2011 Article Start the year as you intend to continue it Ashley Jones

Posted By Getstrength on behalf of Ashley Jones.

Just a few ideas to get the New Year off and running, enjoy, ash

Whilst I await the return of my players to commence pre-season training I thought it would be a good time to write down a few ideas for you to consider in your training going forward into 2011. As most of you know I have been a student of strength training for many years, I love the Strength Pentathlon as a way of gauging your all around strength using the competition lifting of the 2 Olympic lifts and 3 Power Lifts as a testing protocol and training regime.

Before you train I like these options for warm ups, taken from a variety of the current crop of great writers around the world, if you are unsure of some movements the Exercise index provided by http://www.elitefts.com is a great reference as is you tube and google, you actually may know these by different names, for the bodyweight circuit go to http://www.combatconditioning.com and see what Matt Furey has produced. Remember that is you do not think you have the time to warm up then you definitely do not have the time to work out!

Option 1
High Hurdle Mobility Circuit – Forward/Back, Under/Over
Skipping KB Swings – 30 seconds Hurdles/30 seconds skip/30 seconds KB swings mix it up rest 30 seconds repeat

Option 2
Plate Circuit (6 each movement x 3 times through)
Plate Swings/Overhead Squat/Plate Head Circles/Plate Horizontal Push/Plate Wood Chop/Alt. Reverse Lunge with Twist/Plate Bent over Row

KB Circuit (6 reps each exercise x 3 times through)
MMA Row/MMA Press/Alt. Upright Row/See Saw Shoulder Press/Clean/Snatch

Option 3
BW Mobility Circuit (Combat Conditioning options – 10 each)
Grasshoppers/Mountain Climbers/Hindu Push ups/Prisoner Jump Squats/Scorpions Prone & Supine/Alt. Lunges/Table Maker/Reverse Push up/Rock & Rolls/No Momentum Sit ups/Legs to Floor Overhead

Option 4
DB Shoulder Circuit (15 reps each exercise)
Arnold Presses/Lateral Raise/Front Raise/Bent over Raise/YTI’s/Drawing the Swords/L Raise/Cuban Press/Overhead Shrug/Scarecrows

Option 5
Olympic lifting Complexes (bar only) 6 reps on each movement, do all 3 variations with a short rest in between each

1) Muscle Snatch from floor Hang Power Snatch Snatch Balance Squat Snatch Press Overhead Squat

2) Clean Grip Power Snatch Hang Power Clean Front Squat Sots Press Push Press

3) Hang Snatch Push Press Front Squat Hang Clean Bent over Row RDL

Okay, now you have warmed up, and in the course of that added a wee bit of prehab work and technique work to the mix you can address the main session. My idea here is to work one of the Big Five on each day of the week and then have the weekend free, or you can re-configure the week and take a day off during the week and train on Saturday if you wish, there are no right and wrongs here whatever works best for you is the key. Also I am not going to put down sets and reps as these will be specific to your needs and you can play around with what works best for you.

Monday – Snatch focus

Snatch balance
Snatch
Power Snatch from blocks or from hang
Snatch Pulls

Tuesday – Squat focus

Band box Squats
Max effort squatting movement (single or double leg)
2 x Hamstring/Lower Back movements
Heavy Abdominal movements (1 or 2)
(Rollouts, Turkish Get Ups, Suitcase Deadlifts, Zercher Lift & Squat, Full Body Combat Twist)

Wednesday

Thursday – Clean focus

Squat Clean
Power Clean from blocks or from hang
Clean Pulls
Front Squat

Friday – Deadlift focus

Deadlift (can be speed DL’s or band assisted)
2 x Hamstring/Lower Back exercises
Heavy Abdominal movements (1 or 2)
(Rollouts, Turkish Get Ups, Suitcase Deadlifts, Zercher Lift & Squat, Full Body Combat Twist)

Try this for 4 – 6 weeks and see how you go, all the very best for an awesome 2011.