The 7 Categories of Exercises You Need To Include In Your Strength Training Program

-June 5th, 2012-

A properly designed training program is the first step to seeing improvements in your lacrosse performance.

If you want to get Bigger, Stronger, and Faster you need a plan to get you there.

If you do not have one, how will you know if your training is working? How will you know if you are improving in the areas you want to improve?

I get tons of questions from players about how to design their own training program.

Most players have been working out on their own for a while and have done some research into training and what they think they should be doing.

How many exercises they should be doing for certain body parts, whether they should focus more on back than chest, what are the best leg exercises etc.

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when designing a program.

Past injury history, the area they’d like to improve the most, skill in the weight room (great player DOES NOT mean great lifter!), equipment they have access to, how many days a week will they train are just some of the things that have to be taken into consideration.

Having said that, there is a very simple way to look at training to make sure you are including everything you need to be including.

When breaking everything down, there are 7 main categories of exercises you should be doing. Train all these categories and you are better off than the majority of players that have no idea or no plan.

The categories are:

1. Horizontal Push (Push Up, Bench Press)
2. Horizontal Pull (DB Row, TRX Row)
3. Vertical Push (Shoulder Press)
4. Vertical Pull (Chin Up, Pull Up)
5. Hip Dominant (Deadlift, Shoulder Elevated Hip Lift)
6. Knee Dominant (Lunges, Squats)
7. Rotary/Rotary Stability (Planks, Landmines)

These are the foundation to every program I design for my players.

Obviously which exercise in each category I assign and the rep ranges vary depending on the goal of that phase or where the player needs to improve most, but it still always comes back down to these 7 categories for the main exercises.

Make these the basis for your training and you will have a well rounded training program!

P.S. Enter on the right to get NLL MVP Dan Dawson’s Strength Training Program FREE and you will see exactly how these 7 main categories are used in designing a balanced training program.

P.P.S. If you want to see and hear fellow Lacrosse Training Specialists discuss how they train their players including current NCAA Strength Coaches check out Lacrosse Training Experts

Tags: lacrosse training, mike boyle, Program Design