Most of us who are looking to jump higher or run faster never really have any problems in the first few weeks or even months of our training. The times I have found myself or my athletes in a somewhat detrained state, consistent and uninterrupted gains are always enjoyed for the first few months of my strength and power work. The problem always seems to be that after about three or four months of training for the average athlete, gains seem to come very few and far between. This seems to be the point where the search begins for a new program and/or means of training organization. Some people switch programs more often than others, but generally nobody will follow the exact same program for more than 3-4 months. This in itself is a good thing. The purpose of this article is to explain a simple way to block out your training program to maximize the period of time you can enjoy gains in speed and power until stall outs occur.

Before I outline the basics of volume/intensity regulated block periodization, I would like to go over a couple core principles that the human body will hold to when it is subjected to a training stimulus. First of all, most training experts will agree that a training program needs to be adjusted or tweaked in some form every 2-3 weeks, or the program will become stale. The body adapts to certain stimuli very quickly, and this needs to be something that is constantly addressed in any program. The adjustments can be one of many things. Probably the most common ‘tweak’ that is used in program adjustment is that of exercise selection. This is probably the one training variable that most beginners seem to cling to and focus on more than anything. I have probably heard “what exercise is the best for vertical jump development” more than any other question, at least out on the internet. Although certain exercises are more effective than others for improving speed and strength, these exercises need to be cycled and adjusted on a regular basis to keep the body from adapting. The next adjustment that can be made will be that of sets and reps. A common example of this would be doing 3 sets of 10 in squat for the first three weeks of a program and then working down to 5 sets of 5 for the next 3 weeks of the program and then finally ending up at 3 sets of 3 in the final weeks of a program. Another variable that can be changed is the frequency of the actual workouts. An example of this would be going from lifting weights 4 times a week to lifting 2 times a week. For those of you familiar with inno-sport, one of their major principles in setting up a program is the ratio of training blocks (8-10 days long on average) that are based on higher frequency training sessions with those that are low frequency/high fatigue sessions. Balancing frequency (or volume based) blocks with fatigue (intensity based) blocks is the key to prolonging the gains you achieve in training for power.

In my opinion, the key to achieving an ultimate athletic state is having an extremely high work capacity and toleration of the most intense training measures, and also having a nervous system that is tweaked for maximal proficiency (or max power output). In order to really achieve both of these goals, one needs to address the needs of both volume (which will help work capacity) and intensity (which will help proficiency) in a training program. A simple way of doing this is organizing training weeks that have either a goal of volume or intensity. This can also be referred to as intensification and extensification. Now in a traditional periodization scheme (which is for the most part dead as far as internet training programs to increase vertical/speed is concerned) the early weeks of a training program will be dominantly volume based, while the latter weeks will be dominantly intensity based. The problem within is that a key idea in training is to improve your weaknesses while maintaining your strengths. In the early training weeks of a season, if all that is addressed is volume, the body will be ignoring the power output of the nervous system in that early time period. In my opinion, the best way to go is to alternate intensification and extensification blocks throughout the season. The ratios that will most typically be used will be 2 to 2 and 3 to 1 in favor of volume. I think after a 3 month block of this type of work, a more traditional power template can be used, and will end up being very effective. Here is an example of a 3 to 1 training block that would favor extensive work to intensive work.

Weeks 1-3
Monday AM: Olympic Lift, 6x3 light. Squat variation, 4x5 medium. 4x100m form sprints
Monday PM: 10 min hurdle Mobility Work. Stretching

Tuesday: Team sport (basketball/football/volle yball) OR light plyos (30 min session)

Wednesday AM: 100m hill run (3x3 sprint up/walk down)
Wednesday PM: 10 min hurdle mobility work, stretching.

Thursday: non impact exercise….swimming, run on the beach.

Friday: Repeat Tuesday

Saturday AM: 2-3x5 depth jumps off low (18”)box
Saturday PM: 3x (8x front squats to parallel + immediate 200m sprint, 4 min rest)

Sunday: Rest

Note: 3x a week, bodyweight upper body work and abdominal work should be performed. I found a set of parallel bars in the park behind my house to facilitate this.

Sample Intensity Based Week:
Monday AM: 5x5 ½ squats with 100% full squat RM.
Monday PM: 3x5 depth jumps off medium box (24”) 3x4 hurdle hops, 3x20m bounding, 3x50 jumprope, 3x100m form sprints.

Friday AM: 8x2 cleans with 80% 1RM
Friday PM: practice jumping/running/dunking.

Note: 3x a week same as last, bodyweight upper body and abdominal work. Light activity should be performed on all off days.

In reality the true beauty of this program is that you work very hard for 3 weeks and don’t give overtraining a second thought, in reality you might overtrain, but that is alright. As long as you are not doing a whole lot of high end plyometrics, you will be alright. Just work very hard for 3 weeks and then the 4th week will let you recover a bit, and switch gears into the intensity department. After 3-4 months of this you will want to take a couple weeks off and either repeat a similar cycle, or something like a 2 week plyometric stacked block and then 1 week off type setup.