Utilizing a High Low Model to Prevent Speed Plateaus

Today I want to discuss how to organize your training, specifically for speed and power athletes. One of the best models you can run in a private training facility is a high low model where the stimulus alternates from high intensity to low intensity and back to high intensity.

Ideally you would like to have 48-72 hours for the CNS to recovers between high stimulus training sessions such as max effort lower body lifting, sprinting, and jumping and you want to structure those modalities on the same high intensity day. You wouldn’t

want to do a max effort squat on Monday and max effort sprints on Tuesday as the strength workouts on Monday would affect the sprints on Tuesday.

So, in a high / low model you can perform the exercise that produce the most stress on the CNS on Monday, then you could perform a low intensity day. For many team sport athletes, you could perform tempo running on this day, cyclic zone 2 aerobic training, or change of direction. Your intensity for strength training needs to be lower too so I tend to think of this as an upper body hypertrophy day if I am running a 4 day a week split.

My favorite structure for a high low model is:

High Monday- sprints, jumps, heavy lower body strength,

Low Tuesday- change of direction, upper body hypertrophy

Wednesday off-

High Thursday – sprinting, jumping, dynamic effort lower body

Friday – cod, tempos, upper body hypertrophy

If you are frequently measuring outputs on athletes that come into your facility and you have seen a stall, try out this model and you can break out of plateaus.

- Graham