Acrobatics and SS

[Trewarin]

I'll make this as brief as possible

I work as a circus acrobat, both performing and coaching various circus arts.
The girl I usually use as a barbell substitute is out injured (tore everything but her ACL in her knee playing sport) So I'm taking this chance to do SS to eventually head back to partner lifting with much greater strength... further to this I would like to get my squats to roughly 2x bodyweight as I've heard this will greatly improve my verticle jump height (currently at 45inch box jumps)

I've asked on other much less reputable forums whether anyone could tell me roughly how long some of my goals COULD take; and the answers were understandably mixed (coming from 'athletes' not coaches)

Current stats after first week and a half in the gym fixing form
>165lbs, 6'1 21 years old
Squat 165lbs
Press 150lbs
Bench ~150lbs
Deadlift ~ 165lbs

Short term Goals
>2 x bodyweight squat
>~220lbs deadlift+ (to keep my back safe from the rigours of moving a giant tent every few months)
>1 x bodyweight strict press

Also I'll be training alot of isometric (core/arm) strength exercises as part of my circus training; would I be ok to train this stuff on the "rest" days of the program; providing I eat like a dancing bear every day?
I'll be logging my progress not just in the program itself but in how it assists the bodyweight exercises I'm already doing/attempting as weightlifting among acrobats and gymnasts is rare... and where it does exist it is usually very unbalanced or done ineffectively

[OCG]

I'm not so sure SS will be a great fit for you if you do it seriously. How much weight do you think you can afford to gain? What does your performance usually consist of (i.e. will being bigger and heavier be a bad thing)? Doing bodyweight stuff with big legs is possible, but much, much harder. For you, I'd focus on the deadlifts more then the squats as you can get fairly good at those without getting big legs. Exactly how is vertical jump useful to your performance?

I don't want to scare you away or anything, but if doing acrobatics is your job, then obviously that has to come first.

[WayneRooney]

Hmmm another thread that mentions the vertical jump. An account set up this month. The use of capital letters. The mention of athletes and coaches. Hmmm...

[JCavin]

The real questions are:

Is this partner hot?
Are you banging her?
Are you the same person that Wayne thinks you are?

[exter]

How can you bench and press the same weight ??

[Kincain]

Not sure if super serial

[FKYT]

My general impression is that while a 1.5xBW is easily achievable by the end of the novice phase, a 2xBW squat tends to take a while longer. Let's say you recover well and you do SS all the way to a 2xBW squat, never missing a rep, increasing the weight by 5# per workout. In that case, you can get to a 330# squat in about 3 months (12 weeks). That's absolute best-case scenario. If you do SS until you get a 1.5xBW squat, then switch to TM and never miss a rep, you'll get to 330# in 5-6 months (22 weeks). Again, these are absolute best-case scenarios, assuming you never stall or gain additional weight (neither assumptions are likely).

A 220+ pound deadlift will be relatively quick to attain. Novices can increase the deadlift 10-15 lbs every time they do them, so you'll get there in just a few workouts.

A BW press tends to be a long-term goal for many people, but you're pretty close already and gymnasts tend to have good presses due to all the handstands and stuff they do. Assuming you train the press on the TM, if you recover perfectly I think you can get there within a month.

Isometric training will definitely interfere with your recovery, but I don't have a sense of how much. Sorry.

So in summary, I'd say that your deadlift and press goals are easily attainable, your squat goal will take a while.

[Horowitz]

Best case scenario isn't even a 2xBW squat at 330 because by this point he has presumably gained a significant amount of weight.

[tescott]

If you're after coaches, there may be a few around here, but many are just 'athletes'. Hawkpeter coaches both weightlifting and gymnastics, so you might want to PM him.

[tertius]

I think you need to consider certain things:

1: How long are you going to go before you are performing again?

2: Can you afford to allow some of your job specific training to go by the wayside for a few months?

3: How good are you at dropping weight?

I ask this because to do the program, as written, you'll probably going to need at least three months without a lot of other training (depending on your recovery ability, which is probably pretty good), and you'll need to gain some weight. Not necessarily a lot, but as the weights get heavier, you're going to end up needing more calories. Especially if you're still doing skill specific training. You may also be lean enough that your body will resist putting on muscle without some extra fat. Dunno.

However, we're close to the same weight and height, and you're a lot younger than me... so I'll say you've got plenty of easy gains coming yet. You'll be deadlifting 300 in no time, probably. Maybe not on the upper body stuff, since your press is already close to your body weight. But I'm not sure there's such a thing as easy gains on the press for most people.

Point being, if you've got the window of time to do the program proper and then get back into performing condition (which may take six+ weeks, depending on how much other training you find you can do while doing Starting Strength, and how much weight you gain), you'll almost certainly be better of for it.

If you don't have that long of a window, you'll just have to settle for spending less time with the barbell. Lift twice a week, or something like that. Otherwise you're going to end up going out into the ring without being recovered, and you might end up getting hurt. You'll have to feel out how much you can handle.