Dave Tate's program, good for athletes?

[lifesaparty]

Hey guys. I’m a 20 year old lax player trying to decide what I want to do for lifting this summer. Right before this season I spent 12 weeks doing the “greatest workout ever” and had good gains. I raised my 3 rep bench max from 200 to 210 and my 3 rep parallel squat max from 275 to 315 while weighing 180. This summer I was thinking about following Dave Tate’s 9 week basic training program (http://www.elitefts.com/documents/9w...ng-program.htm). Have other people used this program at all? Made good gains? What do people think about it? Most importantly, do you guys think it is a good training program for an athlete? I was thinking about doing 2 cycles of this and then maybe a routine centered on some Olympic lifts and other explosive exercises during the late fall/winter leading up to the season. I have my nutrition pretty much in order and am hoping to make some really solid strength gains this summer, but I want to make sure I am doing it in a way that is “athlete” oriented. I’ll of course be doing HIIT/sprints/plyos on non-lifting days. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Kevin T.]

I'm not familiar with Tate's program, but i suggest maybe picking up Core Performance by Mark Verstegen. He trains athletes like Garciaparra, Hamm, Schilling, Crawford, all kinds of people-NFL, MLB, Tennis, Soccer, etc. I'm in the process of reading it, but i'm loving it so far! It emphasizes your core and finding your core. I'm really looking forward to finish reading it and giving it a try! Just a little idea.

[RipStone]

I checked out the program and IMO it looks great. I am currently doing Westside for Skinny Bastards which is a similar program in terms of ME and DE lifts and upper/lower body splits. I think it would be a great program for athletes cus it will help you gain strength(granted your eating enough) and uses a vareity of compound movements.

[lifesaparty]

Thanks for the tip Kev, I'll check it out. Good luck with becoming a life scout (I'm an eagle scout myself). Thanks for the reply Rip. I was thinking along the same lines. It's good to hear someone else agree though. Now all that stands between me and starting this up is two more finals.

[umass]

I finished the 9 week program a few weeks ago. I added 8 pounds of muscle, my bench went from 210 to 235, my deadlift saw by far the best going from 335 to 395, but I found my squat saw virtualy no gains. So I think it's a great program, but remember that a powerlifting squat puts less emphasis on your quads, and the program itself does very little for the quads, but alot for your posterier chain.

[Canadian_Bacon]

umass, i have found that a lot of people(specially starting out) have quads that are much stronger then their glutes/hams. For this reason squatting PL style could have advantages for a lot of peeps.

[umass]

Thats true, basically whats I meant was more that while this program is great for glute/ham strength your quads can lose some strength. I mean my deadlift shot up because of all the glute/ham work, I just think someone looking at this program should be aware of the lack of quad work.

[chris_f]

I wouldn't say your quads lose strength, they just don't gain as much. And honestly, for athletes, posterior chain work is a lot more important than quad work is.

[lifesaparty]

Thanks a lot guys. Sounds great, since I really want to hit my PC. Even if there isn't extensive quad work I would have to imagine all the PC work will help my squat regardless. Can't wait to start up next week.