Programming Mastery #3: Balancing the Week
#71 - Strength & Speed Coaching - Pursuing Your Best ⚡️
A Quick Note of Gratitude
Last week’s Iowa Strength Coaches Association State Clinic was a great reminder of why this work matters.
Thank you to the presenters and panel coaches who shared their time and experience.
Thank you to the coaches who showed up ready to learn and ask great questions.
Thank you to the sponsors—without their support, this event wouldn’t be possible.
And thank you to Jake, Nate, Jordan, Dave, and Dean for making it all happen.
If you’re not already connected with the Iowa Strength Coaches Association, I’d strongly encourage you to check out their work at IAstrength.org
The ISCA continues to be a valuable hub for coaches committed to improving Strength & Speed in school settings across Iowa—and membership is free.
What stood out most wasn’t the exercises.
It was the systems.
The conversations.
The shared commitment to doing this work better inside real school environments.
That’s what this Programming Mastery Series is about.
Not chasing trends.
Not chasing novelty.
Building systems that last.
And one of the most important—and most misunderstood—systems in school-based Strength & Speed is how the week is balanced.
Why Balancing the Week Matters
Most coaches don’t struggle with what to train.
They struggle with where it goes.
They have good exercises.
They understand movement categories.
They care about intent and quality.
But the week itself feels hectic.
Too much lower body stacked back-to-back
Speed showing up randomly
In-season athletes cooked by Wednesday
Out-of-season athletes under-dosed
No consistent rhythm from week to week
That’s not a programming knowledge issue.
That’s a weekly structure issue.
A well-balanced week doesn’t just protect athletes—it creates clarity for coaches, assistants, and students.
The Week Is the System
Your program doesn’t live in a spreadsheet.
It lives in:
Monday’s energy
Tuesday’s routine
Wednesday’s focus
Thursday’s intent
Friday’s carryover
This is why we think in “A Week in the Life,” not isolated workouts.
If the week makes sense:
Athletes know what’s coming
Coaches know what to emphasize
Adjustments become easier
Progress becomes sustainable
If the week doesn’t make sense, nothing else matters.
The Non-Negotiables of a Balanced Week
Before we talk structure, these rules matter.
A balanced week must:
Respect school schedules
Support in-season athletes
Still challenge out-of-season athletes
Reinforce program priorities
Be repeatable week to week
If your weekly plan only works on a “perfect” week, it’s not a system.
Using the Exercise Menu to Balance the Week
Your Exercise Menu (from Programming Mastery #2) is not the problem.
The issue is how those categories are distributed across the week.
We don’t balance the week by:
Rotating random workouts
Chasing muscle soreness
Matching social media templates
We balance the week by intentionally placing movement categories.
The Weekly Framework We Use
Below is a model, not a mandate—but this rhythm shows how we organize stress, intent, and recovery inside the school day. At Mustang Strength & Speed, we’ve chosen a 3-day total body training split as the backbone of our program. You can read more here.
While our program operates across the full school week, these three training days serve as the primary anchors that create rhythm, balance stress, and guide weekly decision-making.
Day 1
Focus: Intent, rhythm, and quality movement
Clear sprint exposure (acceleration - SHREDmill)
Explosive work (jumps) early in the session
Lower-body strength emphasis
Upper body supports the day, not the other way around
This day establishes the standard for the week.
Fast, focused, and technically clean.
Day 2 – Upper Emphasis, Legs Stay Fresh
Focus: Maintain progress without accumulating fatigue
Speed exposure (normally Max Velocity)
Upper body push and pull take priority
Lower/Total body appears as a deadlift variation (normally Trap Bar)
Core and trunk integrity are emphasized in the primer movements
This day gives the lower body room to recover from a strength perspective, while the system keeps moving forward.
Day 3 – Total Emphasis with Guardrails
Focus: Hang Clean & unilateral strength progression without chaos
Hang Clean with high intensity and low volume
Single lower-body strength emphasized
Upper body supports again
Core work reinforces durability
This day is about locking in habits—without letting volume or complexity take over.
Why This Rhythm Works
Speed shows up consistently, not crammed into one day
Lower-body stress is distributed, not stacked
In-season athletes can dial volume down without changing structure
Out-of-season athletes can push intent without blowing up the week
Coaches and athletes know what to expect
This rhythm doesn’t eliminate adjustment — it organizes it. The structure stays the similar. The dose adapts.
That’s the difference between programming workouts and building a system.
How In-Season and Out-of-Season Athletes Coexist
This is where many programs fall apart.
We don’t create separate programs.
We use the same structure and adjust the dose.
In-season athletes live on Yellow and Red days more often
Out-of-season athletes push Green days harder
Same movements, same menu, same rhythm
Different volume
The week stays predictable.
The volume adapts.
Structure creates safety. Dosing creates flexibility.
Common Weekly Balance Mistakes
Too many hard lower days in a row
Speed crammed into one day instead of spread across the week
No clear rhythm from Monday to Friday
Adjusting randomly instead of systematically
Treating fatigue as a failure instead of feedback
If athletes don’t feel a rhythm, the week isn’t balanced.
Weekly Balance Takeaway
Balancing the week isn’t about perfection.
It’s about consistency.
When the week is balanced:
Athletes stay healthier
Teaching improves
Adjustments are easier
Progress lasts longer
Your system isn’t complete until the pieces work together across the week.
Next Up
Programming Mastery #4 — Managing Load, Intent, and Adjustments
Once the week is structured, the next step is learning how to coach inside it—adjusting volume, intensity, and intent without losing the system.
★ Paid Subscriber Resources
Next week, I’ll share several of the programming tools we actually use—exercise menus, weekly structure charts, training cards, planning outlines, and more—to help you apply this system in your own setting.
Need Help Structuring Your Week?
If you’re building—or rebuilding—a Strength & Speed program inside the school day and want help creating a clear, repeatable weekly structure, I can help.
Pursuit PE Consulting offers on-site and virtual support focused on:
Class-based Strength & Speed systems
Weekly and seasonal structure
In-season integration
Coaching workflow and sustainability
Programs built on systems last.
Keep pursuing excellence,
Preston ⚡️