Inseason training - Strength needed

[starter]

Hello Rip!

I play (Olympique/ European) Handball.

Unfortunately, I lost almost all of my strength due to a longer illness. Now, my lifts are way below the Novice strength goals as mentioned in the appendix of PP.

The handball season will start soon. What kind of strength training would you recommend for my situation? I have 2x handball training + 1 game per week (1 additional sprint training is optional)

In another context I read 1 Training/ week with Squats/ Press/ Clean is recommended for inseason training in sports like soccer. Would you recommend that even if Bench press for example is too weak and I want to gain gereral strength back as soon as possible and even need to gain mass?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Depending upon your age/bodyweight/level of training experience, I'd recommend doing a normal novice progression during season, as though you were not in season. If you eat to gain weight, you will not only get recovered but the strength you again during the program will offset any fatigue the program itself will cause.

[Jeroen]

you will not only get recovered but the strength you again during the program will offset any fatigue the program itself will cause.


That is interesting. I just finished my 5th week off SS training program and the first 4 weeks the day after training I felt really beat up/low energy but the last week on non training days I felt, to my surprise, really strong too. I hope it stays this way. Competition starts(football/soccer) at september 6 so I really have to start doing conditioning training sessions next week (I liked doing SS so much I got a litle bit obsessed now by increasing my strenght numbers). I am not really sure how i'll put strength training into my schedule.

Anyway my recovery ability seems to have improved a lot and that gives me confidence to add some extra strenght training during in season.

Thanks Mark!