My Off Season Plan Sept 07

by: Joe Lyons - September 13th, 2007

Here’s the layout of my off-season plan for fall 2007. I have many mini goals and some have already been achieved. I’m not going to write these, because they are constantly evolving. I’m going to try to get up to around 250lbs, but not for the sake of just adding weight. I plan to push the eating and gaining, when I start getting a little to “fluffy”, I’ll diet for a few weeks to get my BF% under control.

Diet wise I’m having two high carb days a week. I have them on training days where I need to make the most improvements, for me that back and arm days. I have a normal day where carbs are built around my training sessions and breakfast. On days I do not go to the gym, the workout carbs are obviously not added, and my fats are slightly higher.

My Training Split is this:
Monday – Back
Tuesday – Chest
Wednesday – Off
Thursday – Legs
Friday – Shoulders
Saturday – Arms
Sunday – Off

I’ll give some examples of training days and how I approach them. I like to train more like Dorian Yates and Mark Dugdale with HIT style of training, as well as incorporating some DC principles. I DO NOT TRAIN DC. I have a ton of respect for Dante and his knowledge of training, and I think some of his principles can be applied by everyone. I do a lot of advanced training techniques such as rest pause, drop sets, widow-makers, partial sets, super sets, etc.

Back day
T-Bar Rows - one heavy set of 8-10 and then a high rep partial set of 15-20.
Bent Over Barbell Rows – one heavy set of 8-12
Dead lifts from the floor – 2 sets, one of 8-10 reps and one set of 5-6 reps
Chins – One set, Rest Paused, with a goal of 15-20 reps
Close grip Pull Downs – One Set, Triple Drop Set, I don’t count reps

Leg Day
Back Squats – one set of 6-10 reps, then a widow-maker of 20 reps (Hams to Calves deep)
Walking Lunges – one set of 15 reps each leg
Extensions – one set, Triple Drop
Lying Leg Curls – one set, Rest Pause 15-20 reps

I only count my work set, not my warm up sets. I’ll do as many warm up sets I need before attempting my heavy sets. On leg days I may do 3-5 warm up sets, on shoulder days I may do 2 warm up sets. Warm up sets are not very taxing to my body. I don’t want to waist valuable energy and I’m only trying to get adjusted to the poundage’s as I increase. I would never get under 400+ pounds without doing sets with small increments.

In the past I’ve been a high volume trainer. I like training that way, but wasn’t seeing great results at this point. I decided to switch to something with less volume, but up the intensity. Sub-consciously I believe I was holding back a little knowing I had a lot of work to do. Now I train like every set is my last. This kind of training has taken a toll on my body and I’ve had to plan mini breaks every 6-8 weeks. I will tone back the intensity and train to where I’m a few reps short of failure. My goal reps will be in the range of 10-15 reps per set with only a couple exercises per body part. I need to let my nervous system rest as well as giving my muscles time to completely recover.

I’ve added stretching to my post workout routine. Although it’s painful, I feel much better when I’m done. It’s helped to limit the small aches and pains, as well as increasing my recovery abilities.

The supplements I’m going to use this off-season are very basic. I have ON’s Casein Protein, 100% Whey, Vassive EA8, Creatine, BCAA, Beta-Alanine, and Opti-Vits. I use minimal amounts of each product and have 1-2 shakes a day depending on how busy work is.

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