1 Rep Max vs. Conversion

It really depends on the athlete's "training age". For safety AND hypertrophy reasons, it is best for those with a young "training age" to work up to higher rep ranges, 5RM probably being the best. They won't be very efficient at the major lifts at this time so you don't want to go too low on the reps/too high on the intensity when technique is at this stage.

If the lifts are taught properly, eventually as the athlete's efficiency in a particular lift increases, you want to increase the intensity and go with the lower rep ranges. I would never go to a 1RM with a junior high athlete or even 99% of freshman and most sophomores. Use this time to:

1)Increasestrength in the trunk by using simple exercises that are easy to learn.
2)Increase work capacity and get them in shape to lift weights efficiently,
3)Increase muscle hypertrophy in the areas that will lead to better limit strength (triceps, hamstrings, glutes, trunk, shoulders).

For the athletes with a young training age, you can use the 1RM conversion charts as a guideline for planning the percentages used in working up to the 5RM, but I wouldn't really use it an actual estimate. A fast-twitch dominant guy may bench 225 and get 180lbs 4 times, whereas a slow-twitch guy may also bench 225, but lift 180lbs 7 times. According to a Conversion chart, the slow-twitch guy will have a higher max, but that won't necessarily be the case.

Jimbo

Interesting discussions here...

I certainly would agree that a coach has to be careful about the weight being lifted by inexperienced kids. With that being said, I do believe that a freshman or sophomore, especially one who has been lifting weights since 7th or 8th grade, can handle heavier or even maximum loads.

But less face it! Football is really not a sport that is dependent on absolute strength. In fact, the only sport that I can think of that IS dependent on absolute strength is the World's Strongest Man contest (because there is no weight classes). Even powerlifters have to compete in weight classes. So, I would argue that sports like football and powerlifting are far more dependent on relative strength much more so than absolute strength.

For example, let's say you have a kid who can squat 300 pounds to parallel with good form. Impressive? What if the kid weighs 300 pounds? What if he weighs 350 pounds? Is it really impressive then?

Football, IMO, is all about relative strength. As a general rule, If a kid is lean and strong, he is going to be fast. If a kid is lean but weak, he will not be as fast. If a kid is overfat but strong, he will not be as fast. That's why a 1RM, IMO opinion, is overrated for football players.

Now, that does not mean that doing a 1RM every few weeks is a bad thing. I think that letting capable kids try a 1RM can be a tremendous motivator.

I really like the BFS template because it is only vaguely dependent on a 1RM to show progress. Beating your 1RM is only 6 of some 48 records available to be broken each week. The other reason that I like BFS is that is not dependent on percentage of max at all. I remember in high school using a % of max program. You would do the math and find out that (for example) you were supposed to use 267 1/2 pounds on a set. Well, how the heck do you get 267 1/2 pounds on the bar? Do you round up or do you round down? I always felt that the % of max programs were weak because of this discrepancy.

Coach Hale -

Many young kids play football (we start Junior Tackle in 6th grade), which is a collision sport. Kids even younger than that play contact sports like basketball or soccer.

How does the physical stress of basketball, soccer, and football compare to the physical stress of maximal or near-maximal weighttraining? I would think that these sports, which often requires the body to handle loads while in a less-then-optimal position, are much more stressful to young bodies than heavy weighttraining.

Coach Hale -

You make a good argument for keeping reps high and weights low.

To further reinforce what you said, I have noticed that my junior high lifters who participate in sports tend to do much "better" in the weight room than junior high non-athletes. The overall strength, balance, flexibility, and coordination of the kids who play sports is much higher than the kids who do not, even though both groups are novices in the weight room.

My compliments to you on reading Zatsiorsky. I recently purchased "Science and Practice of Strength Training" but had quite a difficult time with it. Way too much science and math for this US History teacher!

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Originally posted by: govertical
My compliments to you on reading Zatsiorsky. I recently purchased "Science and Practice of Strength Training" but had quite a difficult time with it. Way too much science and math for this US History teacher!

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Zatsiorsky knows his stuff, no doubt. I noticed you were reading Supertraining as well. Might I say you are well on your way to becoming a top-notch strength & conditioning coach!

Don't give up on Dr. Zatiorsky's book. What confuses me is that he is a professor of biomechanics at Penn State, and the Nittany Lions use stinking HIT!

Jimbo

Coach Hale -

Very helpful and quite impressive. I would imagine that the supersets would also serve the dual purpose of raising the heart rate and burning some fat, as well?

For Coach Hale, groundchuck, tog, and other weight room coaches:

How do you run your weight room? Do you have other coaches with you? How many athletes do you train at one time? What "management" strategies do you implement in your weight rooms? How do you keep kids motivated?

Here's a few things that I do:

-keep high school kids and junior high kids separated.
My high school kids lift after school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are used for ab work and GPP. Incoming freshmen (current 8th Graders) can either lift Monday and Wednesday morning or Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. My 7th graders who are lifting (I currently have a group of 8-10) lift Tuesday and Thursday mornings only. I have found this approach effective because I can spend more time with the younger, inexperienced guys and my high school kids aren't standing around and waiting to use equipment.

-Training teams.
I put the kids in groups largely based on ability and current strength levels. We have some space and equipment limitations (we have 2 benches, 2 squat racks, and 1 power rack). The high school kids will all be working the same session (bench/squat, cleans/deadlift, or bench aux/squat aux). I will start 2 teams on the bench and 2 teams on the squat. The squat racks can also be used for cleans, so on Wednesday, 2 teams will start with cleans and the other two teams will use our one power rack and some open floor space to do deadlift. This way, I can reasonably train a maximum of 16 kids at once. On the rare occasions that we have more than 16 kids in the weightroom at once, I will start the "overflow" kids on the auxiliary lifts for the day. The only auxiliary lift that we do that sometimes creates a "chokepoint" is the GHR bench, because we only have one of these.

-Motivation
We have a leader board that charts the best two lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, clean) for each class. We have an all-time record board that has lifting records, 40 times, Dot Drill times, and 20 yard shuttle times. I also give out t-shirts. We have a 1,000 Pound Club shirt (1,000 pounds between Bench, Squat, Deadlift, Cleans) and a 1250 Pound Club shirt (same lifts). I also give out t-shirts for kids who bench 250 or better.

What kind of things do you guys do?