Progressions and Some Ideas I have... Stolen

As a control freak I like to have as much of a workout planned out as possible. Especially nowadays with the internet and all the athletes who think they know better because they read something on a website that their buddy told them about. Or worse, something their personal trainer had them do because they read it somewhere on a website. Obviously, these 18-22 year old kids have so much experience. After all, lifting for 3-5 years has given them all the answers. In my efforts to control things, for their benefit, I've put together progressions for the core lifts I use. I've "stolen" the idea from two programs that have had a small amount of success - Ohio State and Alabama. Now, I don't know what the progression is from a percentage standpoint. I don't know how they arrived at their numbers, but that doesn't matter. What I like about it is the simplicity and order it provides. It completely takes the athletes' brain out of it. There's no more "warm-up how you feel like it" before you get to the main work. Everything is mapped out. I like this! After looking at each programs progressions I've made it my own. What I did isn't terribly complicated or all that groundbreaking. All I did was come up with a progression from warm-ups all the way to the last work set for each weight. So, if you Squat 315 or 500, I have every set mapped out for you from start to finish. I do a tremendous amount of 5's in my training. So, how do I adjust on a week to week basis? Simple! If you squat 315, obviously, that's your max. Week one I may have you use 285 as your max. Then, you simply follow my progression based off of that number as your max. This has its roots in Jim's 5/3/1 - a training max, of sorts. Here's my secret progression for a 315 max:

• Warm-up Set 1: 135x5
• Warm-up Set 2: 185x5
• Work Set 1: 205x5 (65%)
• Work Set 2: 220x5 (70%)
• Work Set 3: 235x5 (75%)
• Work Set 4: 250x5 (80%)

The warm-ups aren't based on percentages. I just fill them in as I see fit based on the first Work Set. Once the max gets to a certain point there will be an extra Warm-up Set. If I have an athlete that squat's 315 his first week Training Max might be 285. When he weighs in I'll tell him to based his numbers off of 285 today. It would look like this:

• Warm-up Set 1: 135x5
• Warm-up Set 2: 155x5
• Work Set 1: 185x5 (65%)
• Work Set 2: 200x5 (70%)
• Work Set 3: 215x5 (75%)
• Work Set 4: 230x5 (80%)

Week two would be based off of 300:

• Warm-up Set 1: 135x5
• Warm-up Set 2: 175x5
• Work Set 1: 195x5 (65%)
• Work Set 2: 210x5 (70%)
• Work Set 3: 225x5 (75%)
• Work Set 4: 240x5 (80%)

You'd be amazed at how many guys don't know their max off the top of their head. Football players usually do, but when it comes to basketball... It boggles my mind. This way, I can control what they're doing and save some time. We all know that kids excel with structure. And athletes NEED it. This is no industry changing idea. It just lays everything out for the lifts that I care about. How I'm putting this into motion is simple. I opened up my Xcel Spread Sheet icon and started punching around at the keyboard. I have Progression Sheets for everything that I want to track and control. I have a sheet for 5's (heavy days), 10/8/6/4/2 (repetition days), 3's (Hang Clean), 5/4/3/2/1 (peak - week before testing) and a Test Day Progression. The work on the front end is there. But, it wasn't that bad. I just decided to do it one day and it took me about 45 minutes to create the sheet, copy and paste it and fill in the numbers. My assistant did the little calculation to get the blanks to fill out the numbers based on the percentages (that stuff is way over my head). What I have is a very simple way for my athletes (men and women) to progress on the main lifts (Squat, Hang Clean, Power Clean, Squat Clean, Front Squat, Deadlift, Bench, Incline, Press). Squat, Bench and Press are all pretty simple to figure out.

• Hang Clean Max: Front Squat, Squat Clean, Power Clean, Deadlift
• 70% of Bench Max: Incline (I'm having my assistants play with this to figure out of this is a good way to guesstimate an Incline Max)

Hopefully, this makes sense. It makes sense to me, mainly because I made it up. As a control freak I want total control, but I also believe this will be a better way to get my athletes stronger. Too many kids think they know everything (and they don't) and do things their way. Well, their way is wrong, all the time. My way is right. Be right.