Got my season coming up from late April-September.

This journal will show my weights, sprints and agility, plyometrics and training.

If anything this journal is so people can give me ways to improve my training as ive still alot to learn.

At this point i would be into my strength and power and pre-season phase.

However ive sprained my MCL 5 weeks ago which has stopped me doing any lower body excercises, sprints and cardio is ristricted to rowing and a bit of bike. So im kind of inbetween my hypertrophy and strength, power phase

17 years old, 5'8", 172 lb's, BF ruffly 11%




Wednesday 18th March 2009

Power Hang Cleans - 60x6, 50x10, 55x8, 65x5 (reg clean from floor), 65x2

Power Snatch - 50x7, 50x6, 45x8, 55x3, 57.5x3

Wide Grip Pull up - 10*, 8*, 8, 9

Single Dumbell Row- 26x10, 28x8, 26x10

BOR - 50x15, 65x8, 65x9, 70x7


Cardio: Bike

1:30 80 rpm low/medium resistance

0:30 120rpm high resistance

repeat 8 times then cooldown on treadmill


*Side to Side

going to be an interesting one this. I assume key is explosive power in this sport? At least from how I see Americans train for this sport?

Good to see you putting this up Nick.

Guess there will some similarities to mine but shall be good to see any differences and the sprint, agility and plyo work.

kp1512 wrote:I assume key is explosive power in this sport? At least from how I see Americans train for this sport?

yeah, especially for certain players (lineman + runningbacks)

although to be a good football player you need everything; size, agility, strength, explosiveness and speed.

Although most football players in the NFL are only assigned 1 position in the team, in youth fooball you end up playing lots of different positions on all 3 side of the ball (offence, defense + special teams). I am one of the more experienced veterans this year so i will rarely get to leave the field unless I am injured, so cardio and quick recovery will be very important aswell.

Which position do you tend to play Nick?

Safety is where I have been playing

Friday 20th March 2009

Flat bench DB press - 38x8, 38x7, 42x4, 36x7, 36x6

Steep incline DB press - 26x11, 30x6, 28x9, 26x8

CG military press elbows in - 55x12, 65x6, 60x7, 60x6

Flat bench DB alternate press (each arm) - 26x6, 26x6, 24x8, 24x7

Push Press - 50x6, 50x5, 55x3, 45x6, 40x7


Shoulders are killing me.
First time i'de us the 42's for flat bench so happy with that.
the alternate press was a new one. gonna take a wee bit of getting used to.
good seshion tho.

physio said i should be running in a straight line by the end of next week aswell so thats good.

Saturday 21st March 2009

Decided to do some core and a some light legs.

A1 Leg Raises - 15, 10, 11
A2 Reverse hyper extension - 10x11, 10x11, 10x11

Side bend - 12x11, 12x8, 12x8

Cable rope crunches - 73x12, 79x9, 79x8

Squat - 50x9, 50x12, 50x12

Straight leg deadlift - 50x10, 50x10, 50x10

Single leg split squat - bwx10, bwx10


Leg raises were done on a decline bench with my head at the high end.

Hyper extensions were with a plate held out infront and then when i couldnt get anymore, i would bring it in to my chest.

Havnt done rope crunches before and wast a big fan. It was hard but wasnt really feeling it at all.

Side bends were done with the back extension thing. dunno what its called

Squats felt alright. My right knee felt a little weak especially if i went to far below parallel.

Deadlifts didnt bother my knee at all but i could feel it in my lower back big time from the hyper extensions.

Again single leg squats felt fine on with my right knee forward, but tried it the other way round and it didnt feel right so i only did it on my right leg.

Might be a good idea to use knee sleeves while your MCL is healing Nick.

Problem with Rope Crunches is that it's far too easy to work Hip Flexors rather than Core.

If you're doing the basic compounds and Front Squats then you'll be working your Core pretty well as it is so perhaps Planks would be a decent alternative.

Richard, cheers. I guess im gonna need one when i go back to contact aswell so will invest.

And thanks alex. Was never a big fan of planks but i'll give them another go


Tuesday 24th March

Arms and Legs

Smith Back Squats - 12x90, 10x100, 10x100, 10x95

RDL - 10x60, 10x80, 7x85, 8x80

Lunge - BW x10, 10x10, 10x10


A1 BB Curls - 40x9, 40x8, 40x5, 35x7
A2 Decline Skull Crushers - 40x12, 50x7, 50x6, 52.5x5

B1 Incline Hammer Curls - 18x8, 18x5, 16x8
B2 Cable Rope Press Down - 66x8, 59x7, 66x12*

C1 CG Chins - BWx6, BWx6, BWx8**
C2 Dips - BWx14, BWx11, BWx11


*done with a bar as someone hijacked the cable
** last 3 were negatives only.

Was only going about 70% on legs because of my knee but it felt completely fine.
Lunges i could feel it a tiny bit so kept it very light.

Long seshion tho and didnt have the best levels of energy so weights were not quite as heavy.

Wednesday 25th March

Side Bend - 26x16, 32x12, 36x11

Plank - 100s, 75s, 70s

Reverse Hyperextension - 10x15, 10x12, 10x14

Cardio

Bike: 3 min light warmup

1min, medium-high resistance, 110-120rpm
1min, easy resistance, 70-80rpm

X 10

5 min cool down on cross trainer


I had the most insane leg pump after the bike! Felt like I was floating when i walked.

Friday 27th March

A1 Power Snatches - 50x10, 60x3, 55x6, 50x8
A2 Smith Flat Bench Clap - 60x11, 65x10, 70x7, 60x9

B1 Wide Grip Pull Up - 10*, 8, 5, 6
B2 Dips - 11, 9, 9, 10

C1 The Exercise - 40x8, 40x7,40x6

D1 Single DB OH Press - 16x6, 16x8, 16x6

* side to side


Didnt have alot of time in the gym today so got some fun supersets going.

Snatches felt alot cleaner today. Starting to get the hang of them.
Saw the smith bench claps in Alex's journal and decided to give them a go. Good alternative to use
Was originally going for side to side pull ups, but after 2 reps in the second set i could really feel it. Supersets were propper raping me today.
Dips were done 4 sec neg and 1 sec pause at the bottom and really went deep and leaning forward to try hit the chest more than my triceps.

The Exercise - This is a power clean, push press, bring the bar behind neck and squat. Explode back up and press the bar back up and lower. Very very tiring!

Nick.O wrote:
C1 The Exercise - 40x8, 40x7,40x6

The Exercise - This is a power clean, push press, bring the bar behind neck and squat. Explode back up and press the bar back up and lower. Very very tiring!

WOW! I'm not surprised you find this tiring! That was an absolutely awesome session. Makes me wanna go train.

Saturday 28th March

Weights

Bench Press - 90x8, 95x5, 100x3/4, 90x4, 80x7

Incline Flyes - 16x10, 16x10, 16x10, 16x9

DB Pullins - 12x8, 12x8, 12x7

DB Ischemic Curls - 12x10, 14x10 (14x6), 12x6, 10x10, 10x10, 10x10

Decline EZ Bar skull crushers - 40x12, 45x5, 45x4, 40x7, 40x6, 40x5

Cardio

5 min warmup on treadmill

Bike: 30s 150rpm
90s 80rpm
Level 7. Repeat 8 times.

5 min cooldown on treadmill.


Not the best session.

Bench always nackres me out very quickly. On the 100kg set the guy who offered to spot me yanked it off me when i stopped for a second on the 4th rep.

Everyone seems to be doing pullins so thought i'de give them a go. I found it very hard to keep my balance but really burnt out my lower abs.

Ischemic curls are bloody hard. Big mistake trying the 14kgs. Got 10 on my left arms but couldnt hold it up and could only manage 6 reps with my right arm.

Decline skull crushers were done with a very slow negative which made it ALOT harder.

Managed to get up to 14kph on the treadmill and only had a very very slight pain in the knee. Going to football training tomorrow and going to jog through most things to get back into the game and catching etc.

Nice choices in exercise Nick. Just wondering what your set/rep focus is a the moment?

I dont have a set rep amount. I always rep to failure. I have a vague idea where i wana rep to and then just adjust the weight accordingly.

With sets that changes depending on how i feel. Usually 3-4 per exercise tho

Sunday 29th March

Had training today. It was my first seshion back since i sprained my MCL. I didnt kit up so no contact was involved but I was suprised how strong my knee was. I started off only jogging in straight lines but i managed to run most drills at full speed. I got a slight dull pain that quickly went away when i cut in certain ways and if alot of pressure was involved.

Good training tho. Today was a defence and special teams session. On special teams I was longsnapping for most of this part and on defence I was working with the DB's (defensive backs) on coverage. In the scrimmage I was playing free safety and didnt have any trouble with my knee, and was getting used to a game situation again as well as reading the plays.

Going to do full weights this week with an upper/lower split with one session focusing on power and the other on strength. Also have training on Wednesday.

What have you found positive about repping to failure?

Ive always thought of it as if your repping 80kg for 10 reps when you could rep 100kg for 10 reps then your obviously not working hard.

I find it really burns out the muscles and leaves me feeling exausted.

Yes I can understand where your coming from but I have always thought that working to a structure on a % of your 1RM gives better and more measurable results. Also you can plan your phases better. Also I was reading on t-nation that repping to failure is not optimal as you want good quality reps at roughly the same speed for the best results and least fatiguing on the CNS.

This is what I have found, i'm not trying to lecture you or anything, just giving you my view on what i would do.

Yeah yeah fair enough cheers for that. To be fair i guess its what right for you and ive never really not trained to failure.

So what would you say the different guidelines are for % of your 1RM for different goals?

Yeh exactly its what body type you are etc. I have found though that working at specific phases at certain % of 1 RM make it easier to calculate if I am improving. For example if I wanted to put on a bit of size I would roughly do about 70% of 1RM at 10 reps in order to increase size. If I was looking for pure strength then 90% would be what I would work on for around 3 reps.

Ok awesome cheers for that mate . I'll have to have a look at putting it into my routine sooner or later.

Monday 30th March - Max Lower

Zercher Squats - 50x10

Front Squats - 50x10, 70x5, 75x4, 75x4

SLDL - 85x8, 100x5, 105x5, 110x5, 100x4

Glute Ham Raise - 8, 7, 6

Smith Back Squat - 110x3, 115x3, 125x2, 130x2, 140x1

10 min cooldown on bike.


Was planning to do back squats first but my gym doesnt have a squat rack and the smith being used the whole time.

Thought i would give zercher squats a go to see what they felt like but couldnt get any decent weight without using the bench rack which someone was using aswell. So did front squats by power cleaning it up.

Glute ham raise were a killer!
Considering I hadnt really done any legwork in the last 6 weeks and they were at the end of the sesh, i was pretty happy with the squats!