T Nation

Periodizing My Off-Season

Powerlifting
#1

I’m going to have to make a program, and some help would be welcome.

For my off-season (lacrosse) I’m going to have 6-7 months. The first 2 months I plan on doing Neanderthal No More. I already have pretty good posture, but I don’t want to take any risks. After that my personal program will start. First phase I’m going to focus on strength, second phase I’ll focus on power. During these phases I have to maintain: Size, Mobility, AND STAY INJURY FREE. I’ll allow my endurance to slip a little, but the last few weeks I’ll have to work hard to bring it up. I still need to do a little more research before making the program, but any tips will be helpful in the meantime.

One question I have for right now, for the strength phase, would it better to work upto a 3-5RM for my main lifts, or just keep the weight constant for each set?

Thanks for the help

INFO:
17 years old
6’2
Male
Box Lacrosse
Have been lifting weights for 1 year now

#2

Work up to a max…i recommend Defranco’s WS4SB program.

#3

I’d highly recommend picking up Cressey’s Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual.

It’s got exactly the type of info you’re looking for.

http://www.ultimateoffseason.com/

#4

[quote]matticus wrote:
I’d highly recommend picking up Cressey’s Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual.

It’s got exactly the type of info you’re looking for.

http://www.ultimateoffseason.com/[/quote]

It’d be a good idea, but I don’t have the money for it right now.

#5

[quote]bruinsdmb wrote:
Work up to a max…i recommend Defranco’s WS4SB program.[/quote]

I’m thinking about maybe modifying that program to fit my needs.

#6

[quote]bruinsdmb wrote:
Work up to a max…i recommend Defranco’s WS4SB program.[/quote]

i agree.

#7

I was planning on doing ws4sb, but what I don’t like about it, is how bench press (horizontal push) has so much more emphisis for strength than rows (horizontal pull).

Since this is going to be during my school year, I’m probably only going to get 3 days to go to the gym.
2 lower body days, and 1 upper body day, but I’ll include some upper body work on the second LB day. I’ll also include 1 low volume day at home for mainly my upper body.

I’ll try and have the strength phase routine done by the end of the day for you guys to critique.

Thanks for all the help

#8

Sorry guys for making this thread so boring, but I’ve just decided to use Mike’s Designer Athlete for atleast the strength phase. It looks like a great program + he knows his stuff about injury prevention which is important to me.

Would it be a good idea to change some of the main lifts (horizontal push, lowerbody push, lowerbody pull, vertical pull) so that I work up to a #RM like some of you suggested, or stick exactly to the program and keep a constant weight for sets?

#9

[quote]vision1 wrote:
…

Would it be a good idea to change some of the main lifts (horizontal push, lowerbody push, lowerbody pull, vertical pull) so that I work up to a #RM like some of you suggested, or stick exactly to the program and keep a constant weight for sets?[/quote]

That isn’t a mutually exclusive choice. You can use a constant weight for a few weeks, and then switch to RM work for couple weeks. Take a week off, and repeat until it stops working.