This kind of piggy backs my last post.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my program, as I usually do.  It usually takes 5-6 rewrites before a team actually does it.  In my thinking, which usually comes at weird times in my day, I decided to go back and look at our success (strength gains, injuries, or lack there of and then talk about how smooth our workouts were/weren't).

I also looked at the first week of basketball training with a 3 set progression (a la 5/3/1).  I also used the same progression with volleyball.  What I noticed is that it's just not enough work with heavy weights (relatively speaking).

In conclusion, I'll stick with the 4 set progression in the off-season and use the 3 set progression for in-season work.

I'll post up football's spring practice lifting in a little bit and try to explain the progression and how I put it all together.  Later on I'll finish the summer program and do the same.

One of the things I really love about this job is that it constantly makes me think about my philosophy and how I do things.  Usually, it just reaffirms it.  After all, I'm 25 years deep in lifting and I know my stuff.  However, every idea that comes through this brain is not gold.  Sometimes it's not even a precious metal.

SOme may look at this and come to the conclusion that I overthink, which I do.  However, I don't always act on my overthinking.  I simply think and try to make the idea fit my philosophy that's in place.  If it fits I keep exploring it.  If it doesn't, I don't throw it away, but I don't expand on it.

This is why I highly recommend a "training log" for training ideas.  I write down everything I think about.  It's all right there to look back at.  Sometimes I reread the whole notebook and "find" a new idea and the second time around I'm able to develop it into my program.

All ideas have value even if they suck.  Critical thinking is a necessity, in my opinion.  You have to constantly pick apart your program to make sure it's as good and effective as possible WITHOUT getting away from your core principles.