My weight training for this summer will most likely be:
Mon: lower heavy
Tues: upper heavy
Wed: off
Thurs: lower light
Fri: upper light
Sat: off
Sun: off
My goals are strength, speed, and explosiveness for football (I play QB). I’m unsure as to where I should fit in plyo’s and also am looking for suggestions of programs. It is possible and not a hassle to lift in the morning and run/plyo’s in the afternoon. I don’t know if that would be too much though. I would rest and refuel in between, and I’m already quite fit.
I would take a look at what I’ve been doing, my lifts have been progressing as has my speed. It allows a good deal of high intensity work with adequete recovery. While it seems very basic and to low volume, its actually quite smashing on the muscular and nervous system. As well I have read bench pressing can mess with mechanics? I dont know though. As well you shouldnt worry about your agility in cone drills, as I havnt done any and ran the second fastest agility drill on the team for those over 160. General reaction time, elasticity, and relative strength development would take care of this. As well sprinting is as plyometric as it gets. I’d only use them three weeks in advance(besides bounds and skips) to peak. Heres what my split looks like.
Day 1-Acc. and Max Upper
6-8x30m(full recovery)
5-6x50m(full recovery)
1-2x150m or 120m(walk rest of track for recovery)
Weight Room
ME Upper Exercise-2RM
Lat Move(pull down or sum kind of pull up)-4-6x6
Day 2-Tempo/Recovery
6-8x200@50-60%
Ab circuits between reps
Day 3-GPP
Either light tempo or gpp circuits or rest
Day 4-Max V and Lower Body Weights
5-6xFlying 10-20m(full recovery)
4-6x60m(full recovery)
1-2x150m or 120m(walk around rest of track recovery)
Weight Room
In keeping within the parameters of your listed split, I would first recommend that you change to the following sequence:
Mon-lower heavy
Tues-upper light
wed-off
thurs-lower light
fri-upper heavy
sat off
sun-off
Assuming that this jives with your practice schedule.
I wouldn’t get to aggressive with the high intensity plyo’s unless you are preparing for a combine.
I am working with a QB right now and I have him work all of his ME and DE day chest/tricep pressing with dumbbells, chain suspended push ups, and depth/box iso-ballistic push ups. He performs an equal amount of volume of pulling lifts (chins, inverted rows, DB rows, BB rows, high rows, etc) as well as a sufficient amount of movements which target the ext rotator/mid-low trap/rhomboids (various single joint complexes).
For lower body/back I have him perfoming box squats, DL’s, gm’s, ghr’s, pull throughs, step ups, reverse lunges, single leg squats, lateral bounding squats (mimimicking the speed skater motion)
For core, an equal volume of lifts for all three planes of movement.
Again, in keeping with your split, try and perform all of your sprints the night before your lower body strength training.
Where you are in the season will dictate your training volumes. If you manipulate volume proficiently there is no reason to lose any significant amount of muscle mass or strength during the competitive season.
Thanks JMan, very helpful. I had overlooked several of those exercises and will most likely use some of them. Switching the heavy and light days makes sense too. What exactly are some of the exercises you have your QB do to strengthen the rotator cuff/lower trap/rhomboids?
I’m kind of stuck between this type of split and a 3 day (mon-wed-fri) full body split. Has anyone had success/failure with either type?