SS combined with sports

[progressiveman1]

For athletes who do sport specific workouts outside of weight lifting, do you usually still have them do the typical SS routine? If the typical SS routine with sport specific training is too demanding, what are valid ways of fixing the problem to allow a combination of those workouts?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Younger trainees -- high school freshmen and sophomores -- can effectively do a novice progression during sports specific training, because their recovery capacity is such that sports training will not interfere with strength gains. Most other athletes will need a different approach.

A novice linear progression doesn't take that long to do, a few months at most, and most athletes benefit quite a bit from being significantly stronger. Given this, I feel as though it makes good sense to approach a linear novice progression in the off-season, when sports-specific training will not interfere with what will be an extremely important addition to athletic ability. Once this is accomplished and strength levels have increased to the point where linear progress slows, the athlete is an intermediate lifter and strength training can be effectively integrated into sports-specific training without compromising important initial strength acquisition.

[progressiveman1]

Given this, I feel as though it makes good sense to approach a linear novice progression in the off-season, when sports-specific training will not interfere with what will be an extremely important addition to athletic ability.

For the sport specific training to not interfere with weight lifting, are you suggesting to do a very small amount of sport specific training and focus more on weight lifting during the off-season? And will you give your opinion on how to incorporate sprints into off-season training(frequency,volume,intensity- not numbers but an explanation) to, once again, not compromise results from the weight lifting program?

Once this is accomplished and strength levels have increased to the point where linear progress slows, the athlete is an intermediate lifter and strength training can be effectively integrated into sports-specific training without compromising important initial strength acquisition.

After one has finished the novice phase in the off-season, are you suggesting they should seek consistent progress during the intermediate phase when their sport is in-season, or should they just maintain during the season and wait until the off-season to begin progressing with the intermediate phase?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I am suggesting that, for the novice, the linear progression model should be followed for the few months that it will work without any other training at all. There will be time later for sport-specific training, and the strength gains are beneficial enough that other training should be avoided during this phase to let the trainee get as strong as possible. No sprints, no nothing.

In-season training for an intermediate should be designed primarily to maintain the gains that have previously been acquired. This is in contrast to what a novice can accomplish during in-season training if he is forced to both play the sport and pursue a linear progression: the novice can make progress while the intermediate will have trouble, and the intermediate is strong enough that maintenance of that strength keeps him functional in the sport while the novice must get stronger to be functional.

[progressiveman1]

I don't want to assume, so I want to ask you if the best way to maintain the gains from off-season weight lifting is to do the same workout throughout in-season as was done lastly in the off-season? For example, the athlete finished the off-season doing X frequency with X exercises with X weight, etc., should he just do that same workout throughout the entire in-season?

[Mark Rippetoe]

For an athlete for whom in-season strength maintenance is appropriate, I advise that each major lift -- squat, press, deadlift, clean, bench press -- be done one/week, with no assistance work.

[progressiveman1]

For an athlete for whom in-season strength maintenance is appropriate, I advise that each major lift -- squat, press, deadlift, clean, bench press -- be done one/week, with no assistance work.

1. At what intensity?

2. If I rid my weight lifting of those accessory exercises after I have completed the beginner's stage, won't I get weaker in the accessory exercises and then also weaker in the main lifts?

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. At a weight that can be managed for 3 sets of 5 across, and using a significant percentage of 5RM, say 95%, so that strength does not decay.

2. The assistance exercises aren't keeping you strong. They are allowing you to make progress after the basic movements stop working in a linear fashion. Leaving them out allows you to recover from football practice and the basic exercises you'll use to stay strong.

[progressiveman1]

The assistance exercises aren't keeping you strong.

Have you observed this before; that the trainee doesn't lose strength in the main exercises after cutting out the assistance exercises.

AASNM, after I completely stall on SS I then want to switch my main focus to the baseball specific movements(hitting, running, throwing) for a couple of months while doing the maintenance workouts for weight lifting. I was wondering if you knew a good way to increase my sprint speed at that point, or possibly point me in the right direction to learn about it.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If you are changing emphasis from strength training to sports-specific training, then by definition you are not worried as much about strength. If you lose 10% of the 150% you've acquired, you're still way ahead of where you were. At any rate, you do what the sport requires, and if it requires so much practice that there is insufficient time for enough strength work to maintain strength at 100% of what you've gained, that's okay, because the improvements you made were for the purpose of performing better in the sport, not the gym.

Sprint coaching is not my forte. But I do know that low-back strength improvements usually improve speed, and I would be very surprised if your 40-time was not down anyway.