Help I want to do this right

[sghetti]

I'll keep this simple and to the point.

Goals:
1. Gain a very solid strength base for track during spring.
2. Have an injury-free year, while progressing consistently.

My track coach will provide the running workouts. I plan on doing the weight lifting workouts with your guys' help. I'm attempting to organize them in a pull/push manner. Here are the workouts.

Pull 1
BB Bentover Rows
Weighted Pull Ups
Deadlifts
Single Legged Calf Raises

Pull 2
T Bar Rows
Weighted Chin Ups
Romanian Deadlifts
Seated Calf Raises

Pull 3
Weighted Ring Rows
Weighted Chin ups
Rack Pulls
Single Legged Calf Raise

Push 1
BB Bench Press
Weighted Dips
Seated BB Military Press
Back Squat
Windshield Wipers

Push 2
BB Incline Bench Press
"Crossdowns"
Step Ups
Ring Jacknives
BB French Press

Push 3
Weighted Push Ups on Rings
Parallel Bar Handstand Push Ups
BB Bulgarian Split Squat
Ring Jacknives

I plan on working out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. So say I started with push one week, my workout would be Monday to Friday, push, pull, rest, push, pull.

I was thinking of having the first pull day a light day, and the second pull a heavy day. Same with push days. Also, I will be alternating workouts.

What I need help with is figuring out the sets and reps for every week. Any comments or questions are appreciated.

I promise to have before and after pictures in a few months if everything goes well. Thanks for your time.


P.S.
"Crossdowns" is an iron cross with your legs on a bench, parallel to the ground and arms perpendicular to the ring straps. The hard part (eccentric part?) is when you use your shoulders to bring the rings to your sides so you're in a "dip" position.

[gobbla]

step 1. what do you run\jump\throw?

[sghetti]

I polevault.

[Funk]

You could lose the calf raises and replace them with unilateral leg work (i.e. lunges, bulgarian split squats, 1-led romanian deadlifts) and see if you can find someone to teach you some olympic lifts. I'd also personally recommend you do front squats instead of back squats. You need to train explosively (generally) if you want to be competitive at all. Without overloading you with too much info, I'd suggest doing a basic linear program with your repetitions. When does your season start and when are your qualifying/final meets? That'll help us tell you when you need to do what with your repetitions. Do you do any plyometric work with your track coach?

[sghetti]

I have 4 months left to train by my own. By January I'll join pre-track and train with the team. The qualifying meets are in May. Yes we do plyometric work during and before the season, but in my opinion it's not enough.

Do you recommend doing bounding exercises? Do you know of a program I could follow relating plyometrics or bounding exercises that would work hand in hand with my lifting routine? Should I incorporate olympic lifts into my workout during the off season? When would I do them?

Say I replace all my calf work with lunges, bulgarian split squats, and 1 leg romanian deadlifts. Wouldn't it be too much of a load doing deadlifts followed by 1 leg romanian deadlifts and front squatting the next day? I like the idea but how would I balance everything out?

I'll look up the basic linear program and I'll see if I understand how to set up the reps/sets. Thanks for responding.

[sghetti]

I looked up "linear program" and came up with this: http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/periodization3.php


It talked about Daily Undulated Periodization (DUP) where he suggests that "using a 2 day DUP protocol, such as alternating between heavy (4-6 reps) and moderate (8-10 rep) training days, [can] maximize both strength and hypertrophy gains."


Would this be a good idea? How many sets would I be doing? Would I just continue and add the weight every time I felt I needed to or would this type of periodization be enough to suspend the use of a traditional cycle?

Also, would it be good if I developed a strength base for say 3 months, and do olympic exercises along with plyometrics the last month? Or would it be better if I implemented everything altogether?

Thank you for all the replies

[daraz]

You might want to exchange your lower body "pulls" for pushes and vice versa. This is mainly due to grip issues.

Other than that, if you want to periodize your workouts' rep schemes using undulating as your basis, you could use either Alwyn Cosgrove's examples from his undulating periodization articles over at bodybuilding.com (however, I don't recommend the place for much more than that) or maybe try my own set-up (however it is largely ripped off from his set of articles, I simply love that way of periodizing).

I will try to enclose the log file in this post, but it probably won't work, so you might have to resort to his article examples, which are most probably better anyway.

PS if it works, don't pay attention to the exercises listed in my log, I have very minimal equipment (a barbell, weights and a mat). But take a look at the rep schemes, you might get some ideas from that and insert what works for you better in there. That said, 5x5's have ALWAYS been good progress to people who made good use of it, and inserting some here and there could be a nice idea.

[daraz]

PS don't forget to take in account the fact that I only have 2 exercises a day for 3 days a week. Don't use the same rep protocol for every exercise in the workout you posted, it'd be overkill. Here's one of the articles I talked about. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/alwyn3.htm
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe his article (or at least the follow-up/s) describes true DAILY undulating periodization.

[Kevin T.]

Eric Cressey's Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual 'nuff said

[Lisa~]

I agree with Kevin. Eric's Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual is exactly what you need. If you want to get an idea of what the workouts would look like, take a look at Kevin's log. He and EdChap are both following this program.

[sghetti]

I read all the articles and I know what I'm going to do now. Thanks all.