Major Project Post #2

I am back with my major blog post number two and I have much to discuss.

For this post I will be discussing my past week of the implementation of my strength program which began Sunday the 11^th to Friday the 16^th.  As I mentioned in my previous major blog post, this past week was my athletes’ max week, which is a week where we retest our four main lifts to quantify strength gains.  First, I would like to start with my attendance.  Since other sports are now coming to a close, my attendance numbers have drastically increased.  I have had to prepare everyday for a bigger and bigger group of athletes.  This is a key element because the number of athletes determines my time I will be able to spend with each athlete during the lift.  As seen in picture one, I organize my attendance numbers using an excel worksheet.  I first broke the sheet down by the month and day that each lift will occur and then I assign a number one for attend or zero for unexcused absence.  In the sample of my entire sheet I provided here, you can see my number values for each day as well as abbreviations for involvement of other sports or excused absences. 

Picture 1

                Now, getting on to the exciting part.  As I mentioned in my last major blog post, my preparation for this month’s max week was different then my approach in the first month.  For this preparation, I had my athletes utilize corrective/strength band workouts which lessened the intensity and workload of the body before maxing.  In my first approach, I had my athletes perform low volume (number of reps) high intensity (heavy weight) workouts.  I was pleased with my first results, but I continually like to evolve my program and challenge my athletes’ bodies to see what works for each individual.  Some may say that striving for program individualization is impossible for the amount of athletes I train, but I am able to determine the greater increases for each athlete by comparing their gains from the two max session approaches. 

                Monday was our max squat day.  For the sample I provided below, the selected athletes that are highlighted in a yellow box, show the small to no gain from the first approach to max week and the larger gain from the second approach.  This tells me that approach number two was most beneficial for these specific athletes.  The athletes highlighted in a blue box shows my counter evidence.  This tells me that this specific athlete benefited most from the first approach and I now will adjust his workouts accordingly. 

Picture 2

                Tuesday was our max bench day and will the sample provided below I have made the same highlights to notify gains. Yellow = approach number one had greater affect / Blue = approach number two had greater affect

Picture 3

                Wednesday was max dead-lift and the sample below again shows high gains in yellow and lower gains in blue.

Picture 4

                Thursday was max floor press.  See below for the same format of information.

Picture 5

                Overall, I felt it was a very successful week for me and most of my athletes.  I use the weekend to write up the new workouts for the upcoming week and with my new max numbers I will now be able to make more individualized workout plans to maximize the possible gains.  Next week I will discuss the changes I made for specific athletes and how I implemented these changes during the workouts.  #staytuned