Athena: Female Strength & Plyometric Training
$29.00
• 8 weeks, 4 days/week
• Perform in off-season or preseason
• Design specifically to train developing athletes to control and stabilize knees
• Uses neuromuscular and resistance training to develop stability
Description
Athena is an 8-week, 4 day/week program dedicated to increasing female prep-age athletes’ strength, knee stability, and explosiveness.
Knee tendon injuries are significant concern for prep-age female athletes who compete in team and individual sports. Causes include weakness, landing mechanics and movement inefficiencies.
Athena’s specific focus is building knee stability through strength, plyometric, and agility movements. The strength work is targeted at building hip, hamstring, quadricep, and calf strength, without ignoring the importance of developing upper body and core strength.
This program deploys assessments and uses the assessment results for follow on progressions. In this way the plan automatically scales to the initial individual fitness of the athlete.
The plyometric and agility work is first targeted at establishing knee stability through simple movements and progresses to developing explosiveness through more dynamic movements.
Below is the general weekly training schedule:
Monday – Strength
Tuesday – Plyometrics and Agility
Wednesday – Strength
Thursday – Plyometrics and Agility
Required Equipment
- Fully Equipped Weightroom - racks, barbells, dumbbells, etc.- 12” Plyo Box(es)
- Cones and space for agility drills
- Stopwatch
- 1x Medium Mini-Band per athlete
Sample Training
SESSION 13
Objective: Strength
Knee Injury Test:
Drop Jump Test
Triple Hop Stability Test
Triple Hop Limb Symmetry Test
Single Leg Squat Test
Warm-up:
4 Rounds
10x Air Squats
5x In-place Lunges
5x Push-ups
10x Sit-ups
Instep Stretch
Training:
(1) 6 Rounds
Quadzillas @ reps per below table based on SESSION 1 In-Place Lunge Reps
Hip Flexor Stretch
Rest 45 sec.
In-Place Lunge Reps Quadzilla Reps
5-10 4-4-4-8
11-15 5-5-5-10
15+ 6-6-6-12
(2) 6 Rounds
5x Dumbbell Alternating Bench Press - increase loading until 5x is hard but doable
3x Chin-ups
Lat + Pec Stretch
(3) 4 Rounds
20 sec. Sit-ups
20 sec. Russian Twists - 10/15#
20 sec. Rest
(4) 3 Rounds
20 sec. Calf Raises
10 sec. Hold in “up” position
20 sec. Calf Raises
10 sec. Hold in “up” position
60 sec. Foam Roll Quads/Calves
********************
SESSION 14
Objective: Plyometrics and Agility
Warm-up:
3 Rounds
45x Jump Ropes
4-Square Drill
10x Air Squats
5x Push-ups
Instep Stretch
Training:
6 Rounds
6x Tuck Jumps - focus on knee stability and jump height
Hip Flexor Stretch
6 Rounds
6x Broad Jumps - focus on knee stability and jump height
Pigeon Stretch
3 Rounds
20x 2-Leg Forward-Forward-Backward-Backward Hop over Cone
20x 2-Leg Left-Left-Right-Right Hop over Cone
focus on landing soft, with bent knees, and butt back
Lat + Pec Stretch
12 Rounds
1x Depth Jump from 12” box - jump off box, land with stable knees and immediately jump straight up, concentrating on keeping knees stable.
3x Shoulder Jackknives
4 Rounds
5x 40 ft. Shuttle Runs - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability through the turn.
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
5x 20 ft. Lateral Shuttle Runs - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you move laterally. Pivot laterally at each end.
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
5x 20 ft.V-Shuttles - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you move diagonally
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
3x 40 ft. Backpedal to Forward Sprint Shuttles - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you spin to sprint AND as you pivot at the cone to backpedal.
*************************
SESSION 15
Objective: Strength
Warm-up:
4 Rounds
10x Air Squats
5x In-place Lunges
5x Push-ups
10x Sit-ups
Instep Stretch
Training:
(1) 6 Rounds
Quadzillas @ reps per below table based on SESSION 1 In-Place Lunge Reps
Hip Flexor Stretch
Rest 45 sec.
In-Place Lunge Reps Quadzilla Reps
5-10 4-4-4-8
11-15 5-5-5-10
15+ 6-6-6-12
(2) 6 Rounds
5x Dumbbell Alternating Military Press - increase loading until 5x is hard but doable
5x Horizontal Pull-ups
Lat + Pec Stretch
(3) 4 Rounds
20 sec. Front Bridge
20 sec. Face Down Back Extension
20 sec. Rest
(4) 3 Rounds
20 sec. Calf Raises
10 sec. Hold in “up” position
20 sec. Calf Raises
10 sec. Hold in “up” position
60 sec. Foam Roll Quads/Calves
***********************
SESSION 16
Objective: Plyometrics and Agility
Warm-up:
3 Rounds
45x Jump Ropes
4-Square Drill
10x Air Squats
5x Push-ups
Instep Stretch
Training:
6 Rounds
6x Tuck Jumps - focus on knee stability and jump height
Hip Flexor Stretch
6 Rounds
6x Broad Jumps - focus on knee stability and jump height
Pigeon Stretch
3 Rounds
20x 2-Leg Forward-Forward-Backward-Backward Hop over Cone
20x 2-Leg Left-Left-Right-Right Hop over Cone
focus on landing soft, with bent knees, and butt back
Lat + Pec Stretch
12 Rounds
1x Depth Jump from 12” box - jump off box, land with stable knees and immediately jump straight up, concentrating on keeping knees stable.
3x Shoulder Jackknives
4 Rounds
5x 40 ft. Shuttle Runs - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability through the turn.
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
5x 20 ft. Lateral Shuttle Runs - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you move laterally. Pivot laterally at each end.
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
5x 20 ft.V-Shuttles - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you move diagonally
Rest 30 sec.
4 Rounds
3x 40 ft. Backpedal to Forward Sprint Shuttles - focus on quick feet, speed, and stability as you spin to sprint AND as you pivot at the cone to backpedal.
Testimonials
I just wanted to give you a quick shout out. I contacted you about possibly remote training my sister who is an elite marathoner. Not knowing her as an athlete, I knew it would be a long shot.
After assessing her past injuries and the symptoms she was feeling I went with the Athena program. After a 2014 full of injuries we focused on Athena and I'm happy to inform you she's injury free and just completed her first (yes first) marathon in 2:35:29.
Can't thank you enough for the programs being so accessible. Her name is Caitlin Comfort. Watch out for her at the Olympic trials in 2016. Thanks again.
- D
Our Stuff Works. Guaranteed.
Athlete's Subscription Package
Need all access programming? The Athlete Subscription gives you 450+ Plans and 13x Daily Programming Streams.
