GGW and football

[Nicky85]

Dear Andy,

Any experience with GGW and football practice?

My brother is practicing football twice a week (2 hour sessions each - including sprinting/jumps/technique etc.)

I gave him Starr model but he finds it extra stress setting weekly PRs while practicing football. The practice seems demanding in terms of conditioning looks like.

I am thinking maybe GGW is more suitable as there is some weekly volume/load fluctuation?

Thanks !

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

GGW would pair well with sports. Just set the heavy squat day on whatever day of the week he is the most fresh.

[Nicky85]

Andy thanks. He claims regression so far with the Starr model, maybe not enough stress who knows. He starts GGW right away.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I'd have to look at the program details as well as the specifics of his sports activity to give you better feedback.

[Nicky85]

Thanks Andy, I know you are busy so I will keep it high level

M - Light
T - off
W - Football
T - Medium
F - off
S - Heavy
S - Football

Heavy day is ascending 5s 3s for squats, bench press, deadlift variation - not deadlift
Light is ascending 5s for squats, presses and cleans
Medium same as light but heavier than light day

Football is two hours, one hour each is conditioning mostly sprinting at 80%, jumps, drills etc. rest is technique - stretching.

Not sure what is the most suitable approach here, maybe a classic low volume HLM with lift variations ? There are some back to back days looks like.

He is not super strong 300+ benches, 500+ squats, he doesn't deadlift - he does variations to save energy. Late 20s.

Thanks and sorry for the long post

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I think the schedule is fine as long as he recovers well. Typically we don't put a heavy day in front of GAME DAY but prior to a skills session / conditioning it's fine. A classic Starr style ascending 5x5 HLM program will work well. He designed it that way for a reason and it still works. Gets in some volume without crushing sets across stuff.

[Nicky85]

Andy thanks for replying, good that you find the set up reasonable. Might need some tweaking then, mostly spreading the stress through the week instead of having one dedicated day performing heavy for all the lifts.