If you’re reading this that means I didn’t scare you off with the first part of this 5 week program. In this portion of the program, we will continue to build strength, and general conditioning, which will culminate in the last week by setting new personal records for the lifts, and a few benchmark WODs. Keep reading to see just what this program entails.
As the title suggests, this is the second 5 week portion of the program. This brings the whole program length to 10 weeks. If you haven’t completed the first part, I highly recommend that you start with the 5 Week Strength and Conditioning Program for Intermediate Athletes (Part 1). Otherwise you might find the volume of work to be too much.
While I don’t want to completely re-hash the purpose and the intent for this program, I will quickly review the goals, and which athletes can benefit most.
Who Is This Program For?
- Athletes with at least 6 months experience in the gym
- Athletes who have safe technique on the major lifts
- Team sports athletes in the off season: Rugby, Football, Hockey, Soccer etc
- Advanced athletes returning to training after a break
I’ve taken care to select movements that are both challenging and simple to execute. This allows a wide range of folks to use this program without having to worry about scaling, or learning very complex movements, like full snatches.
This program is also designed to be done in a home gym with minimal equipment, or a commercial gym where you may not have traditional functional fitness gear like C2 rowers, wall balls, and gymnastics rings.
I have included a PDF download for part 2 of the 5 Week Strength and Conditioning Program for Intermediate athletes. Click below for the dropbox link.
Without further ado let’s get into the particulars of this portion of the program
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The 5 Week Strength and Conditioning Program for Intermediate Athletes (Part 2)
You can see that we are jumping in with both feet, after last week’s deload. Much of the template is still the same, with a few key changes. Let’s take a look at the first week of part two below.
Week 6
The first thing you’ll notice is that we are increasing the percentage work for our strength movements. This is mandatory if you want to keep showing progress.
More astute observers will note that while I’ve kept some of the accessory work the same, I’ve changed the execution, in terms of sets and reps. Make sure you pay attention to the notes where I ask that you leave a rep or two in the tank. You should not be taking all sets to failure. This will lead to overtraining and injury in the long term.
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Week 7
Week 7 continues to increase in difficulty. I do this primarily by adding a little bit of weight to the lifts, and secondarily by adding more overall volume in the accessory work.
It’s important to note that many of the WODs are a little shorter in length. I do this for a reason. Your body has only so much recovery capacity, and if I give you 20-30min WODs with a lot of lifting you aren’t going to recover at all.
Even though these metcons are often on the shorter side, I want you to make sure you are practicing the moves in the warm up and are hitting them with high intensity. No sandbagging!
Week 8
This is going to be your hardest week of training. The volume of accessory work is very high, and the load lifted for the strength movements is close to your rep maxes.
You’ll note that where I had instructed you to hold back a rep or two, most of the accessory work is AHAP, or as heavy as possible. It goes without saying, but this is as heavy as you can handle with good technique.
You also have the option of building to a final set that is as heavy as possible. I normally leave this up to the athlete. If you feel good that day, then you can go AHAP across all sets, if not, just build to one heavy AHAP set.
Week 9
This is our final deload week, in preparation for week 10, where we will be setting new records. Resist the urge to add in “a little extra” work as this is going to sabotage your gains for next week.
I always like to take deload weeks as a chance to work on perfecting my technique, making sure that I’m executing all movements to the best of my ability.
Notice this week is still heavy, it just isn’t high volume. This will allow you to get a little more practice with heavy weights, without incurring a large recovery cost.
Don’t go for any PRs this week. You might be able to eke out a small personal record, but you’ll do much better next week. Don’t get greedy!
Week 10
This is the week we’ve been building up to for several months now. All your hard work should pay off. You’ll also note that this week is a breeze compared to what you’ve become accustomed to.
I recommend a very thorough warm up. You should do a general warm up, with some light movement, and then work on the specific muscle groups you will be working on later.
I also recommend going for three attempts to set your new personal record lift. Your first attempt should be a small PR. Your next attempt should be what you’d like to get, and your last attempt should be very aggressive. You can do an optional fourth attempt if you made a bone headed mistake on a previous lift, or you just feel that strong, but no more. The more 1RM attempts you do the higher your chances for injury.
For the benchmark WODs, you need to thoroughly warm up those specific moves. For something like Fran I might do three rounds of 3-5 thrusters and pull ups to get my heart going and get ready for a hard effort. I’d then take a few minutes and hit the WOD hard.
Choosing Your Next Program
Now that you’ve completed this program, you’ll be needing something to keep the gains train rolling. I would recommend checking out one of these three programs, as they will pair nicely with this 5 Week Strength and Conditioning Program for Intermediate athletes.
- 12 Weeks of Muscular Growth Program
- 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
- 72 Weeks of Free Functional Program Series
These are some of my most popular programs, and some of them do include premium versions that will give you all the details such as percentages to hit, specific warm ups, and times to go for in WODs.
Final Thoughts
Congrats on finishing this program. It’s a challenging program and many of you probably set some serious PRs. I recommend that you take a few days off where you don’t do any rigorous work in the gym. Feel free to stay active, but do things like play sports, or do some outdoors activities. Remember fitness isn’t only found in the gym!
I often find a small break from the gym also gives your body a chance to repair those niggling little injuries that we all incur from time to time. Ultimately this allows you to get back to training with even more intensity. Now get out there and get after it!
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