The Athletic Acceleration Program PART 1 – Hypertrophy
Want to be more explosive, punch harder, jump higher, or run faster? Whether you’re a baseball, basketball, a boxer, or a weekend warrior, this program will accelerate your athletic performance to another level.
Dunking like Lebron and punching like Mike Tyson
While you probably won’t be dunking 720 windmills and knocking out heavyweight champions, we can get you closer to your athletic potential with the help of science and research.
Studies and collective coaching experience have shown that the following workout order is superior when trying to achieve explosive power. The model consists of at least three phases: hypertrophy, maximum strength, and conversion to specific strength; in our case, that would be explosive power.
To be more explosive, you must increase your rate of force development. That is basically a measurement of how quickly you can develop force. But wait, to develop a lot of force quickly, you first have to develop a lot of force. And it doesn’t stop there. In order to develop a lot of force, you must put on some muscle to your frame, and that’s why this 12-week offseason program will start with a hypertrophy phase.
An overview of the program
The following program will consist of 3 distinct phases:
- A 3+1 week hypertrophy phase
- A 3+1 week maximum strength phase
- And a 3+1 week power phase
The hypertrophy phase will increase your muscle mass, which will give you more potential to be stronger. During the maximum strength phase, you will increase the maximum force you can exert. The final phase, the power/explosive power phase, will be focused on developing power as quickly as possible in order for it to have any transfer to athletic performance. With a majority of explosive movements in sports taking anywhere from 100 to 200 milliseconds, and a 1 rep max lasting a couple of seconds, you can see how just having a strong squat/bench won’t cut it when it comes to the court.
What is RPE?
An important thing to keep in mind is the concept of rate of perceived extortion, or RPE. RPE is a scale that subjectively measures the intensity of a lift. It goes from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest intensity on the scale. Everything below 6 could be considered a warmup, while 9 and 10 should be hit just occasionally, not every time you touch a barbell. You can also label a set with a .5, for example, 8.5, if you’re not sure if you got 1 or 2 reps left in the tank. The majority of your work should be around 7 and 8. You can see the explained scale below.
- 10 — Max effort, you have no more reps left in the tank
- 9 — You have another rep left in you, but it’s a grinder
- 8 — You have around 2 or 3 reps left. This is your sweet spot, along with 7
- 7 — The sweet spot along with 8, you should live here
- 6 — Pretty light. You should add more weight unless said otherwise
- 5 & below — This is basically a warmup
Rest and nutrition
While recovering from the grueling workouts during the next 12 weeks, quality sleep and nutrition will be your best friends.
Let’s start with sleep. Being one of the most important pillars of recovery, it is a key element in reducing the risk of sports injuries. For example, a recent study showed that athletes who over 8 hours each night were more than 50% less likely to be injured than athletes who regularly slept less.
People who sleep from 8 to 10 hours per night will drastically improve their recovery and, therefore, their performance. To improve the quality of your sleep, try avoiding as much artificial light as you can at least 1 hour before going to bed. Keep your room cool as research has shown that the optimal room temperature for great sleep is around 18°C or 65°F.
When it comes to nutrition, you should get around 2 and 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. That’s somewhere between 0.9 and 1.1 grams per pound of bodyweight for all you imperial folks. You should eat in a slight caloric surplus during the hypertrophy and maximum strength phases. A balanced diet’s general rule of thumb would be 3:2:1, meaning 3 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fats. So an athlete weighing 80 kg would need to eat 240 g of carbs, 160 g of protein, and 80 g of fats.
Supplements could help you along the way to your goals. The supplements that I would always recommend would be creatine and whey protein. Whey is great at helping you reach your protein goals for the day, although it most definitely isn’t a steroid. Creatine will allow you to recover faster and produce more force. The dose that researchers recommend is somewhere around 0.1 g of creatine per kilogram of bodyweight, but you need to make sure you don’t take more than 5 grams at once because it might lead to some stomach problems you don’t want to experience.
A few details before you start
It should be obvious that you should be able to do all of the exercises below with the correct form in order to prevent injury and maximize your gains. A proper warmup before every workout is also a must. Now that we got that out of the way let’s get to the program.
In order to make everything as effective as possible, you should max out on a few key lifts at the end of every phase. This will help us determine the right percentages for your lifts down the line.
The intensity during this first week will be somewhat light, but we will ramp things up as we go, ending out with a 1 week deload at the end of the phase. On the last 2 days of the phase, we will max out on our key lifts.
The split used for this phase will be an Upper Body/Lower Body, 4 times a week split.
Exercises are labeled with letters. For example, exercises labeled as A1 and A2 mean that a superset should be performed, while exercises labeled just as A, B, C, etc., mean that they are done like straight sets. We will note the RPE only for the main exercises. You can go to failure or close to it on the accessory exercises.
| Phase 1 – Hypertrophy | |||||
| WEEK 1 | |||||
| Monday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Bench Press | 3 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| A2 | Cable/Chest Supported Row | 3 | 10 | 7 | 2 min |
| B1 | Half Kneeling Landmine Press | 3 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| B2 | Dumbbell Pullover | 3 | 8-10 | 7 | 2 min |
| C | Face Pulls | 3 | 15 | / | 90 s |
| D | Pallof Press | 3 | 8 | / | 60 s |
| Tuesday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Trap Bar Deadlift | 3 | 6 | 7 | 2 min |
| B | Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 | 8 | 7 | 2 min |
| C | Goblet Squat | 3 | 12 | 7 | 2 min |
| D1 | Calf Raises | 3 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Tibialis Raises | 3 | 10 | / | 60 s |
| E | Stir The Pot | 3 | 5 | / | 60 s |
| Thursday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Overhead Press | 3 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| A2 | Pullups/Lat Pulldown | 3 | 10 | 7 | 2 min |
| B1 | Pushups | 3 | 10-15 | / | 30 s |
| B2 | Inverted Row | 3 | 8-10 | / | 2 min |
| C | Bottoms Up Kettlebell Carry | 3 | 10m | / | 90 s |
| D | Suitcase Carry | 3 | 20m | / | 90 s |
| Friday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Back/Front/Safety Squat | 3 | 8 | 7 | 2 min |
| B | Nordic Curl | 3 | 5 | 8-9 | 2 min |
| C | Hip Thrust | 3 | 10 | failure | 2 min |
| D1 | Farmers Carry | 3 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Copenhagen Plank | 3 | 20 sec | / | 60 s |
| Phase 1 – Hypertrophy | |||||
| WEEK 2 | |||||
| Monday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Bench Press | 4 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| A2 | Cable/Chest Supported Row | 4 | 10 | 7 | 2 min |
| B1 | Half Kneeling Landmine Press | 3 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| B2 | Dumbbell Pullover | 3 | 8-10 | 7 | 2 min |
| C | Face Pulls | 4 | 15 | / | 90 s |
| D | Pallof Press | 3 | 8 | / | 60 s |
| Tuesday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Trap Bar Deadlift | 4 | 8 | 7 | 2 min |
| B | Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 | 8 | 7 | 2 min |
| C | Goblet Squat | 3 | 12 | 7 | 2 min |
| D1 | Calf Raises | 4 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Tibialis Raises | 4 | 10 | / | 60 s |
| E | Stir The Pot | 3 | 5 | / | 60 s |
| Thursday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Overhead Press | 4 | 10 | 7 | 30 s |
| A2 | Pullups/Lat Pulldown | 4 | 10 | 7 | 2 min |
| B1 | Pushups | 3 | 10-15 | / | 30 s |
| B2 | Inverted Row | 3 | 8-10 | / | 2 min |
| C | Bottoms Up Kettlebell Carry | 3 | 10m | / | 90 s |
| D | Suitcase Carry | 3 | 20m | / | 90 s |
| Friday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Back/Front/Safety Squat | 4 | 8 | 7 | 2 min |
| B | Nordic Curl | 4 | 5 | 8-9 | 2 min |
| C | Hip Thrust | 4 | 10 | failure | 2 min |
| D1 | Farmers Carry | 3 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Copenhagen Plank | 3 | 20 sec | / | 60 s |
| Phase 1 – Hypertrophy | |||||
| WEEK 3 | |||||
| Monday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Bench Press | 3 | 8 | 9 | 30 s |
| A2 | Cable/Chest Supported Row | 3 | 10 | 8-9 | 2 min |
| B1 | Half Kneeling Landmine Press | 4 | 10 | 8 | 30 s |
| B2 | Dumbbell Pullover | 4 | 8-10 | 8 | 2 min |
| C | Face Pulls | 4 | 15 | / | 90 s |
| D | Pallof Press | 3 | 8 | / | 60 s |
| Tuesday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Trap Bar Deadlift | 4 | 6 | 9 | 3-4 min |
| B | Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 | 8 | 9 | 2 min |
| C | Goblet Squat | 3 | 12 | 7 | 2 min |
| D1 | Calf Raises | 4 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Tibialis Raises | 4 | 10 | / | 60 s |
| E | Stir The Pot | 3 | 5 | / | 60 s |
| Thursday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Overhead Press | 3 | 8 | 9 | 30 s |
| A2 | Pullups/Lat Pulldown | 3 | 8 | 9 | 2 min |
| B1 | Pushups | 4 | 15-20 | / | 30 s |
| B2 | Inverted Row | 4 | 8-10 | / | 2 min |
| C | Bottoms Up Kettlebell Carry | 3 | 10m | / | 90 s |
| D | Suitcase Carry | 3 | 20m | / | 90 s |
| Friday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Back/Front/Safety Squat | 3 | 8 | 9 | 2-3 min |
| B | Nordic Curl | 4 | 5 | 8-9 | 2 min |
| C | Hip Thrust | 4 | 10 | failure | 2 min |
| D1 | Farmers Carry | 4 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Copenhagen Plank | 4 | 20 sec | / | 60 s |
| Phase 1 – Hypertrophy | |||||
| WEEK 4 – Deload Week | |||||
| Monday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A1 | Bench Press | 2 | 10 | 5 | 30 s |
| A2 | Cable/Chest Supported Row | 2 | 10 | 5 | 2 min |
| B1 | Half Kneeling Landmine Press | 2 | 10 | 5 | 30 s |
| B2 | Dumbbell Pullover | 2 | 8-10 | 5 | 2 min |
| C | Face Pulls | 3 | 15 | / | 90 s |
| D | Pallof Press | 3 | 8 | / | 60 s |
| Tuesday – Lower Body | |||||
| # | Exercise | Sets | Reps | RPE | Rest |
| A | Trap Bar Deadlift | 2 | 6 | 5 | 3-4 min |
| B | Bulgarian Split Squat | 2 | 8 | 5 | 2 min |
| C | Goblet Squat | 2 | 10 | 5 | 2 min |
| D1 | Calf Raises | 2 | 10 | / | 30 s |
| D2 | Tibialis Raises | 2 | 10 | / | 60 s |
| E | Stir The Pot | 3 | 5 | / | 60 s |
| Thursday – Upper Body | |||||
| # | Bench Press 1RM Testing | % of 1RM | Reps | Rest | |
| 1 | 30-50% | 8 | 2 min | ||
| 2 | 60% | 5 | 2 min | ||
| 3 | 70% | 3 | 3 min | ||
| 4 | 80% | 1 | 3 min | ||
| 5 | 90% | 1 | 5 min | ||
| 6 | 100% | 1 | 5-15 min | ||
| 7+ | 102% | 1 | 5-15 min | ||
| Friday – Lower body | |||||
| # | Squat 1RM Testing | % of 1RM | Reps | Rest | |
| 1 | 30-50% | 8 | 2 min | ||
| 2 | 60% | 5 | 2 min | ||
| 3 | 70% | 3 | 3 min | ||
| 4 | 80% | 1 | 3 min | ||
| 5 | 90% | 1 | 5 min | ||
| 6 | 100% | 1 | 5-15 min | ||
| 7+ | 102% | 1 | 5-15 min | ||
| # | Trap Bar Deadlift 1RM Testing | % of 1RM | Reps | Rest | |
| 1 | 30-50% | 8 | 2 min | ||
| 2 | 60% | 5 | 2 min | ||
| 3 | 70% | 3 | 3 min | ||
| 4 | 80% | 1 | 3 min | ||
| 5 | 90% | 1 | 5 min | ||
| 6 | 100% | 1 | 5-15 min | ||
| 7+ | 102% | 1 | 5-15 min |