Summer Football Wrap Up 2013

Another summer has come and gone, and for us here at Varsity House this means our Summer Football training has ended. All of our athletes have returned back to their schools to begin another year of training camp, in what hopes to be a successful football season. For some of our athletes it’s their first taste of College Football. This was the summer of broken records and the will to succeed was never better!!

Our training program started in May and was dedicated to the development of strength, power production, Linear/foot speed, on the field conditioning, and overall mental toughness. We broke our athletes up into 2 groups, one being the lineman and the other the skill group. The program included in the first Block all of the major movements like the Bench and Box Squat with accommodating resistance. The accommodating resistance that was used was chains. The rep scheme was 6,5,3,2, and week 6 was our max out week. We used week 1 as introduction week so it did not count as part of Block 1. Within our max out week there are several strength tests and performance tests that we are performing. The strength tests include a max bench, max bench rep outs with a certain weight, max box squat, 1 minute push up test, and an all out pull up test. Our performance tests include the max vertical jump, broad jump, and the 5-10-5 agility drill.

Going into Block 2 there were some significant changes made to both groups regarding their major movements.  The plan for Block 2 was to change the bars that were being used to bench with so the lineman group went to an axle bar which is a 3inch thick bar. The idea behind this is to improve overall grip strength and making the technique of “Breaking the Bar” much harder. The lineman also used some accommodating resistance which was light band tension. For the skill group the bar was changed to a football bar which is an inside grip that is relative to a Dumbbell Bench. The idea behind this is to improve overall tricep strength and elbow placement on the bench.  For the box squat in Block 2 the lineman stayed with a regular bar but used the accommodating resistance of heavy band tension. The idea behind this is to learn how to eccentrically load the hips better during a box squat as well as learning to constantly grind through the kinetic energy that the band is creating. Our skill group changed over to a Safety Bar. The idea behind using a safety bar is to learn how to keep a “Proud Chest” during a squat. The safety bar is much higher on the neck, so it really forces the athlete to constantly keep thinking of the chest to lead during the concentric phase of a squat. This led us into our second max out week which was Week 11. This could be called the most important week of the summer because it’s time to see if all the hard work you have put in pays off to hitting some new personal records. Our athletes were amped up and the results were great!! We had over 30 ATHLETES hit personal records on both the bench and squat and 3 all time gym records were also broken! Some of our athletes made 30lb jumps from their previous max outs in week 6! As coaches it was very rewarding to see the improvements of our athletes.

Within both of these blocks we had 2 dedicated days to performance work which was a progression of linear speed, power output, footwork, and change of direction. Also there was one day of regeneration which included shoulder rehab, hip, knee, and flexibility work. The one day I have not talked about yet is most likely our most popular day here at Varsity House which is our Jailhouse Friday workouts. Some of our athletes who were asked to stay at school and train with the team by the coaches would just come home for the weekend so that they can train with us for our Jailhouse Fridays. These Friday’s consist of our volume upper and Strongman Events. The First 10 weeks of the summer we stuck to real traditional Strongman Events and Medleys that include the log press, axle press, tire flip, stone loads, farmers, sandbag carries, and everyone’s favorite the tire sled. The last few weeks the athletes would work together in teams of three to try to complete a conditioning circuit in the best time possible and the winning team was done for the day while the losing teams had some Extra Work to do. The idea behind this is to improve teamwork, overall conditioning, lactic acid threshold, and mental toughness.

We know not everyone lives close enough to come to the gym and train with us, but click the link below to see the first block of the program we put our athletes through. Feel free to use the workouts on your own and post some pictures or videos of you doing the routines. Be sure to tag your posts with #teamvarsityhouse and #alwaysgrinding

Summer 2013 Block 1

There is no doubt in my mind that our athletes have left with being the strongest and best in shape that they have ever been. Now it’s time to bring all that work ethic onto the field. We wish all of our athletes the Best of Luck this Season and SEE ALL OF YOU NEXT SUMMER!!  

P.S. DON’T FORGET ABOUT OUR WINTER WORKOUTS WHEN YOU GET HOME!!