Student Athlete Off-Season 2.0

Welcome to the off-season, folks. This is where we set ourselves apart and continue working where others may relax. Your instructions follow. Barbell Movement Safety: - Set up the safety bars! Especially on squats, set the safety bars just below the lowest point of your squat. Practice bailing out of a squat comfortably and safely. - WARM-UP - 5 minute jog before every workout and 2 Lines warm-up for every lower body or cardio/sprint workout. - Working UP to working weight - 2 sets of 10 with just the bar and the 20-30lb jumps for sets of 5. Think of all of these reps as SKILL WORK. Build yourself a foundation of good, consistent movement by continually drilling it. Warm-up sets are NOT JUNK volume. - Don’t train to failure. Failed/missed reps lead to more fatigue and more injury risk. Eir on the side of caution with your weight selection. Train to failure on machine isolation accessories, but not on compounds unless otherwise programmed Requirements for Participation: - SET GOALS - set SMART goals. SPECIFIC (I want to squat 2 plates), MEASURABLE (sprint times, weight on the barbell, etc.), ACHIEVABLE (you won’t put 100 pounds on your bench in 5 weeks), RELEVANT (where are you lacking, and what can you focus on to bring that up), TIME-BOUND (5 weeks) - Follow the program/percentages as given. Round up/down intelligently as needed. - Eat more. Fuel your workouts. - Substitutions: I would PREFER you stuck to what is written, but if you are bound by the equipment at your gym you may substitute something that provides a similar stimulus (ex: dumbbell instead of barbells for bench/overhead press, seated shoulder press instead of standing overhead press) - Train smart and train with a friend for extra accountability. It will also help to have a partner who can spot you in the gym and time your sprints, and push you during your 400m intervals. Your program-literacy dictionary: - AMRAP = As many reps as possible, to failure - RPE = Rate of perceived exertion. You assign a set "RPE 10" when you couldn't possibly have done another rep, and subtract one for every rep you think you left in the tank on that set - example: 'felt like I had two more reps' would be RPE 8. It is not a perfect system, but should inform how challenging a weight you use for that set. - Percentages Percentages are based on estimated one rep maximums. I do NOT want you going heavy enough that you are only able to do less than 5 reps. We will focus on a '5 rep scheme', which will help provide a balance of muscle growth stimulus and conditioning you to the moving of heavier weights. 1RM is approximately 85-87% of your 1RM. Use a 1RM calculator (Google) to aproximate your 1RM after week 1, "Test" week. You'll use this number to calculate your working set weights. Equation: Estimated 1RM x % = Working Weight ex: if my 5RM after test is 155lb and 1RM calc says my 1RM* is 175lb, then when the program calls for "75%" I will do 75% of 175, equaling 130, for my working sets. Jk