Considerings in Building a Strength & Conditioning Program

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One thing a lot of people ask is how to structure or design the individual microcycles of a proper strength and conditioning program.  Everyone has a method and reason of how they design individual programs that add up to be a full strength and conditioning program, and here is one option I find effective.
The three things to ask yourself before designing a program:

1. What are the needs of the sport?

2. What can I do to accomplish those needs?

3. What other factors must I take into account when designing a strength and conditioning program?

The first thing you must do is organize your training.  Certain exercises work on certain things, of course, so apply those exercises accordingly.  Volleyball has almost no horizontal pressing, so increasing the bench max of a volleyball player is not a primary need (although general upper body strength is not to be ignored).  In addition, volleyball has no top speed running, and its all extremely short distance acceleration and lateral movement, and of course jumps.  Your strength and conditioning program needs to make gains in the areas the sport uses the most!  Simple concept but seems lost on so many!

Once you have deciphered the areas you believe are most necessary for improvement for the sport, apply a logical series of exercises and training to increase that area.  Baseball players need strong hip extension and rotational strength, so incorporating heavy squats and med ball throws into their training is a must!  Likewise, any jumping sport needs to be able to absorb repeated high impact forces, so plan in knee stability training and make sure to train the muscles that DECELERATE the body!

To accomplish the improvement of needs, remember the concept of progressive overload.  It must be harder, more volume, or different to make gains over the course of months.  SOMETHING must change, doing the same weight, reps and sets all the time leads to no progress (of course).

The other factors to take into account: common injury sites, field work, deload weeks, FUN!  Your athlete must buy in and believe your training, so be sure to have a plan in place that you can explain to both athletes and their families why you are doing what you do, and how it will help them.  ExcelTrainingDesigns offers solutions to help you in this regard, with our templates you can create logical, progressive programs on our strength and conditioning excel templates that clearly show these factors.