If You Can't Sprint What Good Is All That Gym Strength Doing For You?

This program isn’t right for you… Just yet. You need to build your athletic foundation with the earlier programs of this process (Functional Feet, Happy Hips, Strong Shoulders, and Amateur Athlete). These will prepare your body for the challenge of this program.

n this program, we train five days a week with two days off. You can place those rest days anywhere in the training week. You can add more volume or layer your sport practices on top of this, just be mindful that the volume will add up. It’s best to start conservatively. Month one is an onramp where we review and practice basic athletic skills while introducing the full body lifts and building conditioning. Months two and three progress this with specific speed, agility, and plyometric training. The lifts stay consistent but the loads increase. You’ll also see the conditioning get harder. Month four is the most intense with three lifts a week and two athletic skill days each week.

You’ll want access to a full gym for this. The lifts use a barbell, dumbbells, sandbags, a trap bar, a cable machine, a bench, pull-up bar, and dip setup. But there are substitutions if you don’t have access to all that. You can do the barbell/trap bar exercises with dumbbells. You can do the cable machine exercises with bands. And you can do most all the exercises with a sandbag. 

This program will take you out of the gym. The lifts are best done in your gym of choice. But the speed days will need some space outside. A track is ideal. But any flat field works too. I recommend doing the agility and plyometric days there too. Depending on the distance you can work on a court or indoor turf space too. For some of the conditioning days you’ll want a track, trail, or road to run on, but a treadmill can work too. It’s best to look at the training for the week to plan what locations you’ll need. Once you have your staple locations, you’ve massively expanded your options.