What im gonna do

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

Okay so i think ive put together enough information to put together a tentative program for myself. My main goal is to increase my squat and overall strenght so I can move on to olympic lifts.

Monday
Squats 2 x 8, 3 x 4
Bench 2 x 8, 3 x 3
Lat pulldowns 4 x 6

Tuesday
Basketball Drills
Swimming

Wednesday
Deadlifts 4 x 6
Military Press 5 x 5
Dumbell Flys 3 x 8
Bent over rows 4 x 6

Thursday
Basketball Drills
Practice technique on Olympic lifts with light weight

Friday
Squats 2 x 8, 3 x 4
Incline Bench 2 x 8, 3 x 3
Rear Delt Flys 4 x 6

Saturday
Biceps, Triceps, Forearms, Calfs isolation work

Sunday
Abs and Lower back work

You guys let me know what you think, i know I still have a lot to learn so im ready for criticism. I know you guys are gonna rip on me for the isolation stuff, but i dont think its gonna slow me down on the important stuff which is why i left it in there, but feel free to prove me wrong. I also plan to switch the good mornings out with pull throughs, romanian deads, and stiff leg deadlifts. Oh yeah and I play basketball just about everyday unless my legs are too sore.

2

Ok, first tip, don’t play basketball every single day. At least not games. You should have days where you work on specific things you need to improve on, and days where you test them game speed, game pace.I can tell by your workout that you read too many bodybuilding mags. My first tipe for you in that regard would be to burn all your BB Magazines and start reading exercise physiology or sports medicine type journals. The articles that are in those mags are only going to be old in comparison to the journal release date anyways.

Back to the program

  1. What are your stats (i.e. vertical, age, arm reach, position, quickness, anything youve been tested on,)

We need these to give you the best advice possible…

  1. Your program lacks exercises that develop the posterior chair and core stability.

Jumping ability and speed/quickness are going to be largely due to the speed at which you can get hip extension. Your only true hip extension exercise is the Squat. Remove the good morning exercise and replace it with a deadlift, deads will give better results

  1. Your program lacks stability and quickness/plyometric exercises.

The program you show offers no plyometric, agility, or stabilization exercises. I would include all three at some point or another. In fact, more of your training during the pre/off season should be aimed at developing these qualities rather than doing isolation work, which brings us to 4

  1. You are including isolation exercises in an athletically focus training regime.

Ok, first let me tell you to burn the bodybuilding mags again. Second, understand this. No athlete has ever made as fast an athletic improvement with isolation exercises as compared to the methods I described above. Looking like an athlete and performing like one are 2 different things. Leave your isolation stuff for an extremely minor 6 week portion of the year when you are as far away from your season as possibly, say right after your season is over…lol. We are looking for CNS stimulation and coordination here. That means complex, multijoint, intense, fast, highly coordinated, well executed movements. Train movements, not muscles, and you will be much further ahead of the next bodybuilder…lol.

Hope I wasn’t too hard on you. Just keep reading the archives and you will learn much. You’ve already taken your first step in being humble enough to trust someone elses opinion. SO, good work…and good luck!

3

Nah, you werent too hard at all. In fact that was the type of input i was hoping for. My stats as far as what you were asking for are that im 6’5; 19 years old; my vert isnt that great dont know exactly what it is but i barely dunk a basketball to give you an idea. I like to play low post positions like power forward and center, but i also sometimes play small forward. I havent really been tested on anything in a while so i cant give you specifics on quickness other than im not very quick and would love to get quicker.

I hope that info helps do you think you can give me specific ideas on what i can do as far as plyo, agility drills and how i can improve my focus on the posterior chain? Also, I switched the good mornings with deadlifts, but i still want to improve this more so please give more specific changes. Thanks for your help.

4

Uzz, you need to do some basic research as far as finding agility exercises and plyos that fit your playing personality. If you play low post you definately need to include some drop-step type training, as well as having someone gaurding you while working on your post moves. Thats basic as far as game play. Regarding specific drills look them up in a book. Donald Chu has a very basic book on plyos which will give you and idea about exercises, but the book sucks regarding how to set up a “structure” to your program. Read the book, choose exercises which you think would benefit you, and I’ll help with questions you have regarding structure in weekly setting.

P.S. Don’t waste your money buying vertical jump programs online, better info is in the archieves of this site. If you want to spend money order research articles through your local library from an interlibrary loan. It should cost about $3 an article, Hope this helps…ciao

5

Wouldn’t Good Mornings be good to include because they develop the posterior chain? Good Mornings ARE hip extension!

6

IMO good mornings are inferior to deadlifts due to the amount of skeletal muscle engaged in the lift. That is…assuming the 2 lifts are done properly. True that they are hip extension, but a much safer and more useful exercise would be a reverse hyper/back extension. To boot, it incorporates the arms and grip strength, both are important for playing the post. Just my opinion…also, in regards to the ratio of hip extension, there just was not enough compared to the amount of useless supplement work.

7

Thanks for the help vel, but i dont think ill have time to read Chu’s book right now as between neuroscience, molecular bio, organic chem, experimental methods and design i really have a lot of reading to do this semester. However maybe ill be able to read it this christmas break. I have read some sports science books such as explosive lifting for sports so i understand a little, but all this bodybuildning stuff people have been telling me is just stuck in my brain and i cant get it out lol. Ok so anyway back to plyos, should i do them once a week or more often and which excercises should i do. Also I also need to put on some mass along with the strenght as im only 200 lbs and hope to reach 240 at some point.
As far as practicing the post i do that all the time so i dont really need to incorporate it into this but thanks for the advice.
I think now im starting to lean towards not really having a set program to do for each day of the week, instead im just going to lift every other day and doing a hip extension excercise (squat, front squat, deadlift, good mornings, romanian deadlift) and then 2 upper body compound excercises ( military press, bench, incline bench, dumbell bench, lat pulldown, bent over rows)

and then on my low intensity drills doing either drills, swimming, or abs and lower back.

When should plyometrics, quickness, and agility fit in with the lifting or on off days or replacing the lifting.

Thanks for the help, i think im quickly making progress to setting up a routine that will work really well.

8

So basically im looking at something like this right now

Monday
Pick one excercise from pool 1, 2 from pool 2

Tuesday
Basketball Drills

Wednesday
2 from pool 2
Plyometrics

Thursday
Basketball Drills

Friday
Pick one excercise from pool 1, 2 from pool 2

Saturday
Abs, Lowerback, Grip work (forearm curls, wrist roller, etc)

Sunday
Basketball Drills

Pool 1
squat, front squat, deadlift, good mornings, romanian deadlift

Pool 2
military press, bench, incline bench, dumbell bench, lat pulldown, bent over rows

Ok so what i need to figure out from here…

what plyometric excercises would be best, with what sets/reps

If one plyometric session in a week is enough and if i should do it on the same day as weights

If my upperbody excercises are appropriate

What else I can do on my low intensity days

If anyone can help me on any of these issues i would greatly appreciate it.

Oh yeah also velocegatto can you give me any information on good athletic articles online or the names of any i can find at my library, im looking into Chus book currently. Thanks.

9

can anyone help me out anymore?

10

uzz, why do you want to get to 240. Let’s start this way…Exactly what are your goals? Make them as specific as possible, and I will do my best to help you out, Jay

11

Because size clearly makes a difference in playing the post. Although strenght is more important so i can move people and box out well. Still its always good to take up some space right? Ok so anyway these are my short term goals for the weightroom…

Get to 240
Squat 300
Learn olympic lifts
Get stronger overall