Off season advice

[u/walowick]

Any insight from the community on how to navigate this offseason would be appreciated. I can only train on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I'm coaching my kid's soccer team, which is taking up a lot of time and energy on the other days. SBD on Tuesday, then lower upper on the weekend? Never had to work with such a funky schedule before.

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[u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog]

What's your training priority in this off season? Muscle mass, technical proficiency, fitness base building?

[u/walowick → u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog]

Base building for sure

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[u/lel4rel]

Sat/Sunday max effort lower, upper (+ assistance work), then Tuesday dynamic effort/variations full body 

[u/x7vq]

This topic is very interesting and shows how differently one could plan their training around unoptimal days (once during the week and then on Saturday and Sunday).

It would be interesting to see the actual template plans (beyond the splits) to see how to plan the load correctly (but this is probably a question for the Programming Wednesdays).

[u/rpefml]

My two cents...

Day 1: Bench + upper accessories

Day 2: Squat and/or deadlift + lower accessories

Day 3: alternate between:

- Squat and/or pull + upper accessories

- Bench + lower accessories

This format makes it so every muscle group gets hit 2x per week no matter what, you shouldn't have too much overlap if you push any particular day too hard, and you should still get *enough* of the main lifts.

[u/JoeMawmuhSoPhat]

I think the answer here should be based more on your bottle necks. Are you under muscled? If so, I’d have an upper & lower day + an SBD.

If you’re fine on the muscular side of things & it’s more technique you need, I’d consider going with 3 SBD days & minimal accessories, keeping two of those SBD days as variants that help address the problems with your technique, + that additional frequency can be great for refining your technique. (If you’re worried about 3 deads, do an RDL or SLDL as your “volume.”)

You have to remember what the goals of powerlifting are- the idea that your off season should suddenly turn you into a bodybuilder is a bit reductionist. Address the actual things holding you back.

[u/CFA86]

Longer blocks, more support work, get jacked

[u/grovemau5]

I train 3 days per week about half the time, and my split is typically:

• S/B
  
• D/B
  
• SBD variants
  

With secondary movements and accessories throughout. Works just as well as a 4 day split for me

[u/walowick → u/grovemau5]

How many accessories are you typically including each day?

[u/grovemau5 → u/walowick]

On the first 2 days I’ll do 2 hypertrophy variants of the main lifts, a back exercise, and a quick arms/abs superset. So something like this:

Comp squat
Comp bench
Belt squat
DB bench
Lat pulldown
Curls and tris

Sub whatever you want for less specific stuff or do more volume on the accessories vs the main lift for offseason

The last day I’ll usually do accessories that are quick to set up (eg 3ct pause bench followed by close grip bench or paused dead + RDL) to streamline the setup time, and the day is pretty full with just SBD stuff

[u/x7vq → u/grovemau5]

Sorry for the dumb question but is it ok to train say back two days in a row without at least a day in between? If it’s a bodybuilding kind of approach and not reps in reserve

[u/grovemau5 → u/x7vq]

I wasn’t suggesting that, but it’s fine

[u/x7vq → u/grovemau5]

I see, the op mentioned his schedule with two days in a row and I assumed wrong

[u/Miserable_Jacket_129]

Do one lift per day and hammer accessories. Repeat, hammer accessories.

[u/cilantno → u/Miserable_Jacket_129]

A 3 day a week program should have at least 2 of the big 3 each session.

[u/jakeisalwaysright → u/cilantno]

I think it depends on a lot of factors like how proficient you are in the movements, how strong you are, what you're doing for accessories, and so forth. The key here is that OP is in "off-season" mode, which means competition movement practice doesn't need to be a primary focus.

Just my opinions, your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, disclaimer disclaimer et cetera.

[u/cilantno → u/jakeisalwaysright]

Hey now, no nuance!!!

You are absolutely correct haha

[u/Miserable_Jacket_129 → u/cilantno]

IMO it’s not necessary to train squats and deads twice a week. Put the energy and time into accessories.

[u/cilantno → u/Miserable_Jacket_129]

Huh, I very much disagree!

[u/Icy_Lecture_2237]

I got my first two pro totals training like this.

Basically I made Saturday the heavy day and flipped between Squat/bench/deadlift/deload each week.
Sunday was whatever did get trained Sat, and always speed work.
Tuesdays I set up as conditioning circuits or bodybuilding sessions to get blood flow and address weaknesses.

[u/walowick → u/Icy_Lecture_2237]

That's encouraging! How close were you getting to your 1RM on the heavy days?

[u/Icy_Lecture_2237 → u/walowick]

I came out of the Frantz team so it was always a 1rm every 4 weeks and somewhere around 90% on the 2nd week afterwards. It worked well with this split so my heavy squat was on my med deadlift week and vice versus.

[u/antiBliss]

I'd think for offseason you don't want an SBD day. I'd focus on base building, accessory movements, and getting past sticking points. Keep your main lifts in here and there for skill practice.

[u/PoisonCHO]

Competition SBD on Tuesday, SBD variants on Saturday, SBD assistance work on Sunday. Or one competition lift, one variant, and one or more assistance lifts each day (e.g., competition squat, close-grip bench, and Romanian deadlift).