If you ever visit our weight room you'll see a giant sign above our door featuring the baddest Bull ever. This is a tribute to the toughest dude I know. Long story short, Jake Madonia was a thrower for us just as I was getting to UB eight years ago. Jake got cancer (baseball sized tumor in his foot) went through radiation and chemo, had some of his foot taken out and never missed a practice, class or training session. When I say training I'm not talking about standing band curls because his foot was in a boot, Paul Childress had him doing seated good mornings with 315 for reps! After all this Jake went on to win a conference championship and missed a national qualifier spot by a couple of centimeters. Jake has been and continues to be a huge source of inspiration for our athletes! I'm going to post a full feature of Jake's story later on but I wanted to give a quick intro of him and why you'll be seeing his beautiful mug on some of my posts.
Max Effort work - movements are varied weekly. A change in week is separated by a / in the log. Accessory work on these days are typically lower volume but more taxing movements for us.
Repeated effort work - movements are varied every 3 weeks. A change in week is separated by a / in the log. You will see the weekly volume changes here. Typically we try to push the pace on these to help build work capacity.
Speed work - Usually, not always, this matches the Max effort movement for the week on lower body. The percents are just guidelines. For example, if you think you're going to get 4 plates on that weeks max effort movement, you can use 205lbs on the corresponding speed day. I stole this from Donnie Thompson and it has worked really well for us. The reps should be fast, we want some pop on the bar. Upper body is typically bench. Accessory work on these days are typically higher in volume but less taxing movements for us. For band set up and what bands to use for various strength levels see my article here: https://www.elitefts.com/education/watch-how-to-set-up-bands-correctly-for-the-squat-bench-and-deadlift/
Monday - Max Effort Upper
1. Banded shoulder traction/ lacrosse ball in shoulder/ x-wife on shoulder - on own athlete's choice
2. DB bench w/ 30% max (300lbs bencher uses 30lb DB) x25/ banded tri pushdowns x 25/ band pull aparts x 25 - circuit this 4 times
3. Floor Press vs chain - 1rm/ Giant Cambered bar bench vs chains - 1rm/ 2 or 3 Board press vs bands - 2 or 3rm
4. Banded DB tricep extension - 3x8/ 4x8/ 5x8
5. Ramp rows - 3x10/ 4x10/ 5x10
6. Bent Rear Delt Raise - 4x15
7. Seesaw abs - 4x25
8. Bis - athlete choice
Tuesday - Speed Lower
1. Spud Inc. Indoor Sled drag for 5 min
2. Seated Box Jump - 3x5/ 4x5/ 5x5
3. Speed Squat - Cambered Bar vs bands@ 50%, 10x2/ Buffalo Bar vs 2-6 chain@55%, 8x2/ Safety Squat Bar vs bands@60%, 6x2
4. Speed pulls conventional vs bands - 10x2@40%. 10 sets for all 3 weeks
5. KB swing 3x10
6. Reverse Hyper - 3x20/ 4x20/ 5x20
7. Prone banded hamstring curl - 100/ 150/ 200 total reps
8. pulldown abs - 100 total
9. Groiners - 80/100/120 total reps
10. Vogelpulls - 3x15/ 4x15/ 5x15
Thursday - Speed Upper
1. Banded shoulder traction/ lacrosse ball in shoulder/ x-wife on shoulder - on own athlete's choice
2. Mod. push-up x 25/ DB tris x 25/ lateral raise x 25 - circuit 4 times
3. Speed bench vs chain @30% - 10x3/ 8x3/ 6x3 - vary grips
ACCESSORY WORK ALL CLUSTER SETS - 10 reps 10 sec break for specified time. pic a weight you can do approximately 20 times. Try not to put the bar down. Wk1 - 3 min, Wk2 - 4 min, Wk3 - 5 min
4. DB floor press
5. Inverted Row
6. fat bar skull crusher
7. banded side bend
8. Chest supported Y raise on bench
Friday - Max Effort Lower
1. Tissue or mobility work of athletes choice
2. Reverse Hyper - 2x20
3. Seated weighted box jump - 3x5/ 4x5/ 5x5
4.. Cambered Bar vs bands - 4-5x2@90% / Buffalo Bar vs 2-6 chain - 4-5x2@90% / Safety Squat Bar vs bands- 4-5x2@90%. Notice the ME movement is the same each week as your DE movement.
5. Good morning with squat set up OR pull variation - work up to a couple heavy sets of 5 reps, not max effort!
6. Reverse Hyper - w/ 75% max squat - 3x15/ 4x15/ 4x20
7. GHR - 3xfail( fail 8-10 reps)
8. abs w/ w - 100 total
9. HIgh Hammer lat pulldown - 3x15/ 4x15/ 5x15