how many lift heavy during the season? how often?

well, as I said, i want them to lift for gains during the season. i could actually see the mass loss in my linemen. puny.

I think it depends on your philosophy with Strength & Conditioning.

If it is year-round, then you have to temper it with how you are developing your athletes. Are you cycling them in stages (7 - 12 week periods), or are you just going balls-out all year round?

Do you believe the body is an adaptable organism, whos gains/losses can plateau? Or is it just mathematics.....just keep adding more weight on weight?

Lot of schools of thought on it.

Is your off-season program geared toward getting your athletes to PEAK at the season start? If so, then you would follow the natural cycle (or quarter) as the football season is approximately a full cycle length.

We felt that the kids need time to recoup, but we do Oly lifts twice a week during the season. Football games (and practice) can take their toll on an athlete, and its not what you can "train"(lift) but what you can KEEP (rest and nutrition to avoid a catabolic cycle). It is easy to take for granted how much anaerobic effort is being expended during practices, because for a large part, if the tempo in practice isn't high, it doesn't challenge the players physically.

We lift once a week (on film day) and I think it is no where near enough.

In high school we lifted six days a week. Every day except the day before the game (We lifted after the game on gameday... which meant that no one went out on friday nights in season).

We Do ab work and lift weights, Monday(both), Tues(only abs), Wednesday (Both).

ps..i could probably benefit from ab work lol

We are BFS and lift the same as always. Monday is bench and squat. Wednesday is towel bench and cleans. We will also do auxilaries, but back off to just one semi-light set for each of four auxilaries.

We still we keep and break records during the season. We still rep out. It is a great feeling knowing at the end of the season your team is stronger than they were in August, and most other teams aren't even lifting!!!

Sets and reps are on a cycle. 3/3/3, 5/5/5, 5/3/1, 6/4/2. We do 6/4/2 instead of 10/8/6 during the season. That is the only change we make besides a little lighter on the aux. I will slip in a 10/8/6 on a week were I know we will win. I don't think it would be a bad idea to go ahead and keep 10/8/6, but I just like keeping the reps down during the season.

We have lifted on Mon and Thurs also. It was no problem.

I am staring to like the idea of lifting on game day. For those who do, do you go heavy, light, what? What are the benefits and pitfalls?

I agree. We lift 4 days/week, year-round, and we lift hard during the football season.

We also lift 3 days a week in season. The routine varies a little from off season (we have a 52 week cycle... broken down in to various phases- including active rest), but we do make gains in season... we do not just lift for maintenance. Our cycle ends at the start of the quarterfinals and we are off until after Thanksgiving, when we resume a new phase.

On the day (Wed. in a normal week) we do not lift, we do speed/agility drills.

We do not lift on game day- we do film and walk-throughs then.

Getting stronger means your overall team, not each and every player.

I consider heavy to be a going for a rep max. That could be a 1 rep max, 3 rep max, 5 rep max or whatever.

There will be guys who don't get stronger. Injured guys come to mind first. Guys who carry the ball twenty times a game. Guys who never come off the field. But, I have seen guys like that still get stronger during the season.

I think the main thing is how you approach it. I would lift to get stronger. Some might not, but most still will. But, I guarantee you, that if you lift to maintain, ALL will get weaker.

I really don't believe in the maintance concept at all. I have no scientific evidence to back this up, but I do have years of coaching experience. I do not believe there is any such thing as "lifting to maintain." I think that lifting light is training the muscles to be weak. I really do believe that you would be better off not lifting than trying to maintain because you will get the same results and not waste time or energy.

Guys who are getting the 20 carries and never come off the field, lift them to get stronger. They might not, but that is how they actually "maintain" or just drop a little.

BFS has a great way of how to handle your 500 pound squatter and 300 pound cleaner. Start his records over after two-a-days. That way he can start over with what he can max on reps after being physically drained, and then increase and break records during the season.

I agree with you, what difference does a 520 squat or 530 squat make for him at the end of the season. But at the same time, you give him an opportunity to increase. Here is what I think can happen. Lift him to get stronger and he might increase to 530, but will probably drop to 500. Lift him to maintain, and I bet he drops to 470 or even less. Now, there is a difference in a possible 530 and 470. But still great numbers. But what about a kid where it could be 330 or 270? That can easily be the difference between winning and losing. And that is where most high school starters are.

Plus, you don't have to spend two-three months getting them back to where they were at the end of July.

I would definitely try to get my younger players and non-starters stronger during the season. The seniors and studs, I have no problem with them maintaining. But, I really believe that if you try to maintain it they will lose it. Make them go heavy so they can maintain or drop very little.

I think you can get stronger by lifting twice a week for 30 minutes hard.

Back in my younger days, I had a junior high team get MUCH stronger during the season doing one set of repout bench and repout squats twice a week. 4 total sets a week. All they did was a weight they could get 8-12 times. When they got it more than 12, they moved up in weight for the next week.