Football Training: Phase 2

No major changes to the plan I posted a week or so ago. The plan is working so there's no need for change. I did make a change to our light Squat and Bench work, as per the original plan. For 4 weeks we do 10/8/6/4/2 on our rep days. This is all organized with percentages and all that fancy stuff. For the next 4 weeks we'll do 4x5 (just like on the heavy day) except they'll use 10% less of their Training Max. So Week 5 will look like this: Monday (Rep Squat/Heavy Bench Day)

• Rep Squat: 4x5 using 75% of Max as Training Max
• Heavy Bench: 4x5 using 85% of Max as Training Max

Friday (Heavy Squat/Rep Bench Day)

• Heavy Squat: 4x5 using 85% of Max as Training Max
• Rep Close-grip Bench: 4x5 using 75% of Max as Training Max

These are the only real changes moving forward. We've had a few hamstring issues. No pulls and no missed running/lifting, but issues, nonetheless. Honestly, a huge reason for this is the guys are SO LAZY and they don't warm-up before we warm-up. This is something that never had to be told to me. If I felt tight I would ALWAYS do some stretching before we started warming up. This only made perfect sense to me. Apparently, kids nowadays don't grasp this concept even when they're told they NEED to do this. Couple this with the fact that they never come in to get stretched or to foam roll extra. Again, something that only makes sense. Yes, there's more. The guys that are banged up or dealing with some hamstring issues don't get treatment. This stupidity boggles my mind. Of all the really dumb things college athletes do, this may be one of the dumbest. In trying to do my part I've gone back over old programs to try to identify any changes I've made "accidentally". By accidentally I mean replacing an exercise with a new one to see if there's a positive benefit. On top of that I've been researching the reduction of hamstring injuries and all that fancy stuff. Turns out I'm doing everything that should be done. No surprise. However, I did notice one thing that caught my attention. We used to do A LOT of Single-leg Hip Extensions with a foot on a Dynamax Ball (glute work). For some reason I got away from this. I think it's because everyone talks about RDL's (we do them 2x a week), Leg Curls on Stability Ball (we do them 1x a week), Partner Glute Hams and Glute Ham Raises (we do them 2x a week), RFESS (we do them 1-2x a week, usually on Fridays). Basically, I'm doing all the right stuff. In looking at my old programs I will be bringing back the SLHE on MB to see if this helps. I'm dropping out Monday's GHR/PGH work and replacing it with these. I figure on Monday we have a whole week of lifting and running ahead of us. I'll start the week light on the hamstrings and finish on Friday (only a lifting day with the whole weekend ahead) with the GHR/PGH work. Hopefully I see an improvement over the next 4 weeks. I'll keep you posted. Otherwise, they seem to be making solid progress.