Countdown to Training Camp..Easy on the throttle 'playuh'

With High School, College, and even pro camps 7-14 days away. Your strength and conditioning programs should be winding down in a way.


Your max lifts on the power movements (Squat, deadlift, power cleans, clean and jerk, snatches, etc.,) should happen within the next 5 days and then take your weights down a notch or two and focus on muscle endurance. The good news is that with this version of recovery, you should get even a little stronger by the time you hit the sled in first sweltering practice next week or so.

Reduce your sprints during your speed, agility, and quickness workouts by 10%. If you were doing 15-150 meter sprints per workout go hard for 10-12. Or you can ditch one or more sprint workouts for a middle distance run 1200-1500 meters at 3/4 speed.

The only thing that you should increase at this time is stretching. Even though you have been training year round (or at least I hope you have) muscle pulls and strains or worse generally take place in the first week or two of camp. You can help yourself not become one of these statistics by making sure that you are maximally flexible during these two weeks leading up to camp.

Once camp starts, if your team does not have a structured, in-season lifting program, do 2-4 days a week of basic strength and power workouts with no Olympic movements in the program. You will do this for the duration of the season. Make sure your last workout of the week is at least 48 hours away from game day. During this period you are just trying to get stronger in the 1-5 rep range to help decrease recovery time after games and reduce the chances of injury.

Tomorrow we will get into training camp nutrition so that you can not only survive camp, but help possibly secure a starting spot in September.

Lastly, if you have done everything that you know to prepare for camp, don't stress. Football will be one of the most memorable times of your life. Enjoy the ride, go to the beach, buy your girlfriend some flowers, be nice for a day to Mom, Dad, and your annoying Sister. Yeah surprise her with niceness, it will really make her mad!

Attention Athletes!
Improve your Strength, Speed, and Agility.
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