Normally, as part of our weekly workout routine (A Weekly (not weakly!) Workout) Tuesday is Heavy Squat, Medium Push, and Light Hang Clean day.  As mentioned in a previous post, about once a month we like to throw the student-athletes a “changeup”(Throwing a Changeup)  and vary from this normal routine.

Today in our Advanced Strength and Conditioning class we did a combination lift, Hang Clean to Front Squat to Push Press.  In essence we combined all the lifts we normally do on a Tuesday into one motion.  More detailed descriptions of these individual lifts can be found on previous posts

• The Core Lifts – Hang Clean
• The Core Lifts – Squat
• The Core Lifts – Push Press

Whenever possible I like giving the student-athletes an exact weight to do on each set/ rep, rather than saying something like “do a weight you can handle relatively easy”. We determined the weight they would workout with by using the following process.  The student determined by looking at their card, what their lowest estimated 1RM was on the following lifts – Squat, Push Press, or Clean.  They then went to the “Light Day” sets/ reps/ weights for that lift.  If their lowest 1RM was Squat, they used Friday’s weight, Push Press Monday, Clean Tuesday.  These are the weights they used in completing the workout in class today.

On the sample card below, Lexi Hart’s estimated 1RM (the “Now” column) for Push is 165 lbs, Clean 130 lbs, and Squat 160 lbs.

Clean is her lowest 1RM, so she goes to her “Light” clean day (Tuesday) and uses the weights shown there for her 5 x 5 Clean to Front Squat to Push Press workout which would be:

1. 5 x 80 lbs
2. 5 x 85 lbs
3. 5 x 90 lbs
4. 5 x 95 lbs
5. 5 x 105 lbs

Below is a brief video showing some of our student-athletes completing today’s combination lift workout.

This workout is taxing, but efficient.  In his most recent column for PrepsKC, Dr. Daniel Lorenz talks about the benefit of these combination lifts for multi-sport athletes:

“Secondly, workouts can be kept shorter for the kids by doing combination lifts. For example, an athlete can do a hang clean to front squat to a press, or a squat to press. These are extremely fatiguing movements, but because it’s multi-joint and gets both upper and lower body, an athlete can do 4-5 sets of this and be done. Numerous combinations exist and are only limited by creativity of the coaches. “

The rest of Dr.Lorenz’s excellent article can be found here :Training the Multi Sport Athlete

Questions or comments are always welcome!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

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