First off, I wanted to introduce myself:
Age: 20
Height: 6 foot
Weight 170
I am a college baseball player & I love old school, heavy training. I am a exercise & sports science major with a minor in health & nutrition. I hope to one day open my own gym & train athletes. I love the old principles such as westside/conjugate, 5/3/1, 5x5, 5x3, heavy singles, etc. I love lifting like man & deadlifting, squatting, cleaning, and just clanging & banging.
I’ve been thinking & studying a lot lately & really want to make a workout program combining different methods & protocols. I have Christmas break coming up soon, and over the 4 weeks I get off, I really want to get as strong & big as possible heading into the season. We are doing team workouts now (which isn’t near enough for me) so I usually just do my own workouts based around the team workouts.
Basically what I’m saying, is that I need some help setting up a program that focuses on the following:
Taining Specific
Building explosive power & strength
Old school lifting & training principles
Olympic lifts such as hang/power cleans, high pulls, power shrugs, etc.
Brute strength lifts such as deadlifts, squats, bench press, miltary press
High Volume
Only other thing I want to add is that I really want to build huge traps!!!
I really appreciate anyone who reads this & helps me
You could do a 5/3/1 lay out with cleans before one lower body day as a form of explosive work. You can also try using the conjugate method and occasionally replacing traditional dynamic squats or deadlifts with cleans/snatches. You can also use the conjugate method as intended and use cleans/high pulls/power shrugs as assistance work. You may also benefit from using plyometrics occasionally.
Other than that, keep assistance work pretty standard. Adjust volume of assistance work as needed. I would recommend a lot of sled dragging since sleds can be loaded pretty heavy for strength work and can double as a conditioning/recovery tool.
Stay healthy, stay in shape, lift heavy, move fast.
Just out of curiosity, is there a specific reason why you would like to build big traps? Does this represent a mechanical advantage in baseball? (By the way, what position do you play, if you don’t mind my asking?)
If you plan on programming in cleans, high pulls and deadlifts, you will not need any supplementary trap work. With proper nutrition, recovery and (hopefully) genetics, your traps will grow like mad.
@black_angus1 yeah, I have every trap article every haha, thanks!
@infinite_shore yes, 4 weeks is a short amount of time, but I just want to put on about 5 pounds in that time
@kgildner I play second base…but I just want to build big traps because they are my favorite muscle. You don’t get big traps unless you put in the work deadlifting, cleaning, etc… I just love them hahaha
I’m thinking of using this, let me know what you guys think:
Buy the NSCA’s strength training book and visit exrx for templates. Don’t listen to all the other bullshit advice. This Jordan prater guys program is crap that will lead to over straining.
lol over training…that’s a term slang around by people who are afraid to get down & dirty. Look at guys like Arnold who trained all day basically, 5 sets of 10 on things & chest, back, legs on the same day. Just because I have good genetics & rarely get sore, doesn’t mean it’s over training. I like high volume & staying in the gym for about an 1 1/2 clanging and banging. Just because you think it’s over training doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t follow it. Like I said, it works for me & I love it. I’ve actaully added a quite bit more volume to this now. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t a good program
I’ve done Westside splits, which worked great. Done bodybuilding-type splits, training each lift/muscle group once a week, which also worked very well, albeit slower. I also tried a Bulgarian-type split, doing max-effort 3-4 times a week - wasn’t a big fan of this. Recently I’ve been training with a Bulgarian/Russian/Westside-inspired split. Pretty unorthodox, and many would probably disagree with it, but it’s been working really well AND really fast for me. I’m gaining lean mass AND gaining strength very fast, feeling more energetic, and my body is feeling better in regards to previous nagging injuries. This is basically it (for both upper and lower body): 1 max-effort day, 1 repetition day, 1 speed or prehab day.
Example: Monday - Upper-body max-effort
-bench variation to max
-triceps - 2 sets
-upper back - 2 sets
-rear delts - 1 set
Tuesday - Lower-body max-effort
-squat/deadlift variation to max
-posterior chain - 1-2 sets
-hip and knee mobility work
-upper back/traps - 2 sets
-neck work
-ab work
Wednesday - Upper-body rep-effort
-bench variation for reps (5 or more and usually close-grip)
-same assistance work as Monday
Thursday - Lower-body rep
-squat/dead variation for reps (5 or more)
-same assistance work as Tuesday
Friday - Upper-body speed or prehab
-bench variation for speed (5x3 @ 50-60%)
-same assistance work as Monday
Saturday - Lower-body speed/prehab
-squat/dead variation for speed (8x2 @ 50-60%)
-same assistance as Tuesday
*All assistance work is normally done with low-intensity/high-volume. Ex: 1x20, 2x10, 2x12, etc. I just found 20-24 (WORK, not warmup) reps works best for me.
[quote]Jordan Prater wrote:
lol over training…that’s a term slang around by people who are afraid to get down & dirty. Look at guys like Arnold who trained all day basically, 5 sets of 10 on things & chest, back, legs on the same day. Just because I have good genetics & rarely get sore, doesn’t mean it’s over training. I like high volume & staying in the gym for about an 1 1/2 clanging and banging. Just because you think it’s over training doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t follow it. Like I said, it works for me & I love it. I’ve actaully added a quite bit more volume to this now. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t a good program[/quote]
To be fair, I don’t think you can compare arnold and anyone else known for that matter. Yea me too, if I was hooked up on steroids.
I’m not taking away anything from them, props to their hard work, discipline and everything, but me too, if I had half the juice they had I’d be in the gym day in day out. Yes steroids is simply a ‘‘factor’’, but they play a major fkin role too in how much your body can handle.