Building an effective athletic training program can seem complex, but with the right structure, you can efficiently develop strength, speed, and power. As highlighted in the accompanying video by certified strength and conditioning coach Nick Liden, establishing a clear order of operations within your workouts is paramount for optimal results.
This article expands on Coach Liden’s insights, providing a detailed framework for creating a versatile athlete training structure suitable for various splits—whether you prefer a 3-day full body, upper/lower, or a more customized approach. We’ll delve into the science behind exercise sequencing, specific programming parameters, and how to select movements to maximize your athletic potential.
Optimizing Your Athletic Training Program: The Foundational Structure
The core principle of effective athlete training structure revolves around prioritizing movements that demand the most from your central nervous system (CNS) when you are freshest. This strategy ensures you get the highest quality output from your most neurologically demanding exercises, leading to superior adaptations for power and speed.
Coach Liden advocates for a specific hierarchy within each training session:
- Plyometric & High-Velocity Work: Performed first to prime the CNS and maximize explosive power.
- Loaded Power Exercises: Follows plyometrics, focusing on moving moderate loads with maximal intent.
- Strength Work: The primary focus for building maximal force production.
- Accessory Exercises: Targeted movements for muscle balance, injury prevention, and hypertrophy.
This sequential approach leverages the benefits of post-activation potentiation (PAP), where heavy or explosive movements can temporarily enhance subsequent strength or power output. By starting with plyometrics, you activate fast-twitch muscle fibers and enhance neural drive, setting the stage for more powerful loaded movements and, eventually, greater strength gains.
Diving Deeper into Lower Body Training Structure
A well-designed lower body day is crucial for developing explosive leg power and foundational strength. The video emphasizes a layered approach to plyometrics, moving from extensive to intensive work before progressing to loaded movements.
Extensive Plyometrics for Elasticity and Readiness
Extensive plyometrics are low-impact, rhythmical movements designed to improve elastic strength, particularly in the ankles, and prepare the body for more intense work. These exercises focus on short ground contact times and controlled landings.
- Examples: Jump rope, pogo hops, side-to-side hops, plate hops, single-leg plate hops.
- Programming: Typically 10-15 reps (sometimes up to 20), for 2-3 sets. Timed sets (e.g., 20 seconds) are an excellent way to challenge athletes to maximize ground contacts. Research indicates that consistent extensive plyometric training can significantly improve ankle stiffness and reactive strength, which are vital for speed and agility.
Intensive Plyometrics for Maximal Power Output
Intensive plyometrics demand maximal effort and are designed to develop peak power. These are big, powerful jumps that challenge the body to produce high forces quickly.
- Examples: Box jumps (for height), broad jumps (for distance), vertical jumps, skater jumps.
- Programming: Keep repetitions low to maintain power quality—aim for 3-5 reps per set, across 3-4 sets. Rest periods of approximately 3 minutes are essential between sets to ensure full recovery of the CNS and maintain maximal effort. Varying the force vector (vertical, horizontal, lateral) across different exercises is crucial for comprehensive athletic development, as different sports demand power in multiple directions.
Loaded Power Movements for Dynamic Strength
Following plyometrics, loaded power exercises integrate force production with speed under resistance. These movements build the ability to move heavy loads rapidly.
- Examples: Hang power cleans, trap bar jumps, sled sprints, prowler pushes, power shrugs.
- Programming: Perform 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets. The load should be moderate to slightly heavy, allowing for maximal bar speed. For exercises like trap bar jumps, 20-30% of your one-rep max (1RM) for a trap bar deadlift is often ideal for eliciting peak power. In contrast, power shrugs might use 75-80% of 1RM to emphasize force production against heavier resistance. Scientific studies often show peak power output for many lifts occurs in the 30-50% 1RM range, while Olympic lifts can extend this into the 80% range due to the rapid acceleration required.
- Antagonistic Pairing: Consider pairing these with opposing strength patterns. If your power movement is a hinge (e.g., hang clean, targeting posterior chain), then your main strength exercise could be a squat pattern (e.g., front squat, targeting quadriceps), or vice-versa.
Strength and Accessory Work for Comprehensive Development
The strength component is where you build raw force, while accessories address specific weaknesses and provide targeted support.
- Main Strength: Choose either a squat or hinge pattern. For strength gains, 3-5 sets of 4-6 reps are standard. If hypertrophy is a goal, 4 sets of 10 reps can be incorporated.
- Accessory Exercises: These should complement your main lifts and cover movement planes potentially missed.
- Lateral Movement: Incorporate exercises like Cossack squats or lateral lunges to strengthen hips and groins, crucial for multi-directional athletes.
- Unilateral Movement: Single-leg RDLs or Bulgarian split squats enhance stability, address imbalances, and reduce injury risk.
- Targeted Work: Finish with specific movements like calf raises or hip flexor work to shore up individual needs. This ensures a well-rounded athlete training structure.
Structuring an Upper Body Training Day
Upper body power and strength are vital for many athletes, from throwers to combat sports participants. This day follows a similar structural philosophy, adapting movements for the upper body.
Upper Body Plyometrics and Throws
These exercises excite the nervous system and develop explosive power in the upper body.
- Med Ball Throws: Start with rotational throws (e.g., scoop toss, rotational shot put) or direct chest passes. These can combine multiple force vectors. Perform 3-5 reps.
- Plyometric Push-ups: Simple yet effective, these include bench push-ups, drop push-ups, or clap push-ups. Again, 3-5 reps are sufficient to stimulate the CNS without causing undue fatigue.
Loaded Upper Body Power Exercises
These movements involve moving a moderate load with maximal speed to build dynamic upper body strength.
- Examples: Push press, split jerk, landmine row to press, squat to press (on landmine), bench throws (on a Smith machine or with a partner).
- Programming: Focus on maximal intent and velocity. While a push press might allow for slightly heavier loads to achieve peak power, exercises like bench throws would use lighter weights to emphasize speed.
Main Strength and Accessory Movements for the Upper Body
Unlike lower body, upper body days often incorporate two main strength movements due to less systemic fatigue.
- Two Main Strength Movements: Choose one horizontal push (e.g., bench press) and one horizontal pull (e.g., bent-over rows), or a vertical push (e.g., overhead press) and a vertical pull (e.g., weighted pull-ups/chin-ups). Be mindful of not stacking similar movement patterns if a previous power exercise already emphasized that direction.
- Accessories: These should be antagonistic to your main strength movements. If you performed horizontal push/pull, select vertical push/pull accessories (e.g., if bench press and rows were primary, add overhead triceps extensions and lat pulldowns as accessories).
- Targeted Work: Finish with core exercises (e.g., carries, direct ab training) or specific arm/shoulder work, depending on individual needs and goals. This ensures a comprehensive upper body athlete training structure.
Integrating Movements on a Full Body Training Day
A full body day intelligently blends upper and lower body movements while adhering to the plyometric-power-strength-accessory sequence. This approach is highly efficient for developing overall athleticism.
- Extensive Plyometrics: Start with 10-15 reps. Vary the force vector from other training days; if your lower body day had vertical hops, opt for lateral or horizontal hops here.
- Intensive Plyometrics: Again, select a different force vector. If a previous day featured vertical box jumps, choose broad jumps or skater jumps for horizontal/lateral power.
- Med Ball Throw: Incorporate an upper body explosive movement, potentially a rotational throw like a scoop toss, to complement the lower body plyometrics.
- Lower Body Power Exercise: Focus on a loaded lower body power movement, as this provides a greater overall athletic development stimulus. However, if upper body power is a primary goal (e.g., for a combat athlete), an upper body power exercise can be substituted.
- Upper Body Strength: Following lower body power, transition to an upper body strength movement, such as a Pendlay row, bench press, or overhead press. This gives the lower body a brief recovery.
- Unilateral Lower Body Strength: To give the upper body a break and build lower body stability, incorporate a unilateral lower body exercise. If your power movement was squat-focused, consider a single-leg RDL.
- Accessories: Choose antagonistic movements to the strength exercises already performed. For instance, if you did a Pendlay row (pull), add a pressing movement (push). If a single-leg RDL (hinge) was performed, a goblet squat (squat) could be an effective antagonistic accessory. Finish with core work to round out the session.
Advanced Considerations for Your Athlete Training Structure
While this foundational athlete training structure provides an excellent starting point, continuously refining your program leads to sustained progress.
- Progressive Overload: Always strive to gradually increase the demands on your body, whether through more weight, reps, sets, reduced rest, or more complex exercises. This is the bedrock of adaptation.
- Velocity-Based Training (VBT): For more advanced athletes, incorporating VBT principles can optimize power training. Monitoring bar speed ensures you are training at the desired intensity for power development, often aiming for specific meter-per-second ranges depending on the lift and goal. For example, maintaining bar speeds above 1.0 m/s for jump squats ensures maximal power output, whereas lower speeds indicate a shift towards strength focus.
- Recovery and Nutrition: No training program, however well-structured, can compensate for inadequate recovery or poor nutrition. Prioritize sleep, active recovery, and a balanced diet rich in protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats to support muscle repair and energy replenishment. Studies consistently link sufficient sleep (7-9 hours for athletes) to improved performance and reduced injury risk.
- Individualization: Remember that this is a framework. Your specific sport, current fitness level, injury history, and personal goals should guide your exercise selection and volume adjustments. An athlete training structure for a basketball player might emphasize vertical power, while a rugby player might prioritize horizontal strength and lateral agility.
By applying these detailed principles and continuously evaluating your progress, you can effectively build an athlete training structure that delivers impressive gains in strength, speed, and power. This comprehensive approach ensures you are training intelligently, maximizing every minute spent in the gym, and ultimately reaching your peak performance.
Your Training Blueprint: Q&A on Building Strength, Speed, and Power
What is the main goal of an athlete training program structure?
The main goal is to help you efficiently develop strength, speed, and power by organizing your workouts in a specific and effective way.
What is the most important principle when structuring an athletic workout?
The core principle is to prioritize movements that demand the most from your central nervous system (like explosive exercises) when you are freshest, ensuring high-quality output.
What is the recommended order for exercises in a training session?
You should start with plyometric and high-velocity work, then loaded power exercises, followed by strength work, and finally accessory exercises.
What are plyometrics, and why are they done first?
Plyometrics are explosive movements like jumps and hops. They are done first to activate your nervous system and maximize explosive power for subsequent exercises.
What are accessory exercises used for?
Accessory exercises are targeted movements performed towards the end of a workout to improve muscle balance, prevent injuries, and support muscle growth.