The Basic BFS In-Season Program

What do you do with the weights? If you said, “Wait until the off-season,” you get a dandelion. You've just got to find time to weight train.

Okay, you are now beginning the football season.

Let’s say you Benched 250 pounds right before you put the pads on in August. If you don’t train at all, you will be Benching 220 pounds by the first of November that’s right when you want to be strong. If you do the BFS in-season training program, you'll most likely be Benching objective which is to win the football game. There are so 280 pounds. If you are used to training in the off-season many things to focus on during the season which takes a and you don’t train in-season, I guarantee you'll be lot of time and energy, you simply cannot afford to be mentally down because of a perceived weakness at playoff time.

Conversely, if you do train in-season, you will be during the week is sufÏcient. The amazing thing is the mentally up for the playoffs. The bottom line is simple: amount of progress you can make with this concept.

You can’t afford not to take the time and weight train.

Do the Basic BFS Core Lifts: You still want to keep your Parallel Squat, Bench and Clean progressing throughout the season. You just can’t let those go to pot. doing the Box Squat in-season is the recovery time which is You can skip a lot of auxiliary exercises. The beauty of Thursday and play a game on Friday. To keep the stress . Do the Basic BFS Core Lifts and Only about almost immediate. That’s why you can Box Squat on factor down, you might want to keep the poundage on the Box Squat within about 100 pounds of the Parallel Squat.

Two Auxiliary Lifts.

5. Do Only Three Big Sets. Just Follw the BFS Set-Rep Program! 6. Progress! Don’t be Satisfied with maintaining.

The Towel Bench is also great to do in-season because it keeps the stress level down while allowing for some great progress to be made on the bench. The stress to the shoulder joint area is also much less than the regular Bench Press. Therefore, this is the lift you do on Wednesday or Thursday before the game. The Straight Leg Dead Lifts should be done with light weights. (This means no more than 40% of your Parallel Squat max) Most high school Train Twice Per Week: Once is not enough to make progress and three times seems to be too draining during the in-season. Some coaches like to train on Saturday after Friday’s game. If you do train on Saturday, do the Session Two workout.

Monday is your best day to do Session One. Normally, this is a non-contact day and so you should go ahead and do the tougher of the two workouts. (Session One) You may also do the Session Two workout on Wednesday or Thursday. With the exercises in the BFS Program, you may workout the day before the game with positive results.

Train In The Morning; If at all possible, train in the morning before school or in a class before lunch. There are disadvantages when athletes weight train just prior to or just after football practice. Id rather get up a half hour earlier to lift than try to lift before or after practice. You'll get better results.

Each Session Takes 30 Minutes: If you take more than this time, I think you’ll run into trouble. Remember your athletes will therefore be doing only between 135 and 200 pounds. Your objective is to get a good hamstring and glute stretch while also building strength in this area Remember, this exercise is a key to improving speed. Also, remember that you need only to do two sets of ten reps with the Straight-Leg-Dead-Lift. You would not plug this exercise into the normal BFS Set-Rep routine. My suggestion for the two auxiliaries would be a neck exercise and dips. Dips are done for tricep power which helps all linemen and defensive players. The neck exercise is done for obvious reasons.

However, you may have another exercise you feel will help you win a football game. If you can justify it, then do it. Do Only Three Big Sets: Just follow our BFS Set-Rep System as explained in our Log Book. (See page 7) Week Number One: 3 x 3, Week Number Two: 3 x 5, Week Number Three: 5-3-1, Week Number Four: 6-8-10. Then, of course, on Week Number Five you repeat Week Number One's workout of 3 x 3 but challenge yourself to do more. Continued on page 72 FOOTBALL: IN-SEASON Continued from previous page Next, you will repeat Week Number Two’s workout the same way and so on. Hopefully. you will be able to get in three full cycles during the season. Progress!: Most colleges try to maintain.

What you hope is that your competition will also adopt that philospohy. The philosophy of maintaining in college is acceptable but it is loaded with big problems at the high school level. First of all, the college athlete is more fully mature and at a greater strength level. The college athlete may be benching 400 pounds and be happy with maintaining that level during the season. However, the 16 year old who is benching 200 pounds is still maturing and can easily gain strength during the season. Don’t sell yourself short!

Second, a college athlete normally plays only one sport and in January he is ready for the off-season. But what about that 16-year-old? What if he also plays basketball or wrestles? What if he goes out for track or baseball in the spring? What are you going to do—Maintain All Year? Let your competition do that. You should go for it during the season. Don’t be satisfied with maintaining. Get going! It’s fun to get stronger. You'll play better, feel better and be more confident.

Eric Leckner of Utah Jazz on the Safe Squat Bar.

If you are using our BFS Set-Rep Log Books, start your new year after two-a-days. Your kids are worn down and exhausted mentally and physically. This is a time to build for your first games. Put the old book in a file. That is last year’s book. Get a new book and start all over with new records. Don’t 500 Ib.

700 Ib.

1500 Ib. worry about the past. Start easy. Establish all new set and rep records. Build yourself again and by November you'll be doing more than the old book. Then, if you go into a To order and for information. winter sport, just keep going. If you go into a off-season mode, then you can really turn up the intensity juice.

POWERLIFTING CHAMP Wayne Ruby started lifting in the 9th grade and Sam Hrko made our BFS High School All-America Football Third Team last season. He was a Class A worked out 6 days a week for four years. It paid off! Wayne attended Liberty Mounds High School in Oklahoma. He team All-State lineman from Pineville High School in West was an All-State Defensive End and rushed for 3,000 career Virginia. yards as a Tailback. Wayne is massive. He’s 6-1 and weighs Because of all the emphasis on weight training for Powerlifting. He entered the United States Teenage 244 pounds. At the Oklahoma State Football Camp, Wayne was timed at 4.7 in the forty.

He can stuff a basketball and has a 34 inch Vertical Jump.

Championships in Cleveland, Ohio and won the 275- Wayne’s best training lifts are a 440 Bench, 650 Squat pound class. He totaled 1438 pounds with a 578 1/2-pound and a 610 Dead Lift for a 1700 total. Earlier in the year Squat, a 308 1/2-pound Bench, and a 551-pound Dead Lift. weighing ten pounds lighter, Wayne won the Oklahoma Sam’s football coach Silas Mullins is happy not only State Powerlifting Championships. His competition lifts because of his lineman’s great accomplishments thus far were as follows: Squat 575, Bench 385, Dead Lift 600. but also because Sam is a returning senior this year.

In Wayne’s football coach Mike Harris states, “Wayne addition, Sam maintains a 3.5 grade point average. Roses Rubey takes all tough classes in school and has good to you Sam for being an Upper-Limit athlete. attendance. He’s a good citizen and a non-steroid user.” 73 LOrganizes Every Workout: Your athlete now has specific goals with every set, every rep, and every workout. Absolutely no more worrying about how much weight to put on the bar, ever again. Contains workout schedules for one year. New easier recording.

Contents: explaining the weekly lifting schedule. The second section explains the lifts—their proper execution, spotting techniques, and why we do the lift. The next section explains recording and contains the actual weekly workouts and recording areas. The fourth section contains record charts for all core lifts at all repetitions. The last section contains a running record chart, an explanation of the BFS nutritional rating system, an agility record chart, the BFS Dot Drill, and a goal record chart.

All Sports: The Set-Rep System is applicable to all sports. Professional basketball players use it.

JMotivation: Athletes thrive on the competitive nature of the BFS system. Breaking records is the ultimate motivational factor in building great confidence! A motivated, confident team is a winner in the arena of competition.

No Plateaus: All other systems reach plateaus. Some quickly and some after 3 or 4 months. However, all will reach that frustrating point where progress seems impossible and things sometimes go from bad to worse.

Poor systems, like one set of 12-15 reps or 3 sets of 10 reps, reach this point very quickly, but even complex computer-cycle systems eventually have problems. The new BFS Set-Rep System will keep your athletes progressing month after month after month. The key is keeping track of personal records. This is why every athlete should have his own Set-Rep Log.

Since each athlete in your program needs a Set-Rep Log, the following discounts will help on larger orders.

COST:

In a well-organized weight room it takes a group of athletes only 45 minutes to accomplish their weightlifting. Many schools use the Set-Rep Log during P.E. classes, leaving valuable time after school for sport specific-skill training. Great for the multi-sport athlete (in-season training).

A.

One: $4.00 * 2—9: $3.00 Each 10-25: $2.50 Each ¢ Over 25: $2.25 Each ~*~ .

From BFS Magazine — Fall 1989. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).