Summer Training Progression

This kind of ties in with the 3 articles on my Summer Football Training plan. I've fallen into this idea and I'm really liking it, in theory. The normal way to run a Main Lift cycle is:

• Week 1: 75%
• Week 2: 80%
• Week 3: 70%
• Week 4: 85%
• Reset numbers or bump percentages up 5% and repeat.

Make no mistake - this works, has worked and will work phenomenally well. The thought that was bouncing around in my head was, as the summer rolls on running volume increases because they have to be ready for camp/pre-season. If there's a whole week of 85% that's tough on the body. They can handle it and people have handled it just fine for decades. What if I have a "heavy day" each week on a different lift? This way we don't test one week. We test over 3 weeks. In theory, a little less of a beat down on the body and the potential to not have to "worry" about the running volume being the nail in the coffin, so to speak. Here's what I'll be starting next week with our guys on campus.

• Week 1: Hang Clean - 80%/Squat - 70%/Bench - 60%
• Week 2: Hang Clean - 60%/Squat - 80%/Bench - 70%
• Week 3: Hang Clean - 70%/Squat - 60%/Bench - 80%

With the Hang Clean we will work up to a strong 3 and I will watch all the heaviest sets and help them figure out what jump to make next and when to stop. Not truly 80% because I haven't had hands on for 5 weeks. But, we'll find a number that we can work with the rest of the cycle. If I had had hands on for the last 3 weeks 80% would work just fine. I have 9 weeks this summer. I'll add 5% to each number as we go through each cycle. Our final cycle will be at 90% for our "heavy day". You can figure out that Week 7 we'll test the Hang Clean and continue the workouts the rest of the week. Week 8 we'll test the Squat and Week 9, the Bench. The remainder of that workout will be a deload. The rest of the week will look "normal". I will also shorten the following days running a bit. For instance. Hang Clean test on Monday - Minimal Speed Work before (maybe 60% of the load) and maybe 70-80% of the load on Tuesday's Agility Work. Wednesday-Friday remains intact. Squat test on Wednesday - No run before Squat day. Tuesday (day before is normal). Thursday is 70-80% of the load for Agility Work, again. Monday and Friday are "normal". I hope I wrote that out well enough to be understood. To me, this is a sound idea. It makes sense. I can defend it. I can explain it. Nothing left but to try it and see how it goes. Looking forward to next week.