Barry's Offseason Football Training Log

Training Logs
1

CT recently posted a 20-week offseason football program that incorporates all of his latest training techniques.

I plan on taking his program for a test drive, and will post my progress. I train by myself, so putting my results online makes me more accountable. At almost 30 years old, I’m not using this to get ready for any training camps; however, I still play competitive flag football (with kids ten years younger) and would like to do so at a high level for a while longer. My current long term goals are to gain 8-10 lbs. of LBM, increase quickness, and of course, get stronger.

CURRENT 1 REP MAX
Back Squat 355 lbs.
Front Squat 295 lbs.
Deadlift 425 lbs.
RDL 275 lbs. estimate
Bench Press 295 lbs.
Incline Bench 235 lbs.
BB Row 275 lbs. with good form
Chinup BWT + 135 lbs.
Shoulder Press 185 lbs.
Push Press 225 lbs.

I started week 1 of the program last Monday, but haven’t had a chance to post the results. Along with the lifting numbers, I’ll include any conditioning and speed / agility work I do.

2

PHASE 1 – NEURAL REWIRING – Monday, March 8

WARMUP
-Jump rope x 3 min.
-Foam rolling focusing on lower body
-Dynamic Mobility
-Hip thrusts and X-band walks

SECTION A (ACTIVATION)

-Box Jumps to Front, RH side, LH side, and Rear. 3 sets of 5 jumps each, all to a 24" box.

[b]SECTION B (STRENGTH & POWER)

A1) 5 Broad Jumps
A2) RDL [/b]

165 x 5
185 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5

I measured my total distance for the 5 broad jumps by moving a 2.5 lb. weight to the final landing place. Total distance dropped during the fourth set, so I moved on to the next pair of exercises.

B1) 5 Vertical Jumps
B2) Front Squat

165 x 5
185 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5

Felt pretty springy during the initial vertical jumps. It’d be nice to have a Vertex, or at least do these on the basketball court using the rim as a target for the feedback. Started to feel like I was losing power output on the fourth set.

C1) Lunge Jumps (3 / leg)
C2) Dumbbell Lunges

45 x 4/leg
55 x 4/leg
50 x 4/leg
60 x 4/leg

Started to get fatigued during the lunges. I have tight hip flexors, which I can usually loosen up by stretching and foam rolling. I could feel them getting tight after the broad jumps and vertical jumps, but the lunges finished them off.

D1) 10 Ankle Jumps
D2) Standing Calf Raises

150 x 6
170 x 6
160 x 6
180 x 6

The squat rack in my gym was taken when I got to these, so I used the calf raise machine instead.

Notes
Was still feeling pretty amped after I finished the workout. Legs were slightly tired, but still felt pretty decent. I intended to do some 10-20 yd. accelerations outside, but a rainstorm put a damper on that.

3

PHASE 1 – NEURAL REWIRING (Upper Body) – Tuesday, March 9

WARMUP
–Foam rolling; mainly shoulders and back but some legs
–pushups
–2 x 8 scapular wall slides
–Y,T,W,L

SECTION A (ACTIVATION)
-Plyo pushups on bench, 3 x 5
-8lb. med ball throwdowns
-8lb. med ball chest throws

[b] SECTION B (STRENGTH & POWER)

A1) DB Bench Press [/b]

90 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 5

A2) Bench Press

175 x 5
195 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5

Using the speed DB bench as an activation exercise worked well. I suck donkey balls at bench, typically grinding reps out when the weight get heavy. A lot of that has to do with lack of stability in my right shoulder. I can stay tight initially, but after a couple of reps it feels like my shoulder starts “winging” out. Today was good, but that might be due to the maximum weight being 75% of my 1RM. Still trying to get a good feel for what the “Perfect Bench Rep” feels like.

B1) Bent-over DB Row

75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5

B2) Barbell Row

165 x 5
185 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5

Generated enough speed on the DB Rows that it felt like I was going to throw either the weight, or my shoulder out of socket! Hadn’t done a BB Row in about six months, but these felt good. Speed was decent, and I was able to keep focus on pulling the elbows back and engaging the lats.

C1) 20 lb. Med Ball Chest Throws x 5
C2) Incline Bench Press

145 x 5
165 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5

On a 1-10 scale, if my regular bench’s level of suckiness is a 4, my incline bench would be a -26. My new short term goal is to work on staying tight throughout the rep. I lose all stability when I lock these out overhead.

D1) 20 lb. Med Ball Overhead Throws x 5
D2) Standing DB Press

130 x 5
150 x 5
140 x 5
150 x 5

First off, low ceilings and push-pressing a med ball aren’t a happy mix. . . nearly took out a light. According to the weights I figured, I should have worked up to the 80’s on the last set. The second set using the 75’s, I need a little push press in order to get the last rep, so I used that weight on the final set.

Notes
Even with the display of pure bench press suck I put on today, it was still one of the better upper body workouts I have had in a while. Felt like I could have kept lifting for another hour or so. Did some sledgehammer swings – 3 sets of 12 impacts per side,as fast as possible – into a tire for the abs, then did some one-hand plate pinches (working up to 2 x 35 for the right hand, still 2 x 25 for the left) and hub pinches for grip work.

4

PHASE 1 – NEURAL REWIRING (Full Body) – Thursday, March 11

WARMUP
–Jump Rope for 3 minutes
–Foam Rolling / Lacrosse Ball focusing on Glutes, IT Band, and Hammys
–Dynamic Mobility

[b] ACTIVATION

A) Box Jump + Shoulder Press [/b]

50 x 5
50 x 5
50 x 5

B) One-arm DB Snatch

65 x 3
70 x 3
75 x 3

[b] STRENGTH & POWER

A1) Top-half Back Squat from pins [/b]

185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 3

A2) 5 x Vertical Jumps

B1) Top-half Deadlift from pins

225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 3

B2) 5 x Broad Jumps

C1) Top-half Incline Press from pins

135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3
185 x 3

C2) 5 x Plyo-pushups w/ hands on bench

D) Chin-ups

BWT x 19
BWT x 16
BWT x 12

Notes
[i] Legs were somewhat sore from the previous workouts, and took some time to get loosened up. Hurdle drills help a bunch, but these are usually followed by some strange looks in the gym. Once I got going, I felt good during the lower body work. Then the incline press from pins took place. The first rep of each wasn’t explosive, but once I could set the bar down, I could stay in proper position. Next week should be better. Chinups were decent. . . next week I’m shooting for 50 reps through the 3 sets.

It rained again, so i wasn’t able to get outside and do some agility drills. Was planning on working on my pedal, along with getting in and out of breaks. The spring league starts up in a few weeks, so I’d like my backpedal to not feel like an unfolding lawn chair.

On a side note, I downloaded DJ Khaled’s album, as I tend to listen to a variety of music when I workout. “All I Do Is Win” is a solid song, and will stay in the workout playlist. . . even though T-Pain is on it. [/i]

5

hey man, the log looks good, i’m on the first week as well…did you work up to your max force with the top half squats?..I ended up doing a ton of sets of those…gonna try to get my log up today…

6

I was a little confused by CT’s description of the exercise

[quote] A1. Top-half back squat from pins - ramp up to a max force set of 3 reps
[/quote]

Looking through the I, Bodybuilder program, they use Max Force Sets consisting of “x” reps with the same amount of weight on all sets. I just did a couple of single rep feel sets and then went into my working sets starting with 185 and going until I struggled accelerating the 3rd rep of the set.

I’m not sure how this differs from the “Force Spectrum Ramping” concept. . . maybe CT can weigh in on this.

My top half of the squat is pretty strong, I realized. For a regular squat, I tend to get stuck just above parallel, like many other lifters. I haven’t done much, if any, lifting partials from pins, so the first week was almost just getting used to setting up. Next week should be better!

7

[b]PHASE 1 – NEURAL REWIRING – Saturday, March 13

WARMUP[/b]
–5 min. treadmill (2 minutes walking working slowly up to 10mph)
–rolled IT band, glutes, and hamstrings on med ball
–mobility work focusing on hip flexors

[b]POWER CIRCUIT

A1) Jump onto 30" box in front x 5
A2) Plyo-push up on bench x 5
A3) 135 lb. Speed back squat x 3
A4) 135 lb. Push Press x 3
A5) Pullup x 5[/b]

[b] AGILITY CIRCUIT

B1) 15 yd. Backpedal x 2
B2) 5 yd. pedal, turn to right and sprint 10 yds x 2
B3) 5 yd. pedal, turn to left and sprint 10 yds x 2
B4) 8 yd. pedal, open 45 to right and sprint 5 yds x 2
B5) 8 yd. pedal, open 45 to left and sprint 5 yds x 2
B6) Swivel Hips (pedal 3 yds, then alternate opening to right and left for 10 yds) x 2

[/b] Rest as long as it takes to walk back to starting position

9 circuits

Notes
[i]Felt pretty good going into this workout. Everything was loose and took about 10 minutes for the warmup total. The foam rollers at the gym were all being used, which is surprising since I was the only one I knew that used them. Thanks to the boys at Diesel Crew, I knew I could fall back on the med ball to bring the pain, literally. Note to self: don’t ever do this again.

Could have gone another circuit, but I started losing acceleration on ALL exercises on circuit 9. Took about 5 minutes to recover and stretch a little, then found an empty exercise room to do my agility drills. Didn’t feel very explosive into and out of breaks, mainly due to the circuit before hand. I’m thinking of moving my running (except GPP) to before the main workout. I’m thinking the sport specific stuff should take precendence to overall explosiveness.

8

[b]PHASE 1 – NEURAL REWIRING – Monday, March 15

WARMUP[/b]
-Foam rolling focusing on lower body
-Dynamic Mobility
-2 x 8 glute bridges
-2 x 8 fire hydrants
-X-band walks

SECTION A (ACTIVATION)

-Box Jumps to Front, RH side, LH side, and Rear. 3 sets of 5 jumps each, all to a 24" box.

[b]SECTION B (STRENGTH & POWER)

A1) 5 Broad Jumps
A2) RDL[/b]

165 x 5
185 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5

B1) 5 Vertical Jumps
B2) Front Squat

165 x 5
185 x 5
175 x 5
205 x 5

C1) Lunge Jumps (3 / leg)
C2) Dumbbell Lunges

50’s x 4/leg
60’s x 4/leg
55’s x 4/leg
70’s x 4/leg

D1) 10 Ankle Jumps
D2) Standing Calf Raises

180 x 6
270 x 6
230 x 6
320 x 6

Notes
[i]I crushed this workout.
Used the same weights as the previous week for the RDL’s and front squats. Bumped the lunges up by 5 pounds, and had to use a different machine for the calf raises, so it was hard to compare the weights from last week.

From start to finish, I felt good and dominated every set. The jumps were explosive and all the weights felt light. Based on this workout, I think I’ll be adding a set or two to each couplet.

I have always felt it wasn’t a ‘workout’ unless I could hardly walk out of the gym, but I am starting to enjoy feeling like I could do the entire workout again that night. CT is definitely onto something. . . [/i]