Minimal Strength gains

govert,

While I will agree with you that some of Coach Riley's ideas are somewhat controversial, I must disagree with you when you imply his methods are more in line with bodybuilding training than strength training for football. Actually, I would say exactly the opposite would be more the case. Coach Riley no longer believes in "vertically loading the spine" and has pretty much eliminated traditional squats from his program. That would definitely qualify as controversial in my book and is not something I agree with but I do understand his line of reasoning because of the elevated risk of injury performing them.

I certainly respect your opinion but just disagree on this topic philosophically. I do agree that a big bench requires a solid base and that their players would probably benefit greatly by converting at least one of their press movements to a pull. This might also help alleviate some of the fatigue brought on by overtraining as well in my opinion.

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach

CYFL - I am unfamiliar with Coach Riley. What types of leg lifts does he do that don't vertically load the spine? Machine / leg press?
Go vert - I like your web site. Nice work. What kinds of sets / reps are you using for your lifts. Work to ME of 3 reps? What about for your supplementary lifts?
I have been rotating the MEs from sets of 3 to sets of 5 and the supplementary lifts in either 3 X 8 or 3 X 10 for the most part. I am thinking it would be easier to just pick a number and stick with it to make it simpler. Do you tell the athletes what lifts to do each week, or do you let them pick from the pool and just rotate them on their own?

Texans upper body weight workouts
By Dan Riley
HoustonTexans.com

We receive many requests for a program or a workout. There is nothing magical or special about our routines. Remember, there are no magical routines or exercise sequence. The key to maximum strength gains is how each rep is executed and the intensity of each set. Your genetic potential will ultimately determine how favorably you respond to properly performed strength training.
Our players have 12 upper body workouts to choose from. To create variety for our players we utilize a variety of equipment. Some routines feature a barbell (Barbell 3 x 6), a dumbbell (Dumbbell 10 – 8 or Dumbbell Elevator), a combination of equipment (Free Weight Combo Platter), a Smith Machine (Smith Machine 10 – 8, Smith Machine Elevator, Smith Machine Half Reps), or a variety of machines (Hammer Isolateral, Hammer MTS, Nautilus Nitro, Nautilus Xpload, Avenger).

Ten of the twelve routines incorporate both multi-joint and single joint exercises. One routine features only single-joint exercises (No Hands Routine) and one routine contains only multi-joint exercises (Push-Pull Routine).

There are three major muscle groups composing the upper body. The three major areas of the upper body include the following:

Chest (bench press, incline press, pec flyes)
Upper back (lat pull-down, seated row, chin-ups)
Shoulders (seated press, lateral raise, front raise, rear delt, rotator cuff external rotation)
If there is an area of priority for a football player it must be the shoulders. There are four major compartments composing the deltoids. The four areas of the deltoid include the following:

Anterior head (frontal deltoid)
Medial head (middle deltoid)
Posterior deltoid (rear deltoid)
Rotator cuff (four muscles that rotate the shoulder internally and externally)
If injury prevention is a priority an isolation exercise must be performed for each area of the deltoid. These exercises are a must for a football player.

Anterior head-front raise
Medial head-lateral raise
Posterior head-bent-over-raise
Rotator cuff-external rotation
Before executing the first exercise in a workout we ask our players to perform several warm-up sets. After the warm-up our goal is to select a weight that barely allows the player to complete the designated number of reps.

Our players perform somewhere between eight and twelve repetitions. For maximum gains our players use as much weight as they can properly handle for each set without sacrificing good form (observe Texans Rep Rules).

We ask our players to perform each rep strictly adhering to our Texans four Rep Rules:

Rule # 1 – Raise and lower the weight through the muscles full range of motion.

Rule # 2 – Eliminate momentum during the raising phase of each exercise.

Rule # 3 - Pause momentarily (stop for a count of 1001) in the muscle’s contracted position with a smooth transition from the raising of the weight to the lowering of the weight (no sudden drop).

Rule # 4 – Emphasize the lowering of the weight (take longer to lower the weight).

Our players currently have twelve upper body routines to choose from. Six of those upper body routines are listed on the player’s computer workout menu as “10 – 8 Routines.” Our 10 – 8 Routines include the following workouts:

Dumbbell 10 – 8
Hammer Indy 10 – 8
Hammer MTS 10 – 8
Smith Machine 10 – 8
Nautilus Nitro 10 – 8
Nautilus Xpload 10 – 8
Our players also have six additional upper body routines in their computer file. They include the following:

1. Barbell 3 x 6
2. Dumbbell Elevator
3. Smith Machine Elevator
4. Free Weight Combo Platter
5. Push – Pull
6. No Hands
During our 10-8 routines our player’s perform two sets (10 reps & 8 reps) of the following exercises:

Bench press

Incline press

Seated press

The remainder of the exercises composing the 10 – 8 Routines include the following exercises. Only one all out set (10 – 12 reps) is performed for each of the exercises listed below:

Pullover

Lat pull-down

Rear delt

Seated Row

Rotator cuff external rotation

Lateral raise

The exercise sequence for our 10 – 8 Routines is the same for each of the six 10 – 8 workouts listed above. The only difference in each of the 10 - 8 routines is the equipment used to perform the same exercises. To create variety we substitute different pieces of equipment.

10 – 8 Routine Exercise Sequence

Bench press – 10 reps
Rest 90-seconds

Bench press – 8 reps
Rest 90 seconds

Pullover – 10 – 12 reps (pre-exhaust lats)
Lat pull-down 10 – 12 reps (performed immediately after Pullovers)
Rest 90 seconds

Dumbbell incline press – 10 reps
Rest 90 seconds

Dumbbell incline press – 8 reps
Rest 90 seconds

Rear Delt – 12 reps (pre-exhaust rear delt & upper back)
Seated row 10 – 12 reps (performed immediately after rear delt)
Rest 90 seconds

9. Rotator cuff external rotation

Rest 90 seconds

Lateral raise – 12 reps (pre-exhaust deltoids)
Rest 90 seconds

Seated press – 10 reps
Rest 90 seconds

Seated press – 8 reps
Total number of reps = 126

Total workout time = 24 minutes

Total time spent exercising (average of five seconds/rep) = 10 minutes 30 seconds

Total time spent resting between exercises: 13 minutes 30 seconds

As soon as a player can complete ten good reps we increase the weight for his next workout. We use the same protocol for the second set (of eight reps). When eight good reps can be completed we increase the weight for his next workout. Our goal is to add weight on one, or both sets whenever possible.

A maximum effort on the first set will require a decrease in weight on the second set (if a near maximum effort is exerted on the first set and if no more than 90 seconds rest is taken between sets).

Our players perform two sets of the bench press, incline press, and seated press. They only perform one set of the remaining exercises in that routine.

The biggest ways to make gains for any lift is by working periodization through percentages of max outs.


70% 1st month, 80% 2nd,70% 3rd, 80% 4th, 90% 5th, 70% 6th, 80%7th, 90% 8th, then Maintain during season.

This should be done while maxing out at the end of each four weeks then refiguring %s for the next four weeks.

The intake of more calories burned is actually just as important.

Sets and reps start off 3-10 and move from 3-5, 3-3, 4-3-2,10-8-6-4-3-2. It would be ideal to work off 1rm for every lift but I would advice just working off you 1RM for Power lifts and Triple joint extension lifts.

I agree that any method will work. That is something that messes "us" up sometimes. Some kids can come in the weight room and just do whatever they want, and they will improve. But is it the best gains they could possibly have gotten? Probably not. I have to address that sometimes.
I have been trying to use conjugate periodization with my guys. I am far from an expert, but it is going well so far... and will get better as we spend more time working on it.
We pretty much follow Defranco's WS4SB template, but with a modifications.
1. In season athletes lift 2 times per week. They do one ME lower day per week. They also do either a RE upper or upper day (rotate). Out of season athletes do one ME lower, an ME upper and a RE upper day (3 times / week).
2. Until an athlete masters lifting technique, they never actually do a ME or RE lift - not necessary for gains, is dangerous, doesn't encourage good technique, IMO.
3. We don't rotate the ME lifts as much as we should. The squat is such a great exercise - and tough to master - that I haven't rotated it as I shoud. I have been staying with the squat until a kid peaks / plateaus, where we will then switch to sumo DL for a while. Is it too late by then?
We do a better job with the ME uppers - we rotate bench, incline, and floor press.
The main reason I don't switch more is simpicity. I want to do the lifts that we do well. I don't have as much time as is optimal to constantly be teaching new lifts.
The kids who follow the progam consistently and work hard have seen great results. Some of our guys have put 100 lbs on their squat and 70 lbs on their bench since September. Kids who have heavy loads from their sport (wrestler cutting weight, kids who are saving for their in season sport and not lifting heavy / intensely) haven't seen the same results, but have mainained or shown some growth.

Kids who are just learning the lifts will make the biggest gains. We have had many of our kids gain 100 pounds on their lifts between January and February just becuase they learned how to lift.

Coach,

What is a "negative rep" ?

Coach Easton

I know that the BP is not a football lift. I have read this statement over and over, but my question is that if you are trying to teach hand blocking (as well as shoulder blocking) don't you need as much upper body (bicep and chest strength) as you can get in order to control your opponent?

thanks,
coach smith