In my last article, “What Should Not Be Included In Your Off-Season Program”, I discussed exercises and concepts that should not be a part of a high school program.  

That begs the question, “What should be programmed into a championship off-season program?

Below is a checklist of what concepts and types of exercises should be involved in a championship strength program.  

You do not have to have the exact exercises that I have below to have a great program.  

Think about your programming in terms of concepts more than for exercises.  

If you have some exercises that already fit into one of the categories below, then you should not change that programming if it is already being successful for your athletes.

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EXERCISE CHECKLIST

▢  Transverse Plane Exercises (Rotation Exercises)

  • Forward Lunges With Rotation
  • Core Rotation Exercises

▢  Frontal Plane Exercises (Moving Side to Side)

  • Side Lunges
  • Lateral Raises

▢  Sagittal Plane Exercises (Moving Forward & Backward)

  • Inverted Row
  • Front Squat

▢  Multiple Plane Exercises

  • Medicine Ball Push-up Variations
  • Side Lunges With Chest Press

▢  Prone Exercises (Lying on the belly)

  • Ys/Ts/Ws
  • Breaststroke Swimmers
  • Dumbbell Leg Curl
  • Incline Dumbbell Row

▢  Supine Exercises (Lying on the back)

  • Leg Raises
  • Bench Press
  • Glute Bridge Walkouts
  • Dumbbell Lat Pullover

▢  Seated Exercises

  • Z Press
  • Russian Twists With Bicycle

▢  Kneeling On One Leg Exercises

  • Cable Chest Press
  • Cable Chop
  • 1-Arm DB Row on Bench

▢  Kneeling On Two Legs Exercises

  • Partner Leg Curls
  • 4 Way Neck
  • Medicine Ball Tosses

▢  Bilateral Even Stance Exercises

  • Squat Variations
  • Push Press

▢  Bilateral Split Stance Exercises

  • Split Squats
  • All Lunge Variations
  • Push Jerk

▢  Unilateral Upper Body Exercises

  • 1-Arm DB Bench
  • Landmine 1-Arm Row

▢  Unilateral Lower Body Exercises

  • Pistol Squats
  • Single Leg Straight Leg Deadlift
  • V-Ups w/ 1-Leg

▢  Anti-Rotation Exercises  (Carrying Objects or Resisting Forces)

  • Paloff Press
  • Suitcase Carries

▢  Olympic Lift Variations

  • DB Swings
  • Barbell High Pulls
  • DB 1-Arm Snatch

▢  Rehab/Prehab Exercises

  • Clamshells
  • Interior/Exterior Rotation

▢  Balance Exercises

MODIFYING EXERCISES

Once you have picked your exercises, you can modify them to account for the following concepts:

▢  Time Under Tension:  Scroll down to the “Change the Time Under Tension” heading.

▢  Combine Auxiliary Exercises:  Scroll down to the “Combine Auxiliary Exercises” heading.

▢  Change Load Points:  Scroll down to the “Change the Load Point” heading.

▢  Variable Loads:  Scroll down to the “Variable Loads” heading.

▢  Uneven Loading:  Scroll down to the “Uneven Loading” heading.

▢  Different Feet Positions

▢  Triple Extension:  Scroll down to the “Triple Extension” heading.

▢  Different Hand Grips

▢  1-1 Ratio For Anterior v. Posterior exercises.

For each pushing exercise that is programmed, there should be one pulling exercise that is also programmed.  This method should be applied to the upper and lower body workouts and if you are going to make a mistake, there should be more posterior exercises than anterior exercises.  This will help with shoulder injuries and there is current research that if the shoulders are tilted towards the anterior side (because of doing too many pushing exercises) and not in line with the ear, hips, and ankles, then there is a higher probability of concussions.  Remember that the stronger the posterior muscles are, the less injury risk an athlete will have.

PROGRAMMING EXERCISES THAT CHECK MULTIPLE BOXES

When a person first looks at this list they are usually overwhelmed because they think that they have to use one exercise to fit into each category.  The good news is many exercises can be programmed to check multiple boxes at the same time.  Above, I listed Side Lunges With Chest Press as a “Multiple Plane Exercise” but it actually checks all of the following concepts:

🗹  Frontal Plane Exercises

🗹  Sagittal Plane Exercises

🗹  Multiple Plane Exercises

🗹  Unilateral Exercises

🗹  Combine Auxiliary Exercises

🗹  Change Load Points

From there, you can adjust Side Lunges each week to hit different concepts or you can just use other exercises to implement the rest of the checklist.  The first time you put this together, it will take a long time but each time after that it gets easier and goes quicker.

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