Double Days/Camp soon approaching

With Double Days/Camp coming up faster than I know it, just was wondering a few things…

1.) We have all of next week (July 24-July 31) to do our own thing… Double days begin Aug. 1st… Since we will be doing gassers (6 of them in the morning practice session), how often should I do them… I was thinking possibly doing them as a tempo day on my non weights/speed days…

2.) During Double Days: Lifting? I was thinking maybe 2x per week after the night session, 3 TOPS… First week is Monday-Saturday, 9:00-11:00 in the morning and 5:00-7:00 at night… Second week is Monday-Wednesday, same time schedule… Then we have 3 or 4 days off, then onto regular season practice…

3.) Supplement/food intake: Increasing calorie intake will be one of my top priorities, as well as ensuring quality rest and supplements… I have ZMA, Creatine,L-Glutamine, Low Carb GROW!, Multi’s, Vitamin C/E, Gatorade Powder, and possibly FROST soon hopefully when I get enough $$…

Last year double days were a disaster for me, simply because I was coming off an injury and had no physical activity since March of that year… I jumped right in and man… I have never been that sore… I want to be ready, and I believe I will be very well prepared this time around.

You have it easy… we have 3 a days here with film and meetings inbetween each practice. Some recs from my experience (we have a ton of more volume so this may be different for you):

Take your mind off football whenever you get a chance. You just have to relax. Not as much gatorade as most kids are having (some kids drinking a gallon or so a day). It messes with your insulin levels and personally I feel drained drinking it often. A good sized meal before you go to bed helps a lot it seems to help fight the catabolism while you are sleeping. Get some therapy in if possible (massage) and ice baths after the 2nd session everyday at the very minimum.

Yeah I dont down the gatorade, mainly just post-workout. My main drink is water. I forgot to mention we have film and meetings as well before the 2nd session… Damn 3 a days huh? Rough…

If you plan of preparing for gassers specifically by doing them I would do them on your sprint days perhaps after the work with a cut volume of you sprint work. They fall into the category of middle/high intensity and should not be done on your tempo/recovery days.
Some people may even think it is unecessary to them them and with the sprinting and tempo you have been doing you should be plenty prepared for them without even knowing it. Id like to hear others thoughts on preparing for these types of conditioning drills.

Also as far as lifting I would lift 2x per week pretty much for maintainence. One day I would do bodybuilding total body circuits to maintain muscle mass and the other day I would lift 85-95% for low volume 3-4 sets of 3 as you would late season in track.

Thanks QUIK,

Lifting after the 2nd session? I was thinking that as well… possibly Monday/Friday? Thanks for the advice. I will do a lower volume of sprint work and add in gassers on my sprint/weights days and do tempo on non weight days.

If you have been training properly over the off season, then I would do NO gassers in training. They are not really useful for improving your football play and if the coaches want you to do them, then just suck it up when you have to. If you have been training properly, then your speed and work capacity are probably better than last year and you should be able to step up to gassers as necessary without any specific training.

2.) During Double Days: Lifting? I was thinking maybe 2x per week after the night session, 3 TOPS… First week is Monday-Saturday, 9:00-11:00 in the morning and 5:00-7:00 at night… Second week is Monday-Wednesday, same time schedule… Then we have 3 or 4 days off, then onto regular season practice…

I think you answered your own question here. If you are not recovering from all of the other activities in double days, then the last thing you want to do is add in another activity! So I would simply skip lifting during double days.