DeFranco Off-Season Training

I hope Joe won’t mind me posting this here, but I was browsing through the old Q&A’s on his website (which I highly advise everyone to do, I think I learn something new every time I re-read them) and I came across the excerpt. It was actually a response to a question by Zach Even-Esh, who contributes to this site and I thought it would be appropriate as a lot of guys here are getting ready or already in their off-seasons.


January ? Mid-May

Monday: Max-Effort Upper Body lifting
Tuesday: Max-Effort Lower Body lifting
Thursday: High Rep Upper body lifting or Dynamic Upper Body lifting (advanced)
Friday: Extra workout (full body) or Dynamic Lower Body lifting (advanced)

* Also, take into consideration that most of our athletes are active playing pick-up basketball games, racquetball, weekend lacrosse tournaments, etc.

End of May ? End of June

Monday: Max-Effort Upper Body lifting
Tuesday: Dynamic Warm-up, Mobility drills, Sprint technique, Tempo runs (linear)
Wednesday: Max-Effort Lower Body lifting
Thursday: High Rep Upper body lifting or Dynamic Upper Body lifting (advanced)
Friday: Dynamic Warm-up, Mobility drills, frequency drills, anaerobic conditioning (using football drills / agility drills)

July ? Mid-August

Monday, A.M. : Dynamic warm-up, mobility drills, anaerobic conditioning (linear)
Monday, P.M. : Max-Effort Upper Body lifting
Tuesday: Max-Effort Lower Body lifting (decrease volume & intensity)
Wednesday: Dynamic Warm-up, mobility drills, anaerobic conditioning (using football drills / agility drills)
Thursday: High Rep Upper body lifting or Dynamic Upper Body lifting (advanced)
Friday: Dynamic warm-up, Strongman conditioning

* At this time of year, most high schools participate in 7-on-7 passing camps during a couple of weekends. This adds more running/conditioning and neurological demand to the work week.

* Take 3-5 days completely off before the 1st day of training camp.

That’s obviously designed with football in mind, but can easily be adapted for any sport. This program is great for all athletes of any qualification and I can tell you first hand how much reading all of Joe’s stuff and applying it to my training has helped (to the tune of 20# of muscle mass and 3" on my vert since getting to college) my athletic performance.

Or check out his articles here on T-Nation. Simply put, this guy knows his shit and knows how it applies to the real-world training of athletes.

[/shameless plug]

jtrin,
I also enjoy going through Defranco’s old Q+As but I have some questions about these templates. Some stages have CNS intensive days back to back- which goes against Charlie Francis’ theories of high/low which is also emphasised by James Smith. Personally I would like to avoid doing two ME days in a row, as is the case in some of those stages.

Also, any ideas on how you would transition from one phase to the next? Browsing CF.com (though I have yet to read any of Charlie’s work) it seems that he favors a “smooth” transition from one phase to the next to avoid “stiffness” (a concept I am not sure I fully understand yet), as well as to maintain all qualities. Look forward to your imput,
TR

Damn !! Thanks bro !! exactly what I was looking for.
The DeFranco Solution. lol
He is just straight and to the point, always.

His facility VJ record is 43" so he knows his shit.

[quote]bigTR wrote:
jtrin,
I also enjoy going through Defranco’s old Q+As but I have some questions about these templates. Some stages have CNS intensive days back to back- which goes against Charlie Francis’ theories of high/low which is also emphasised by James Smith. Personally I would like to avoid doing two ME days in a row, as is the case in some of those stages.

Also, any ideas on how you would transition from one phase to the next? Browsing CF.com (though I have yet to read any of Charlie’s work) it seems that he favors a “smooth” transition from one phase to the next to avoid “stiffness” (a concept I am not sure I fully understand yet), as well as to maintain all qualities. Look forward to your imput,
TR[/quote]

Not going back to back on ME days is something I also like. I don’t think you absolutely HAVE to avoid going back to back, but I like it a little better. I think the first template is designed that way to allow high school kids to avoid weekends where they might have other commitments or not have access to the weightroom. It’s pretty easy just to slide days over and not have to worry about it.

As far as smoothness, a big factor in that has to do with the selection of your ME exercises. If you go from straight-bar deads to front squats, you might get some stiffness because they are so different. You just have to avoid picking exercises that are drastically different.

jtrin,
As far as exercise selection and stiffness go- I noticed in another thread that you said you think trap bar and straight bar deads should make up the majority of ME work for an athlete.

First I was wondering why you believe that. Secondly would your only concern about stiffness involve transitioning from doing mostly deads to (im guessing) more squatting in-season? Also would stiffness be more a function of exercise selection for ME or SE/RE which often causes more soreness?
thanks,
TR