS / P phases of training in an efficient and specific program suited to yourteam. Two to four exercises involving the prime movers (muscles involved when

performing tackling, sprinting, jumping, blocking, and throwing) should maintain

strength levels during the season.

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Establishing Strength Training Program Football(1)