Spring Football is upon us.  We get 5 weeks of training and 4 weeks of football.  I kind of like tis because I get to introduce the in-season training a week before practice officially starts.  When we played our covid season last spring and then again this past fall I opted not to Squat.  This spring I’m seeing if I can use the Squat and Trap Bar while we practice. 

I’m doing this because when we finish Spring Ball I won’t have hands on them until we start back in June.  And, because we don’t pay for our guys to stay in the summer there are some guys I won’t have hands on until August.  I’ll feel much better if they at least practice the Squat pattern with me and then hope they continue to do it correctly if they train at home during the summer.

Lower Body Plan

We're using the Squat as our “heavy” lower body lift on Tuesdays and the Trap Bar as our “light/speed” lower body lift on Thursdays.  RDL’s (Tuesday) and Lunges (Thursday) aresprinkled in just to keep those patterns alive while we practice.  If the RDL’s present a problem (soreness) I’ll switch to Banded Good Mornings.  I want to keep the RDL, but will make the change if the accumulation of work becomes a problem for their lower bodies.

I’m not too worried about the OL/DL guys and RDL’s.  It’s more the WR/DB/RB/LB’s that I have concerns about.  The amount of running they do will take its toll.

Upper Body Plan

We’ll hammer away at the Bench on Tuesday after we Squat.  I’m approaching this with a combination of “heavy” work and volume work.  The guys will do 2-3 warm-up sets and then have 10 minutes to do as many sets of 3-5 reps as they can paired with DB Rows.  It’s sort of an autoregulation thing.  If they feel good they can get as much work in as they can (without rushing).  If they don’t feel good they can do sets of 3 and do fewer total sets.

Thursday our Upper Body work will be Dips/Push-ups and Pull-ups/Fat Mans. 

Each day we’ll do some small stuff to fill in the blanks.  I’ll give the guys choices on this stuff as far as exercises go.  The big lifts will stay consistent for the next 5 weeks.  These are the lifts that can make them sore and take some mental energy to execute.  Little stuff like shoulder raises, curls etc… don’t take much mental energy so I don’t mind them switching up those movements as often as they want.

Template

Tuesday – Workout 1

Squat: 5’s Pro (Possibly drop to 3’s)

  • Hurdle-unders (during warm-up sets)

Bench: 3-5’s (as many sets at top weight as they can get done in 10 minutes)

  • DB Row: 5x5-10

Circuit: 3 Rounds

  • Snatch-grip RDL w/shrug
  •  Neck (Harness/Plate)
  •  CS Lateral Raise

Thursday – Workout 2

Trap Bar: 5x2-3 (5 sets at top weight – 20% less than Squat percentage)

  • Hurdle-unders (during warm-up sets)

Upper Body Fluff and Puff: 6-8 minutes)

  • Dips or Push-ups
  • Pull-ups or Fat Mans (OL/DL that can’t do Pull-ups)

Neck/Traps

  • Neck (Harness/Plate)
  •  Shrugs/Kirk Rows/Upright Rows

Extras (both workouts)

  • Mobility (Hips/Lower Back/T-Spine/Shoulders)
  • Shoulder Health (light strengthening/rehab-type exercises)
  •  Abs
  •  Biceps/Triceps

Main Lift Progressions

Squat – 5’s Pro (Weeks 1-2 and possibly drop to 3’s Pro for Weeks 3-5)

  • Week 1: 75%
  • Week 2: 80%
  • Week 3: 75%
  • Week 4: 85%
  • Week 5: 75%

Bench – 3-5’s Pro (as many rounds as they feel they can do)

  • Week 1: 80%
  • Week 2: 75%
  • Week 3: 85%
  • Week 4: 75%
  • Week 5: 80/85/90% (their choice)

Trap Bar- 5x2-3 (20% lighter than Squat percentage)

  • Week 1: 55%
  • Week 2: 60%
  • Week 3: 55%
  • Week 4: 65%
  • Week 5: 55%

*I’m giving them their percentage but I’m letting them have a little choice in the actual weight they use.  The number is the guide for where they need to be that week.  If they want to train and little heavier or lighter they have that option.

This is the basic layout of what we’ll be doing for the next 5 weeks.  Things will undoubtedly change as they progress.  After a really good 8 weeks of off-season training I hope to continue with great Spring Ball training.