Professor,

I have a question reguarding a Program for "High Level American Football Players" that is presented in your book Special Strength Training.  It is section 6.7.  You start off by describing that 80% is the percentage of the maximum that the athlete can handle  for 1 rep.  This i do understand.  Where i get confussed is that on day one of this program it says  "Barbell squats (90%)    2-4 x 5"  then it says "Rest 4-5 min between sets", "Rest 6-8 min. between series."  also on the first day after that it calls for "Barbell squats (80%)  2-3 x 10-12" and then Rest 2 min between.

My first question has to do with the percentages,  Myself and all of the athletes that I have trained can only get 3 reps, maybe 4 at a 90% load for a back squat.  If one of my athletes can get four or five reps then i say that the 90 % is not accurate and i will bump up their max by 1% for every rep they get over 3 reps.  This way i know the athlete will not time have an accurate percentage for whatever weight they use.  I am confused as to how at 90 % it can call for 5 reps for 2-4 sets, this seems almost impossible if the maximums are accurate numbers.  Could you maybe help clear up my confussion and maybe explain how it works?  Could you tell me if i should just use a weight that i can execute for the m=number of reps prescribed or is it more important to use the load say the 90% and try to get 5 knowing that i can really only get 3 or 4 at the most? What would you suggest the percentages I use since i adjust my percentages to fit the numbers below?

The percentage numbers that i have seen and used that are most accurate are 92% x 2, 90% x3,  88% x4, 85% x5. 

My second qustion has to do with the sequence that day.  It says to "Rest 6-8 min between series" but i did not see any indication or notation that a series was to be executed on this day.  My impression is that i would do 2 to 4 sets of 5 reps at 90% resting 4-5 mins. in between sets and then do 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps resting 2 min between sets.  So i do not understand where the "Rest is 6-8 min. between series" comes in. 

I guess i just need a cleared view of how to execute this program concerning the percentages used and how the execute the sequence on some days?

I Thank you very much for starting this site and to give people in the West like myself a chance to be in contact with you in order to get the real meanings of all of your outstanding works,  as you are probably aware much confusion exists in the West because of in accurtate translations and people taking things the wrong way and saying well this is how they do it in the "Eastern Bloc Countries"

This site will be a place of great knowledge for myself and may other in the West to get a better grasp on these training methods.

Keep up the good work!!!  Thanks again!

Ryan

10:01:42 AM, Arizona, USA 

Dear Ryan,

after your post I read with more accuracy the book published with adaptation to a correct English language version. I am really sorry for the inconvenient.

1. At pag. 107 of the “Manual for coaches” there is a little difference of meaning from  the original text in the underlined text of the following items:       

“The loads used in the program are as follows:

a) The weight of the bar is indicated in % of maximum,

 as for example “barbell squats (80%)”. This means the maximum weight the athlete can handle for 1 squat.”

This text should be: “…as for example, "squats with bar ( 80 % )" means 80 % of utmost  weight  with  which is possible execute only one total squat”.

2. You wrote: “the percentage numbers that I have seen and used that are most accurate are 92% x 2, 90% x3,  88% x4, 85% x5”.

I used another system of overload classification that I elaborated many years ago on the base of American strength training and Bodybuilding publications:  

100% -1 RM

95%  – 2-3 RM

90%  – 5-6 RM

85%  – 7-8 RM

80 % – 10-12 RM

75%  – 12-16 RM

You could adapt my program to your system of over load classification.

3. Because the dosage formula of the strength  exercise:

 “b) the  dosage 8 x 10 ( 2 ) means,  that 2 series is executed. In each series of 8 sets on 10 movements”.

of pag. 107, may be was not completely clear, the content of the program for American football players has some inaccuracy.

For this reason I decide to write in this post the first week of this program with my personal corrections (text underlined).

1^st day

1. Barbell squats (90%)  2-4 x 5  (2-4 sets of 5 rep)

Rest is 4-5 min. between sets.

Rest is 6-8 min. after the last set

2. Barbell squats (80%) 2-3 x 10-12 ( 2-3 sets of 10 -12 rep)

Rest is 2 min between sets.

2^nd day.

1.Barbell squats (93-95%) 2-4 x 3  (2-4- sets of 3 rep)

Rest is 4-5 min. between sets.

Rest is 6-8 min. after the last set

2. Barbell squats (80%) 3-5 x 8-10  (3-5 sets of 8-10 rep)

Rest is 2-3 min between sets

3^rd day.

1. Barbell squats (93-95%) 3-5 x 2-3  (3-5- sets of 2-3 rep)

Rest is 4-6 min. between sets

Rest is 6-8 min. after the last set

2. Barbell squats (85%)   2 x 8 (+2-3)*  ( 2 sets of 8 rep with 2-3- additional movements)

Rest between sets is arbitrary

4^th day.  

Barbell squats :                 1) (80%) 1 x 10     one set of 10 rep

                                        2) (90%) 1 x 5       one set of 5 rep

                                        3) (90-93%) 1 x 2  one set of 2 rep

The series of these 3 sets are repeated 2-3 times

Rest is 4-5 min, between sets

Rest is 6-8 min. between series

5^th day  

1. Barbell squats (93-95%) 3-5 x 2-3  (2-3- sets of 3-5- rep)

Rest is 4-6 min. between sets

Rest is 6-8 min after the last set.  

2. Barbell squats (80%) 3-5 x 8-10   (3-5- sets of 8-10 rep)

Rest is 2-3 min between sets.

6^th day

Barbell squats:                1) (70%) 1 x 12  (1 set of 12 rep)

                                      2) (80%) 1 x 10  (1 set of 10 rep)

                                      3) (85%) 1 x 7    (1 set of 7 rep)

The series of these 3 sets are repeated 2-3 times

Rest between sets is 5-6 min.

Rest is 8-10 min in between series

7^th day.  

Squat jumps with the bar (40%) 5 x 8 (2)  (2 series of 5 sets of 8 jumps)

Rest interval between sets is 60 sec.

Rest interval between series is 8-12 min.

Thank you again,

Yuri Verkhoshansky

Dear professor,

When you say: "You could adapt my program to your system of over load classification.", you mean that it si more important to mantain the % you listed or the number of repetitions?

For example, IF we have 90%=3 reps, 85%= 5 repsand you write 90%=5 reps, should we strive for 90%(3 reps for us), or 5 reps (85% for us).

Also, I'd like to Know if the american football trainin presented in "Manula For Coaches" is the same outlined in "Tutto sul metodo d'urto" published in Italy.

Thank YOu

Eros Zagaglia Italy