Off Season Regimen (Strength/Hypertrophy)

My off season regimen focuses on gaining size, strength and speed! 4 days a week I'm doing full body intense workouts, with two recovery workout days built in and one day of active recovery. My workouts are consistent including mobility, dynamic warm-up, plyometrics, strength work, accessory work and Energy System Development (aka conditioning). This happens 4 days a week for an 8 week period. The reps and weight for the strength/hypertrophy exercises are sub-maximal, meaning you are working with 80-85% of your max, and are programmed with the intent of getting you stronger through each 4 week phase.

Today, I dive deeper into our strength training:

Our 3 strength exercises include: DB overhead press, trap bar dead lift and 30 degree incline DB press. I've altered the original lifts to make them more conducive for the athlete. I've found that anytime I'm able to use DB versus a barbell it allows for better gains in muscle activation, which means more mass and strength.

In this 4 week phase we start with a weight we can do a max of 12 reps with. For instance if your 12 RM is 50lbs, then your 3 sets in week 1 will be 10 reps of 50lbs. In week 1 we do our 12RM for 10 reps (i.e. sub-maxial). The weight increases each week, as do the reps. See below for the weight and reps:

Progression adopted from Christian Thibaudeau of the Indigo Project.

Be sure when starting this program you find your true 12 RM and start week 1 using that same weight for your base. For me my 12 RM was 50lbs each dumbell for overhead press, 295 lbs for Trap Bar Deadlift and 85lbs each dumbell for incline DB press. How do your numbers compare?

Follow the program and you will see the gains, and get stronger each week. This is the first part of my daily training. Stay tuned for posts on mobility work, dynamic warm up, accessory lifts and conditioning.