For the past decade I have run 6 am workouts before school. We ran an upper/ lower type of lifting program hitting upper body pushes and pulls on Monday’s and Thursday’s, then lower body stuff on tues and Friday.

I’d always stressed 85 percent attendance was “ Champions Club” and the greater majority of kids fell far short of that. At my school most of the kids play two or three sports and we maybe have half a dozen guys who are football only kids so four lifting session a week just doesn’t make sense.  Many that try to play a sport and also lift usually won’t lift on game/ match/ meet days driving attendance down.

The change now...? We are emphasizing two full body lift days a week , one hour tops, twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. We are also going after school and have met with the wrestling coach about sharing the space.

The focus is squat, push, pull....we test kids on bench, squat, deadlift.

I have issued a challenge to players and parents....can you make FIFTY sessions in 32 weeks?

Coach J. Messing has encouraged me to make this liberating change....we will see how it works for us.

I've had this EXACT idea for a while now.  Please keep us updated on how it works for you.

My thoughts were:

Day 1:  Squat, Bench, Rows
Day 2:  Deadlift, Overhead Press, Chin Up/Lat Pulldowns

I'd like to superset all that with kids lifting in assigned groups and rotating on a whistle to save time and make sure everyone's working efficiently.  Maybe do a little "mobility and movement" period before or after to very quickly work on flexibility, plyos, and speed/coordination.

Good luck with it, coach.  I hope you'll let us know what kind of results you get.

At KHS, we lifted before school started.  When we made it a class, we no longer lifted before school.  At CHS, players only lifted if their gym class was a weight lifting class.  At GHHS we lifted after school, IF the Varsity wasn’t in there and at EWHS we lifted after school, every day, in season and out.

—Dave

I've had this EXACT idea for a while now.  Please keep us updated on how it works for you.

My thoughts were:

Day 1:  Squat, Bench, Rows
Day 2:  Deadlift, Overhead Press, Chin Up/Lat Pulldowns

I'd like to superset all that with kids lifting in assigned groups and rotating on a whistle to save time and make sure everyone's working efficiently.  Maybe do a little "mobility and movement" period before or after to very quickly work on flexibility, plyos, and speed/coordination.

Good luck with it, coach.  I hope you'll let us know what kind of results you get.

Today was the third workout...

I saw guys do squats and some leg press and leg curl...

They all got in three upper body pushes and three pulls too.

I told them to put a good solid half hour into the legs before worrying about upper body pushing and pulling. Pretty good job and now they can rest eat and grow until Monday’s lift. I told them to bring a buddy...

One thing that's really worked well for HS teams I've coached is to divide the players into groups of 3-5 according to their overall strength on the core lifts, then put them all on the whistle.  Supersetting also helps save a ton of time and use equipment better.

If you do it right, you can knock out a great, efficient whole-team full body workout in about 45 minutes and make sure every kid has done his work.  They get 30 seconds to change the weight, then 30 seconds to do their set, then rotate to spot while the next kid lifts.  Keep it focused on meat-and-potatoes core barbell lifts--same philosophy as the DW, just applied to the weight program.

No loafing disguised as "rest," no wasted time changing the bar or walking around trying to figure out what to do or finding a station, no kids doing calf raises as their "lower body lift" or curls as "upper body pull," no kids skipping legs or back work... it stops all that.  They will get stronger.

Have half the kids do "Day 1" on Monday while the other half do "Day 2," then switch on Thursday to use equipment more efficiently.  The real beauty of it is that you can use this idea with any structure: 2 days a week, 3 day a week full body, 4 day upper/lower split, etc.

I'm a huge fan.

No loafing disguised as "rest," no wasted time changing the bar or walking around trying to figure out what to do or finding a station, no kids doing calf raises as their "lower body lift" or curls as "upper body pull," no kids skipping legs or back work... it stops all that.  They will get stronger.

Funny... calfs support the knee, and biceps support the shoulder...and the top injured joints in football are....

Your roster is only as good as who plays friday night.

Funny... calfs support the knee, and biceps support the shoulder...and the top injured joints in football are....

Your roster is only as good as who plays friday night.

But calf raises and bicep curls are not going to be the focus of a program especially if time is limited. However, if time allowed I would throw some of that arm work in a the end of the session because it doesn’t hurt anything and will make your players feel good and buy-in more because they like that stuff. Additionally, it helps them look the part of football player.

The knee is the most commonly injured joint and I would say a lot of that had to do with the lack of unilateral strength and not training to stop and/or change directions (too much emphasis on linear speed without stopping).

It’s not going well....with golf, tennis, lacrosse, track and baseball....there aren’t many guys left! There are five or six guys that are still doing ams....and I open twice a week....the trainer opens too....the am programming was more fun for me ....but this is certainly less demanding on all.

The kids get to pick what lifts they do? Am I understanding that correctly?

The kids get to pick what lifts they do? Am I understanding that correctly?

No, that said, it’s all voluntary here, can’t force anything on anyone.

Funny... calfs support the knee, and biceps support the shoulder...and the top injured joints in football are....

Your roster is only as good as who plays friday night.

There's nothing wrong with calf raises or bicep curls.

There is something wrong with a kid doing those instead of squats, deadlifts, bench, or other compound lifts that work the calves, biceps, and other large muscle groups to develop functional strength.

You can add calf raises and bicep curls to that, but if you just do those 6 lifts I mentioned above as the foundation of your program, you will get stronger.

It’s not going well....with golf, tennis, lacrosse, track and baseball....there aren’t many guys left! There are five or six guys that are still doing ams....and I open twice a week....the trainer opens too....the am programming was more fun for me ....but this is certainly less demanding on all.

Are the other sports' coaches refusing to allow their athletes to lift in-season or are kids just not interested in lifting?

I hate to hear that it's not working, but it sounds like the programming isn't the issue so much as a lack of participation.

Are the other sports' coaches refusing to allow their athletes to lift in-season or are kids just not interested in lifting?

I hate to hear that it's not working, but it sounds like the programming isn't the issue so much as a lack of participation.

It’s a combination of parents willingness to drive kids in an hour before school, or a kids willingness to train before some of the later practice.....some late nights for kids in spring sports. I’d say this has been our least productive spring. We need a great summer.

Today was THE BEST workout this off season and I set things up with mini circuits....great results! See attached. Caution, if you make them move too fast, nausea will set in...

Today was THE BEST workout this off season and I set things up with mini circuits....great results! See attached. Caution, if you make them move too fast, nausea will set in...

It might work, but I don't like this set up at all.

First, I have to assume that there are at least 3-4 sets per exercise, so up to 12 sets per circuit. So with 5 circuits, you have about 45-60 sets per session. To me, that seems like way too much volume.

Second, I don't like the fact that there are two main multi-joint exercises in the same circuit, ie squat and bench. This is just too overtaxing. Unless you are doing extremely light weights with the main exercises, I just don't see your athletes recovering sufficiently.

If it were me, I would focus on two main lifts per day. So two main circuits:
Group 1: Squat/Pullups/Dips
Group 2: Bench/Step-ups/RDLs
Then add maybe 2 or 3 supplemental exercises.
If I did 3 sets rounds of squat and bench circuits and 3 sets on everything else, the volume drops considerably, maybe 36 sets total. Much better than 45-60.

On a second day, your two main lifts could be press and deadlift circuits. My preference, however, would be to have a Bench/Deadlift day and a Squat/Press day. This makes more sense for me because squats tax the legs much more than deadlifts. With me, once my legs are gone, there's not much left for anything else.

Personally, I don't like circuits for strength building. I'd rather focus on one main lift and hit it hard for 5 or 6 sets. If I was going to add circuits, I would do those after the main lift.

Just my opinion.