Im a trainer and have a high school senior who plays linebacker for his school's team and is looking to continue with the sport in college. His coach has him training with old-school powerlifting methods (mon- squat, Wed- Bench, Fri- Dead,) 5 weeks of 5's, 3 weeks of 3's ect. ect. He in pretty good shape, and at 17 yrs old hes already been training 3 years although he wasnt familiar with several basic exercises (laterals, types of rows ect.) which I found puzzeling.
I met with him on wednsday and suggested that he adopt westside methods for the following reasons:
Hes currently not doing any speed work which would otherwse give him the sheer drive and raw power that is needed play his position. He's also doing the same lifts and exercises week in week out (which questions the credibility of his coach) so I figured max effort work would both take care of strength and CNS fatigue. I also set up a fairly extensive GPP training schedule with sled dragging, car pulling (like sled dragging but with a car) and stuff where he carries heavy things (in his hand, on his shoulders..whatever). And alot of his assistance work, which I would have him do using the modified repetition method, is aimed at strengthening the posterior chain and the core muscles on squat days. Assistance work on bench day would be essentially the same as always.
The only modification I made was the following: I dont feel that he's quite ready for max effort work (form and training experience issues) so instead of the usual "3 reps until 3 feels heavy then singles to max" scheme I suggested that he start doing sets of 5 until that gets heavy and then work up to a heavy triple. His squat form isnt too good so we're gonna hold off on ME squats altogether until that is fixed. Other than that, I has thinking that id more or less hold off on more specifically powerlifting stuff like board presses and rack lockouts and concentrate more on overall conditioning by still using bands, chains, and of couse box squats.
What do you guys think? This is the first time ive tried using westside for a sport other than powerlifting but both powerlifting and football have many of the same nessesities as far as conditioning goes so it should work out well. Any comments or suggestions will be of great help.
I met with him on wednsday and suggested that he adopt westside methods for the following reasons:
Hes currently not doing any speed work which would otherwse give him the sheer drive and raw power that is needed play his position. He's also doing the same lifts and exercises week in week out (which questions the credibility of his coach) so I figured max effort work would both take care of strength and CNS fatigue. I also set up a fairly extensive GPP training schedule with sled dragging, car pulling (like sled dragging but with a car) and stuff where he carries heavy things (in his hand, on his shoulders..whatever). And alot of his assistance work, which I would have him do using the modified repetition method, is aimed at strengthening the posterior chain and the core muscles on squat days. Assistance work on bench day would be essentially the same as always.
The only modification I made was the following: I dont feel that he's quite ready for max effort work (form and training experience issues) so instead of the usual "3 reps until 3 feels heavy then singles to max" scheme I suggested that he start doing sets of 5 until that gets heavy and then work up to a heavy triple. His squat form isnt too good so we're gonna hold off on ME squats altogether until that is fixed. Other than that, I has thinking that id more or less hold off on more specifically powerlifting stuff like board presses and rack lockouts and concentrate more on overall conditioning by still using bands, chains, and of couse box squats.
What do you guys think? This is the first time ive tried using westside for a sport other than powerlifting but both powerlifting and football have many of the same nessesities as far as conditioning goes so it should work out well. Any comments or suggestions will be of great help.