I’m not sure I understand the question. Why would a feeling about the need for weight gain be a goal with useable strength for the track being secondary? Training is set up with performance in mind only, whether now or in the future. Any weight gain is determined by the adaptation to that good training and diet.
Charlie, how old was Ben when he started to lift and how was the transition made? Also what were his general strength levels like before he started to lift (I"m talking like bodyweight exercises or medball throws)
Charlie,
So what would a workout look like in the first or second training year in a part of the year where more advanced athletes would be doing a max strength phase?
I had always thought that a younger athlete would still do accumulation and then into max strength after a longer GPP. Would it be more circuit type stuff?
Charlie? Over ten charcacters 
Ben started with circuit lifts and med ball drills of all sorts at age 16, moving to stage weight training for anatomical adaptation at age 17- mostly with sets of 10.
Thanks, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
Charlie,
with Ben in the earlier years did you still go through 3-1-3 strength periods, just with more GPP prior to the strength phase?
Thank you!
Charlie,
Could you please just glance at this and tell me if I could be on the right track with a weight workout that looks like this? (I’m beginning my 2nd training year and am in SPP):
310 full squats at around 55% 1RM
36 BW chins
310 front squats @ around 50% 1RM
38 BW dips
310 pushpress @ around 55% 1RM
320 BW hypers
36 one handed military press w/ a weight to make it fairly hard
312 hanging leg raises
3*6 handclap pushups
310 rows w/ a weight to make it fairly hard
320 side twists w/ 20 lbs.
210 hanging leg raises
310 stepups w/ a weight to make it fairly hard
2*20 side to side hypers
The exercises clumped together in groups are supersetted. Rest periods are 30s during every next set of the group and two minutes moving onto the next group of exercises. By on the right track I just mean could you see yourself assigning a workout like this to a young athlete in a similar situation to mine(particularly one without many structural deficiencies), not is this the right workout for me in my circumstances which you don’t know?
Why not use a circuit through the exercises 3 x rather than all at once through one exercise in a “superset”?
Thanks for replying Charlie.
The main reason is convenience since I’m using different loads and different “stations”. But I could do it in a circuit, so I guess the two questions I have are:
1.)Would that confer an extra benefit?
2.)Other than the issue you raised do I seem to be on the right track?
I would prefer to spread out the reps if possible, otherwise ok.
Thanks Charlie! I may not do the entire thing in circuit fashion but I’ll definitely spread out the reps more than I have them.
DAMN. I am pretty much in the same situation as Pete. But I am a soccerplayer. And I have started on max strenght cycle now, I really start to wonder… after reading this. I have 1-2 years of strenght training under my belt, on and off. Many ppl have given me advice, and said that I can start on max strenght cycle despite I have structural defiences and so on…
This is confusing and should I now re-write my training schedule?
Current schedule:
4 weeks of accumulation (focus on sprint)
7 weeks max strenght
4 weeks maintenance (focus on sprint)
7 weeks max strenght
maintenance.
In my weight program I’m focusing on low reps and choosing a small groups of core lifts such as squats, bench, sldl and a group of more fitness exercises ghr rlp rowing etc etc
Now I start to believe that i SHOULD NOT be doing max strenght, but instead working with reps 8-12 hypertrophy to outline my structural defiences and so on. !?
VG,
What kind of structural deficiencies are you talking about and who diagnosed them?
Regars,
Robin.
I diagnosed them myself… it’s just that I am pretty thin and lanky in comparison to most of the ppl here I think. (not much muscle mass, specially quads glutes hammies calves, upperbody is better)
VG,
can you give us some more details about yourself (height, weight, and some of your maximum lifts)?
That way it would be easier to see whether you should do hypertrophy work before working on your maximum strength.
According to your above self-decription in might indeed be better to do some hypertrophy work first. Maximum strength training is more about fibre recruitment than muscle size, but if you don’t have enough muscle fibres yet the effects of strength training will be limited.
Regards,
Robin.
Tested my max squat and bench 2 weeks ago: 200 lbs both. As I have said my glutes quads and hams are not big (enough).Difficult to say because I don’t know what/who to compare with. But if you see on my squat number you probably have an idea on how muscled I am. Posting a pic here, nooo I dont know that 
. I don’t think I have structural defiencies(such as folds between glute and ham)
VG,
I would definitely work with sets of 6 and more for a while then, especially for squats, as you seem to have quite a deficite there when compared to your bench.
As a soccer player you need strong legs, while the upper body is not that important, so you should try to achieve a maximum squat that is significantly higher than your bench pb.
Regards,
Robin.
So over a period of 4 months, how would you set up a program?
Periodization… 3 strenght workouts per week, whole body routines(probably?) How many sets/reps and stuff…
Squat, bench, snatch grip/sldl deadlift, reverse leg press, hypers, glute ham raise, rows, neck press, (bicep curls) are the exercises I think is the best and want to make a program out of.
As mentioned I probably need a little more hypertrophy on my legs, but I don’t want to do hypertrophy all winter!? Should I week by week drop the reps, or how should I do it.
–> I would have appreciated if someone had helped me to make a training schedule for 4-5 months. <–
thanks,
VG