T Nation

Designer Athlete

Bodybuilding
#1

Thanks in advance Mr. Robertson for taking our questions. I first want to that your designer athlete training routine is one of the best most balanced, and all incompassing workouts i have ever seen. Ever major muscle group and movement plan is worked sufficiently and any necessary prehab is including. I just wanted to get your opinion on what sort of rep/set scheme you would incorporate during this program.

You gave suggested ranges but would it be more efficient to use one session as maximal strength then dedicate another session to some other strength quality.

One final question could you lay out a simple fat loss program or a specific set of parameters that you would use while trying to lean up an athlete. I playing spring ball right now but have been out for a couple of years due to injury so my conditioning levels are not like they once were plus i would like to drop about five percent bodyfat in order to be a better all around player.

what could i do to make such a program or any program as baseball specific as possible

thanks for any help

#2

Wow, those are loaded questions!

The thing that many forget about the “Designer Athletes” program is that it is an off-season program. The key, in my eyes, to a successful off-season is to prepare you for future training. With that being said, many athletes need to get the following out of an off-season program:

1 - Increase/restore muscle mass
2 - Improve tendon/ligament strength
3 - Prepare for harder, heavier training to come!

There’s plenty of time later in the year to increase maximal strength levels, and you might even see some maximal strength increases due to the increase in muscle cross sectional area.

As far as leaning an athlete out, it depends on the athlete, the sport they play, and their current conditioning level. If it’s someone in an off-season program, I would go with something similar to the “Superior Circuit” article series as it shouldn’t interfere too much with strength/hypertrophy gains, but will still allow you to lean out and improve work capacity.

Stay strong
MR

[quote]brotzfrog10 wrote:
Thanks in advance Mr. Robertson for taking our questions. I first want to that your designer athlete training routine is one of the best most balanced, and all incompassing workouts i have ever seen. Ever major muscle group and movement plan is worked sufficiently and any necessary prehab is including. I just wanted to get your opinion on what sort of rep/set scheme you would incorporate during this program.

You gave suggested ranges but would it be more efficient to use one session as maximal strength then dedicate another session to some other strength quality.

One final question could you lay out a simple fat loss program or a specific set of parameters that you would use while trying to lean up an athlete. I playing spring ball right now but have been out for a couple of years due to injury so my conditioning levels are not like they once were plus i would like to drop about five percent bodyfat in order to be a better all around player.

what could i do to make such a program or any program as baseball specific as possible

thanks for any help[/quote]

#3

MR

do recommend the designer athlete program for endurance athletes in the off season?

#4

The DA program would be great for endurance athletes for several reasons:

1 - Improvement of tendon/ligament strength
2 - The focus on development of the posterior chain (many runners, swimmers, cyclists, etc. are not strong here)
3 - A lot of endurance athletes could benefit from getting some basic strength work into their program

Stay strong
MR

[quote]TriGWU wrote:
MR

do recommend the designer athlete program for endurance athletes in the off season?[/quote]

#5

Any twist on it for use while in season?

#6

If you check out the DA article thread, I posted some thoughts on in-season training.

With most cyclic sport athletes, though, I would focus on combating muscle imbalances, prehab/rehab, and maintaining flexibility. In other words, KEEP YOUR ASS HEALTHY! Nothing exciting, but somthething that isn’t prioritized nearly enough.

Stay strong
MR

#7

[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
If you check out the DA article thread, I posted some thoughts on in-season training.

With most cyclic sport athletes, though, I would focus on combating muscle imbalances, prehab/rehab, and maintaining flexibility. In other words, KEEP YOUR ASS HEALTHY! Nothing exciting, but somthething that isn’t prioritized nearly enough.

Stay strong
MR[/quote]

thanks Mike… All the best