Quitting sport to lift

Chieflrg

I decided not to play baseball this year for the first time in over 10 years to devote my focus my training on powerlifting. Last year, was just too stressful on my muscles as a 48 year old catcher and squat 3x a week and recovery was a problem. I decided to part ways as I'm my health is deteriorating quickly and I want to compete nationally before things happen.

Starting strength wasn't designed for sports as written. Of course you can bastardize it and have great results. I believe the stat was of the people who actually logged workouts on the Starting Strength site only 2% actually do the program as written and the other 98% all progressed, ALOT. That being said its a balancing act to do both and it's not optimal.

If I was coaching you, I wouldn't have you do a LP while playing hockey. It's really not that important as long as you do train and get stronger without effecting your sport. Squatting twice a week would be sufficient for training if in season. I would switch to RPE based programming to start and this will help you auto regulate your training based on how you felt that day. Too many times lifters get caught up in the numbers and push to hard when it's not best for the long term.

Good luck bud.

TavistockToad

Dern420 wrote: »

So I played hockey 2 nights ago, and I'm still sore as hell!

Definitely affecting my ability to do Starting Strength: I don't think I can squat the day after I play.

TavistockToad wrote: »

gym monday, wednesday saturday, hockey thursday gives you plenty of rest days.

cqbkaju

I currently run a modified MadCow5x5 ("MC", advanced StrongLifts5x5) focusing on OHP instead of Bench - Mon, Wed & Fri.
I'm in my second 12-week run now.
I train and coach full-contact Boxing, Submission Grappling, and Combatives on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and some weekends for about 2 hours per session.

No problems with recovery or performance in my fights or classes (actually improved, IMO) but my diet is nearly on point and I try to get plenty of rest.

On StrongLifts5x5 ("SL"), if you eat enough to gain about 1/2 to 1 lb per week (250 - 500 calorie surplus) while drinking plenty of fluids then you should be fine, presuming you aren't trying to cut.
You also do barbell rows in SL instead of power cleans in SS, which I prefer.

In Starting Strength ("SS"), Coach Rip doesn't seem to think you are a man sometimes unless you are tipping the scales at over 200 lbs.
Simply put, if performance is suffering, eat more and rest more on SS.
You usually need to choose what is more important on SS: strength or hockey.

Remember that SS is mostly intended for younger guys.
If you are in your mid 30's or over, you might want to look into something like "The Barbell Prescription" instead.

Figure maintenance at about 15x bodyweight & bulk at 17x or 18x bodyweight.
0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Yes, I said it. Deal with it.
About 25% or 30% of your calories from fat & the rest, carbs.
Adjust these macros as necessary while tracking your performance and progress.

Run it for about 3 weeks, adjust macros and calories as necessary & run for another 3 weeks, repeat.

I have a Starting Strength coach on my staff but we usually encourage our fighters to do something like StrongLifts, MadCow, HLM, or 5/3/1 instead of Starting Strength.
HLM/GGW (Heavy Light Medium/Garage Gym Warrior) works great on a cut and is simple to recover from, BTW
We have strength standards (and body fat maximums) for our fighters based around their body weights.
If they want to run "hypertrophy programs" they are allowed after they hit a few of the strength standards.

Recovery is just too tough for some people on Starting Strength who have a life outside of increasing raw poundages.

Your Mileage May Vary.

FWIW: Deadlift 315#x5, Barbell Row 170#x3, Squat 270#x3, Bench 170#x4, OHP 115#x5 at 157 lbs body weight.
Also weighted Dips (+45#)x7 and Weighted Chin-Ups (+15#)x5, body-weight Chin-Upsx10
All while recovering from surgery and still coaching/competing.

AnvilHead

First off, I'd question whether SS is the appropriate routine for you, given that your primary goal is hypertrophy, and that it adversely affects you playing hockey.

Squatting is essential if you have goals of competing in powerlifting at some point, but it's not essential for hypertrophy (nor is any other particular exercise). Maybe you'd be better served using a hypertrophy-oriented program and subbing out squats for one of many other effective quad exercises.

Starting Strength and Stronglifts are very popular on MFP and are almost universally recommended to everybody. While they're both effective programs, there are plenty of other programs which are better suited to particular individual goals.

[ETA:] You may even want to look around and try to discover what lifting programs hockey players are actually using (NHL players are both strong and powerful). Then you'd have the dual benefit of lifting and being beneficial to your hockey game.

Keto_Vampire

Former futbol/soccer player transitioned into bodybuilding & cardio mainly just due to getting tired of facing the inevitability of injury/trauma from (competitive) contact sports. Does not mean you can't still enjoy hockey recreation-ally or intramural level. Yes, you can get injured doing almost any sport; however, I feel like there is a lot more control over injuries with proper form weight lifting/bodybuilding

darreneatschicken

My main fitness goal right now is to get as big as possible.

I'm 23-years old, but I still look like a boy.

Beer-league hockey is more of a hobby, but at the same time, I play at a pretty high level, so I like to stay competitive.

I'm going to stick with Starting Strength, but if I'm too sore the day after a hockey game, I'll just either take a break from the gym that day, or I'll go, but I'll replace the squats and deadlifts with pullups, dips, planks, and back extensions.

I want to build up my strength before looking into hypertrophy programs. So maybe once I'm plateauing on my lifts and not progressing in terms of muscle gain, I'll switch it up.

But at this time, I can't even bench yet (still working with my osteopath to correct my scapular winging).

rileyes

https://www.google.com/search?q=training+program+for+hockey+players&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Passion. Choose a sport you love and train for accordingly.

darreneatschicken

My osteopath pretty much said I can do any exercise except for overhead and chest exercises. So I can't do shoulder press, bench press, or push-ups.

Therefore, I'm currently doing a modified Starting Strength:

Workout A

Subscapularis release + hamstring shortening exercise + banded left glute bridge + stretch

Squat: 3x8-10
Bicep curls: 3x8-10
Rows: 3x8-10

Stretch


Workout B

Subscapularis release + hamstring shortening exercise + banded left glute bridge + stretch

Squat: 3x8-10
Assisted pull-ups: 3x8-10
Deadlift: 3x8-10
Tricep pull-downs: 3x8-10

Stretch

I plan to decrease to 3x5 once I get my lifts to a reasonable weight, but for now, I'm working mainly on form.

Also, if my legs are too sore from hockey, I'll just skip a workout or only work my upper-body. Maybe replace squats with planks and back extensions...

alexa0ne

Are you sure you want to quit your sports? You can always do both. Will it be better if you just create a time management plan? This is just my opinion.

darreneatschicken

alexa0ne wrote: »

Are you sure you want to quit your sports? You can always do both. Will it be better if you just create a time management plan? This is just my opinion.

I'm going to keep playing hockey. It's just if I'm too sore to workout the day after a game, I'll just skip the gym for that day, or maybe just work arms.

It's hard to time manage because I'm a backup goalie, so I can't predict when I'm going to play.