SS for the serving soldier/endurance athletes

[Lift]

Hi!

I've just finished my basic training and am serving in the British Army. I'm fit (in the old-fashioned sense of the word), have great muscle endurance from all the calisthenic drills they put us through but now I want to get stronger (brute strength). Being new to the barbell, SS seems like the place to start.

My first port of call is still endurance. Realistically, would still be expected to run 3 times a week which makes programming tricky. I know I wouldn't be sticking to The Program but I wonder if you could help with how I could do so in a way that will help me get stronger for my role will not completely diminishing my fitness.

You may have already answered this sort of question before but I could find anything from a google search so my apologies if this is tedious!

[Michael Wolf]

It's tough having to still run those three times a week. You'll get stronger, but your gainzzz will be limited by your lack of ability to recover. How long are those three weekly running bouts, and do you have any say in that or is it ordained from the Powers That Be?

[Beau Bryant]

Hi!

I've just finished my basic training and am serving in the British Army. I'm fit (in the old-fashioned sense of the word), have great muscle endurance from all the calisthenic drills they put us through but now I want to get stronger (brute strength). Being new to the barbell, SS seems like the place to start.

My first port of call is still endurance. Realistically, would still be expected to run 3 times a week which makes programming tricky. I know I wouldn't be sticking to The Program but I wonder if you could help with how I could do so in a way that will help me get stronger for my role will not completely diminishing my fitness.

You may have already answered this sort of question before but I could find anything from a google search so my apologies if this is tedious!

An option is to run Starr's classic heavy/light/medium program. This way you will be fresh from a weekends rest for your heavy day and running should not bother much with the light and medium day. I would hit 10 pound jumps on the heavy day for as long as possible then turn to 5 pound jumps.

Maybe Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday with Sunday being your heavy day, Tuesday at 80% and Thursday at 90%.

If football players can progress during summer months on this I'm certain you can with 3 runs a week.

I have used this with much success with a lot of people.

[Michael Wolf]

...

I was thinking something along the same lines, but wanted to get the details first. Depending on the distance of your runs and your ability to control that, there may be other options but a 2x/week program or a 3-day H/L/M are probably the two best options.

[hollismb]

An option is to run Starr's classic heavy/light/medium program. This way you will be fresh from a weekends rest for your heavy day and running should not bother much with the light and medium day. I would hit 10 pound jumps on the heavy day for as long as possible then turn to 5 pound jumps.

Maybe Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday with Sunday being your heavy day, Tuesday at 80% and Thursday at 90%.

If football players can progress during summer months on this I'm certain you can with 3 runs a week.

I have used this with much success with a lot of people.

This is exactly what I'm currently doing. Monday is the heavy day, with Weds light day at 80%, and Fri medium at 90%, with runs on Tues, Thurs, Sat of 30-50 minutes. As long as the runs stay pretty much the same and aren't too intense, it's not too much of a problem/stress, and they can even help serve as active recovery to some degree.

[Michael Wolf]

This is exactly what I'm currently doing. Monday is the heavy day, with Weds light day at 80%, and Fri medium at 90%, with runs on Tues, Thurs, Sat of 30-50 minutes. As long as the runs stay pretty much the same and aren't too intense, it's not too much of a problem/stress, and they can even help serve as active recovery to some degree.

I don't think 30-50 min runs qualify as 'active recovery.' But they can be managed around to a certain extent, if need be.

[hollismb]

I don't think 30-50 min runs qualify as 'active recovery.' But they can be managed around to a certain extent, if need be.

What I meant is that it's an activity to which you're already conditioned that shouldn't constitute much of a new stress, similar to the squats on recovery day in Texas Method, even though both would obviously contribute to overall training volume. For some folks, and hopefully the OP, a 30 minute run wouldn't be any more stressful than, say, walking around the mall for an hour while your wife shops for shoes, or riding your bike to work, as long as you're not adding new stress by adjusting the volume or intensity of it.

[Michael Wolf]

What I meant is that it's an activity to which you're already conditioned that shouldn't constitute much of a new stress, similar to the squats on recovery day in Texas Method, even though both would obviously contribute to overall training volume. For some folks, and hopefully the OP, a 30 minute run wouldn't be any more stressful than, say, walking around the mall for an hour while your wife shops for shoes, or riding your bike to work, as long as you're not adding new stress by adjusting the volume or intensity of it.

I gotcha. I think this depends on the current training status of the OP, both in his endurance training as well as strength training. Ultimately everyone will reach a point where that running will put a limit on their strength (and this might be some people's preference, whether due to vocation or personal preference). But if we're talking about someone still far from their strength potential, who is well adapted to endurance running, doing a 30 minute run at the pace which he usually can keep up for an hour or more, then ya, it'll probably not hinder his squat going from 115 to 120 between Monday and Wednesday.

[Lift]

Sorry for the slow response; I appreciate your patience; it's been a hectic week!

I'll try to answer everybody in the same post so please excuse the accronyms targeted towards JB who obviously knows the system a little better than you civvy guys across the pond might.

I'm Int Corps Phase 2 but looking to get on a 245th Signal LEWT so need to keep a run that convinces everybody I can do AACC/P Coy and rapid deployments without any issues... not to mention any other sneaky beaky stuff I might like in the future (let's keep that one between us!)

If push came to shove, I'd do a 10k run, 5k run and an interval day (10x400m) [for those using imperial: 6 miles, 3miles and 10x1/4 miles] but ideally my 10km would be increased to 15km and so on!

Just looked at Bill Starr and it looks decent. Does it make sense to correlate certain runs with certain intensity lift days? 2 lifts a week would also be fine if you thought my running was too much. As long as I'm doing something, I don't really care.. Better do it right, though!

Thanks again for your patience.

[Michael Wolf]

Just looked at Bill Starr and it looks decent. Does it make sense to correlate certain runs with certain intensity lift days? 2 lifts a week would also be fine if you thought my running was too much. As long as I'm doing something, I don't really care.. Better do it right, though!

I don't really understand any of those particular military terms, as you expected. But I can answer this part. Do the heavy day on the day you're most recovered in general. Since I still don't know your exact running schedule, if it's regular and repeating week to week, I can't give you a more specific answer than that.

And yes, something is usually better than nothing, but not always. If you try to do too much; in your case, if you try to run SS by the book while doing all that running, you'll just end up running yourself into the ground. (See what I did there?) So be judicious in your use of weight training, but you should be able to get stronger provided you do so.