Programming when conditioning is mandatory

[SSEd]

Starting strength has been great for my 17 year old son. He's gone from 143 lbs to 165 lbs in the past two months. His own weight increase has kind of stalled recently, but weight on the bar is moving on nicely, nothing spectacular, but we're happy with his numbers. 242 lbs for the squat three sets of five. Funny numbers because I'm converting from kg to lbs.

As I say, it's only been two months, and he's got a long way to go. Already all his clothes are too tight though.

He is ONLY doing it for soccer. Testament to that is that his mom has already complained about him losing his abs - as if she cares, she's so funny! And him not caring in the slightest.

He was able to do the linear progression for the past two months with only minimal soccer practise. This will soon not be the case.

He's back to pre-preseason training. This is a lot of individual work, a lot of conditioning (of course) and also skills. He kicks the ball harder, with more accuracy. He's quicker. And he's more confident in the limited challenges that exist in pre-preseason. We're really happy that we went for it with starting strength rather than more ladder work and other agility drills/plyometrics.

Just to get an idea of his level. He's in an adult team in the sixth tier of the Scottish league. It's semi-professional - gets paid £110 a week. A good thing about this level is that he gets decent competition, and a chance to improve, but also that it's part-time. There is no micro managing. He has a perfect opportunity to continue the starting strength progression. He still has dreams of making it to a big club professionally.

The question is. What should we expect in the coming weeks and months? I am writing this question today because he had a big conditioning session today. Lots of short sprints, quick passing drills that got the guys out of breath, short rest then repeat. You get it, that's soccer. This isn't going to change. And games are 90 mins one or two times a week where he runs about 8 miles. We want to get to the gym tomorrow and put 250lbs on the bar for squat and continue for as far as possible.

Will he be able to? I'll know tomorrow, of course. But we're thinking he'd like at least another 100lbs on the squat over the coming months, and would accept any increase in bodyweight. The progress that it's given him in his soccer performance until now tells us more strength is better.

I've just started reading PPST today and making flashcards like I did for the starting strength book (a couple of months ago), but I've got impatient and would be interested in your thoughts.

Basically he wants to continue to get stronger, but the game of soccer causes different adaptations. He'll do as little running as possible, but eventually he'll have no choice. Especially once pre-season friendlies begin.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Tell us about his diet and sleep.

[SSEd]

Great sleep. As much as he needs which is 10-12 hours every night.

Diet: He has about 3/4 Gallon of milk a day as well as his other 4 meals. Protein shakes as well.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You didn't say how tall he was. Assuming he is 5'10", if he can eat 5000 calories and 250 grams of protein a day, he might live through this.

[SSEd]

Yes. 5'10"

Thanks. We initially intended to start maintenance at this point (the soccer season beginning), but it's going so well we're going to push on. Just got back from the session today. Longer rests between sets (about 8 mins), but he made it - three sets of five at 250lbs.

We went to the athletics track straight after for a set of 30 yard dashes with spikes. A good improvement there as well, even with the fatigue.

By the way, it's meaningful that you write this. He's never been a big eater, but has been really motivated since starting this progression - even vomited a couple of times because of the protein shakes on top of his meal. Seeing you reply Rip is motivating him even more.

Scotland - Ukraine in world cup qualifier this evening. He'll be eating all evening while watching. I'll be drinking!

Cheers.