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Thread: Beginner trainee with arduous physical job

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
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    Miami County, Indiana
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    Default Beginner trainee with arduous physical job

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    Hey all. I'm 31, Male, and I've been training on the SS program for about 2 months. Working my way through SS:BBT, learning a lot. Training is going well, especially now that I'm eating like I should.

    My issue is that I'm a farmer, and what's worse I'm the hippy-dippy organic type of farmer that does most everything manually, and on foot. This means that for 7-8 months out of the year, the amount of physical stress in my life increases by a lot. Lots of digging, lots of planting, lots of carrying shit around, etc.

    Right now this isn't an issue. Luckily, when I started the program my workload was already on the downward end-of-season slope, so I've had plenty of time and energy to train. Planning for next season, though, I'm wondering how my farm work and training will affect each other. Being brand new to training I don't have much of a perspective on this and was hoping to get some of yours. I'm sure some of you have physical jobs, or have had them at some point during your training history. Specifically, I'm wondering:

    (1) Should I plan to alter my training program during the more strenuous season?

    (2) Is it more desireable to train before or after a long day of physical work?

    (3) How much more should I plan to eat? I typically lose weight during the season, which I'm aware would be deleterious to my training progress.

    I'm not overly worried. I plan on training year round, and I'm sure it can be done. Training has already shown promise as an aid to my work, in fact. For instance, I can carry two sacks of chicken feed just about as easily as I used to carry one. Anyway, I won't go on and on. Any insights you could provide on the issues above would be welcome.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    187

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    I’ve been training off and on since 1964

    Over that period I’ve had squats over 600 dead’s close to 700 and benched 495 for a double.

    And also during that periods there’s been times I couldn’t do half those numbers. Jobs,kids, injuries, laziness and just general life issues everyone has to deal with will affect your training.

    My point is train to live, don’t live to train.

    this endeavor is supposed to help you live a better quality life not rule your life.

    so don’t sweat it when life gets in the way of your training you can always pick it back up and each time it comes back quicker.
    (until you get to be an old fart like me) lol

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    729

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jem Dillon View Post
    Hey all. I'm 31, Male, and I've been training on the SS program for about 2 months. Working my way through SS:BBT, learning a lot. Training is going well, especially now that I'm eating like I should.

    My issue is that I'm a farmer, and what's worse I'm the hippy-dippy organic type of farmer that does most everything manually, and on foot. This means that for 7-8 months out of the year, the amount of physical stress in my life increases by a lot. Lots of digging, lots of planting, lots of carrying shit around, etc.

    Right now this isn't an issue. Luckily, when I started the program my workload was already on the downward end-of-season slope, so I've had plenty of time and energy to train. Planning for next season, though, I'm wondering how my farm work and training will affect each other. Being brand new to training I don't have much of a perspective on this and was hoping to get some of yours. I'm sure some of you have physical jobs, or have had them at some point during your training history. Specifically, I'm wondering:

    (1) Should I plan to alter my training program during the more strenuous season?

    (2) Is it more desireable to train before or after a long day of physical work?

    (3) How much more should I plan to eat? I typically lose weight during the season, which I'm aware would be deleterious to my training progress.

    I'm not overly worried. I plan on training year round, and I'm sure it can be done. Training has already shown promise as an aid to my work, in fact. For instance, I can carry two sacks of chicken feed just about as easily as I used to carry one. Anyway, I won't go on and on. Any insights you could provide on the issues above would be welcome.
    yeah, don't have any personal insight, other than sports is like this...hard to make any "in-season" gains really.

    But I guess the logical answer is really try to do things right with your off season lifting (winter for a farmer, I guess). 3-4 months is plenty to run an LP.

    After that, I would still train year round, you might just do two simple sessions a week (SQ/BP; OHP/BP) and shoot for "maintenance thing".

  4. #4
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    Dec 2019
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    Miami County, Indiana
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    Quote Originally Posted by bobman View Post
    I’ve been training off and on since 1964

    Over that period I’ve had squats over 600 dead’s close to 700 and benched 495 for a double.

    And also during that periods there’s been times I couldn’t do half those numbers. Jobs,kids, injuries, laziness and just general life issues everyone has to deal with will affect your training.

    My point is train to live, don’t live to train.

    this endeavor is supposed to help you live a better quality life not rule your life.

    so don’t sweat it when life gets in the way of your training you can always pick it back up and each time it comes back quicker.
    (until you get to be an old fart like me) lol
    Thanks Bob, that's encouraging. I definitely concur with regard to training to live. I think everyone who does what I do for work should get strong. Seems like a no-brainer really. It helps with everything.

  5. #5
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    Dec 2019
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    Miami County, Indiana
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    Thanks a lot, that's helpful. I never played sports, so it never occurred to me to think about strength training in this way. The in-season off-season thing is definitely present in both cases. However, I imagine sports practice and play is more acutely exhausting than my work, which is much lower intensity but typically a lot longer in duration. I'm not sure what difference that makes, but it'll be interesting to speculate on. I'm going to take what you've said onboard as I try to figure this out, so thanks again for replying.

  6. #6
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    Apr 2019
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    Vienna, VA
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    Interesting conversation. Lead's to the question, what does it take to merely "maintain" one's level of strength through the season?

    My son's baseball season will start up in mid-February. My thought is if he gets in one session per week for each main lift and works up to one set of 5 that should be enough to maintain his strength and not detract from the reserves he needs for games and 3-hour practices 6 days a week. But perhaps it is twice per week for each lift? Any thoughts/advice on this from those with more experience in this area would be appreciated.

  7. #7
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    Jul 2007
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    How old is your son? Height/weight/lifts?

  8. #8
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    Apr 2019
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    Vienna, VA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    How old is your son? Height/weight/lifts?
    17 years / 6'1" / 185 lbs:
    • DL = 340x5
    • Squat = 310x5
    • Bench = 180x5
    • Press = 115x5 (120x3)
    • W.Chins= BW+45x5

    All weights in pounds. Plan is to keep building strength until tryouts begin in mid-February.

  9. #9
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    North Texas
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    I don't see how baseball practice is strenuous enough to shut down strength acquisition during the season for a 17-year-old kid. He may need to shift to 2x/week, but if he eats enough he can avoid the embarrassment of a "maintenance" routine.

  10. #10
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    Apr 2019
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    Vienna, VA
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    starting strength coach development program
    We'll try to make it happen. 2X per week is probably doable. Issues beyond practice/games is he is HS junior in advanced classes, so significant homework/studies most nights and the need to get adequate sleep for both school and sport.

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