3 day split

Optioncoach,

I think it would be a great idea to train the way you are talking about. Personally, I feel that a 3 day total body split is the most effective way to train athletes. The reason for this is because during an athletic movement, the athlete is using the ENTIRE body to perform the movement (batting, tackling, sprinting, free throw, takedown, throwing, kicking, etc.). So, I feel that you should train the body as a whole in order to teach the body to work in unison rather than dedicate an entire day to upper/lower/power.

Joe Kenn has a system set up to where you rotate a Primary, Major and Minor emphasis (Total body, Lower body, Upper body) each day so that each emphasis gets the same amount of work each microcycle. For example, a "traditionally" periodized microcycle might be set up like this:

*Mon-Total Body Emphasis *Wed-Lower Body Emphasis *Fri-Upper Body Emphasis
Primary-Hang Clean Primary-Back Squat Primary-Bench Press
Major-Front Squat Major-Chin up Major-Push Press
Minor- Overhead Press Minor- Snatch Grip High Pull Minor- Single Leg Squat
Mobility-DB Clean or Snatch Mobility- High Step up Mobility-DB incline
Mobilty-Lateral Lunge Mobility- DB Row Mobility-DB Clean or snatch

Now, the type of cycle you choose (there are many to choose from) will decide the sets/reps and exercise selection, however this should give you a general idea of what I'm talking about. Notice how each emphasis is rotated and goes from a Primary emphasis to a minor emphasis...this is to avoid overtraining. For example, Hang Clean (total body) is primary on Mon and Snatch grip high pull (total body) is the minor on Wed.

Now for more advanced athletes (ones that have a decent amount of mass, good strength level and perfect technique) you can use a conjugate method of periodizing the cycles (this obviously will be influenced by Westside Barbell methods of training). In this method you would still rotate the emphasis, but the emphasis would now be correlated with type of strength being developed (max strength, speed or hypertrophy).

In case you wondering, there is a pre workout and post workout session that will include quick foot work, dynamic warm up and abs in the preworkout; and posterior chain, traps and neck work in the post workout. The entire workout can last from 60 to 90 minutes (there are ways to modify the microcycles).

There is MUCH MUCH MUCH more to this type of system, so I would suggest that you buy Kenn's book. It is the called the "The Coaches Strength Training Playbook".

Hope this helps.

JH