cutting back lifting to 2 days a week and doing more cardio

Options
mjpisat
mjpisat Posts: 46 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am up to playing 2 ice hockey games a week and one extra day on the ice is a light skate/practice.

I've been doing starting strength for about 8 weeks now. I am not going to lift three days a week on this new schedule so i was thinking about cutting back lifting to 2 days a week. It was recommended that I do starting strength two days a week just to maintain over the next 10 weeks until this season is over.

It would look like this:
Friday - hockey
Saturday - hockey
Sunday - off
Monday - work out a (squat, bench, dead, dips)
Tuesday - light skate
wednesday - work out b (squat, press, row, pull ups)
thursday - off

repeat

my main goal overall is to lose more weight/fat. I have been stuck at 193 for 2.5 months now after losing 15 lbs. Over the next 10 weeks i would like to maintain strength gains I've made and try to jump start weight loss again.

does sound like a plan as far as lifting only two days a week and doing the SS program?

also following the helloitsdan road map.

i set mfp for 2100 calories a day. in the three weeks i've been doing this I've gone over by 2000 2 weeks and 4000 1 week.

Should I go up to 2350 which would be a 20% deficit from my tdee of exercising 3-5 days a week (2945 calories)

Replies

  • Determinednoob
    Determinednoob Posts: 2,001 Member
    Options
    That isn't SS there's no power cleans listed! ;) Doing that would be fine, or you could take wed off and lift thur and probably do more lifting each day if you wanted. I would try something like

    Squat
    Bench
    Deadlift
    Press
    Row
    Chins

    Squat
    Bench
    SLDL
    Press
    Row
    Chins

    And see if you can recover OK with 2 and 3 days rest between.
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    Options
    2 days of lifting should be enough to prevent atrophy of muscles. As long as you are lifting relatively heavy on those main lifts I think that should be good.
  • mjpisat
    mjpisat Posts: 46 Member
    Options
    I could do Monday and Thursday, but then I play hockey Friday and Saturday night. I think going Mon and Wednesday gives me at least one day in between.

    Should I try to increase the weight at all during this time? maybe 5 lbs per week instead of 5-15 lbs. per work out.
  • epmck11
    epmck11 Posts: 159 Member
    Options
    2 days of lifting should be enough to prevent atrophy of muscles. As long as you are lifting relatively heavy on those main lifts I think that should be good.

    If you can increase the weight, of course you should. There's never really any good reason not to try to increase the weight over an extended period of time if you are capable of doing it and completing your sets.
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    Options
    Should I try to increase the weight at all during this time? maybe 5 lbs per week instead of 5-15 lbs. per work out.

    Yes. You should always be trying to increase either the weight or the number of reps. Some weeks you will not see any gains but you should always be pushing for more.

Categories