Off-Season Workout Programs

The conclusion of a sporting season is always met with a collective sigh of relief by the athletes. After a grueling few months in which you undoubtedly lost some size and strength, you can finally rest... for about a week, that is. The current paradigm in sports training revolves around a year-long model, in which the athlete almost immediately moves from in-season work to off-season conditioning, preparing him for next year's punishment. While some athletes are given a pre-designed conditioning plan by their coaches, many are not. For those, we have just the fix.

  1. A little about Westside Barbell

    • Westside Barbell is a powerlifting gym in Columbus, Ohio that is home to some of the strongest weightlifters in the world. Westside has a number of lifters with 800+-lb. benches, 1,000-lb. squats and equally strong deadlifts.

      The typical Westside template consists of maximal lift days interspersed with speed training days. The theory is that power is not only a component of maximum force generation, but comprises both maximum total force and the speed at which you can apply that force to the bar. In other words, they lift specifically to increase maximal bar speed, which was revolutionary at the time.

      Westside lifters normally lift four days a week. Two of these days are maximum upper and lower body, respectively. The other two (again divided into upper and lower days) involve dynamic work with roughly 60 percent of the lifter's one-rep maximum to train bar speed and explosive qualities.

    "Westside for Skinny Bastards"

    • Joe DeFranco, a trainer from New Jersey, has modified the original Westside template to form an off-season program for athletes called "Westside for Skinny Bastards." Do not be put off by the name; as most powerlifters are tipping the scales at roughly 300 lbs, most everyone is "skinny" in comparison. Regardless of how you view the name, the program works, and it works well.

      The program uses a four-day-a-week split. It consists of a max-effort upper body day, a dynamic (speed work) lower-body day, a high-repetition upper-body day, and a max-effort lower-body day. The program is usually performed as follows:

      Sunday: off
      Monday: max upper body
      Tuesday: speed lower body
      Wednesday: off
      Thursday: repetition upper body
      Friday: max lower body
      Saturday: off

      The full version of the workout is available by following the link in Resources, but a general overview includes:

      Max effort upper body: This includes a maximal heavy triple on a selected upper body lift, followed by a variety of accessory work. Supersets (sets of different exercises performed back to back) are employed to increase work density while keeping the overall workout time low, and some "show" muscles (arms and abdominals) are developed as well.

      Speed lower body: This consists of plyometric (jumping drills) work followed by unilateral exercises to balance out the lower body, along with hip and quad movements, with core work to wrap things up.

      Upper body repetition: This workout consists of a relatively heavy upper body lift performed for max repetitions, followed by the same types of accessory work seen on the maximal upper body day. Supersets are again employed to increase the workload without increasing time in the gym.

      Max effort lower: This includes a heavy triple on a lower body lift, followed by some unilateral, quad, and hamstring work to round out the week.

      While the program is quite a bit of work, you should be able to handle the volume since you are in the off-season. Assuming you eat right and train hard, you should quickly regain any body weight lost during the season, and then some.

      An exercise list is provided in Resources to help you learn any unfamiliar exercises.