Injuries, sports, and spreading yourself too thin

[jman]

Went to post a training log, ended up going on a rant about my injury history instead. If there is anything to gain from reading this it is basically this: if you want to get stronger you have to dedicate yourself solely to getting stronger for a while, playing sports is fun, but, if you're anything like me, they will directly impact your ability to train in material ways. And while I started training strength to improve at sports, I have found that the mental discipline and perseverance learned from strength training has geared me for other walks of life. By way of background let me introduce myself. My current measurables are:

26 year old male
6'5"
200 (yeah I need a cheeseburger or 3000)

Since about 2014 when I'm not playing basketball or softball I'm either strength training or legitimately injured. I did my first LP and in summer of 2014 I got to a 365/315/205 big three at about 205 BW (I don't remember the other lifts but I remember doing cleans and presses with 95 lbs as a warmup for my shoulders for some reason lol). Over the course of two consecutive basketball games that fall, I broke my thumb on my non-shooting hand, sprained my left ankle, and got a fracture in my right ankle, tough luck...was on the shelf until league playoffs.
When I got back into lifting, I had to basically start over, by February 2015 I got back to a 405/335/225/155 big four and 205 power clean, then I herniated my L5S1. Really annoying injury to have given the amount of stubbornness I also have (played the whole softball season through the injury). I stayed off heavy weight training for a while at the advice of a physical therapist. After what I decided was ample healing time, I decided to start training again that August, ended up retweaking it. Was off again until October.
I restarted at very light weights, and no back squats. I only front squatted under the notion that it would preserve my back--it was at this point that I started to forget how to properly squat. During this phase I was able to hit a 425 DL, 275 front squat, 215 bench, and a 165 press. It was my third year of law school and some friends and I had a pretty legitimate club basketball squad. I was playing 3 league games a week and I was working on that craft for most of my downtime when I wasn't studying. My lifts plummeted, but I was getting better at basketball, which is what I was training strength for anyway so it was a wash for me.
I started strength training again in April or so, but then a month later suffered a ruptured testicle playing softball (always wear your cup boys). This actually sidelined me for a lot longer than you would think lol. And to compound that, once I healed up, I had to start studying for the bar so training was neglected further.
At this point it's September of 2016, I'm totally detrained, again, but I start the quest, again. I continue doing the stupid practice of only front squatting to save my back, until around New Years, when a wise person told me I was being dumb. I started squatting again, for real, and I felt like an infant trying to walk. It was very hard for me to progress, and I got discouraged at times. But managed a shitty back squat triple of 275 (I was running 5/3/1 so my progression wasn't as aggressive, I know, heresy) Then in April I separated my shoulder playing softball. Cool. This injury kept me out of the weight room until August (playing softball and basketball through the injury probably did not help).
In August I could do both presses pain free, deadlift pain free, I stayed away from cleans because bashing a barbell onto the location of a recent injury didn't seem very wise (I have been doing pendlay rows instead which have been very great for my shoulders), the only thing I physically was unable to do was squat. I simply couldn't externally rotate my shoulder (mind you I was in physical therapy three times a week stretching and mashing the god damn thing). I did SSB squats because any squatting is better than none. Last week I was able to get under the barbell, relatively painlessly, and I squatted 135 3x5, again, terrible form lol. Currently my last trained lifts this week were:

Deadlift (beltless): 345 1x5
Bench: 205 3x5
Press: 145 3x5
Pendlay Row: 185 1x5
Weighted Chins: +25 3x5
Squats (beltless, lol): 145 3x5

Goal is to get the squat back to three plates by end of January. I am going to start power cleans next week, want to get to bodyweight working weight on those by christmas. With respect to my other lifts, a 405 x 5 deadlift, 225 3x5 bench, and a 175 x 5 press would be nice, figure I just need to put on bodyweight to accomplish those. It will be interesting to see where this current phase of training takes me, I am taking it easy with sports for a few months to dedicate my efforts to strength training, which is something that I have yet to do.

[Tiburon]

Hard to do both when you're underfed

[Tiburon]

(God I wish I were 6'5")

[jman]

You know recovery hasn't been the root cause of a lot of this, it's always been typical sports related trauma hazards (the testicle injury was caused by a line drive when I was pitching). But that further illustrates the point where even if you're keyed in on all aspects of recovery: sleep, diet, stress levels; sometimes you need to take a step further to minimize the risk of spreading yourself out (I guess headfirst slides and making violent cuts in basketball count as stressors technically).
I've always had a large appetite for dairy so bulking to 215/220 has never been a huge issue for me. (I know for a guy my height this community views that as skinny lol) The one time it was an issue was the back injury, which i have since attributed to being greedy with my weight increases.