Lifting for athletics/strength

M

Muck

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Hi, I'm new to this site and have been surfing.. unsuccessfully for some information.

I've been lifting on and off since highschool (I'm 27 now). What I'm looking for is some information on the proper way to design a program that's concentrating on strength development and improved athletic performance (basketball mainly). I'm also trying to lose weight slowly.. I started working out in March and have gone from 275 to 225 since then. I'm aiming for ~190 and would like to reach that within half a year.

Most of what I've seen online is geared towards bodybuilding and that's not what I'm looking for.

What I've currently been doing is this:

Lifting 5 days a week. I play basketball 2 days a week and do cardio on days I don't work my legs.. which I do a high intensity/short duration bike ride which is similiar to wind sprints.

Sat-chest
Sun-legs
Mon-back/abs
Tue-Shoulders/tris (also bench)
Wed-Bis/abs (also squat/toe raises)

I've been doing two weeks each with the following sets/reps:

4-12
3-10
4-8
4-6
4-5
5-5-3-3-3

So a 12 week cycle.

I take creatine, lay off all simple carbs, and have a high protein intake.. but on a low calorie diet as I'm trying to lose weight as well.

So with my current goals being strength, improved performance, and weight loss.. I have some questions.

When working out two muscle groups in a day (say X and Y), should my exercises be x-x-x-y-y-y, or x-y-x-y-x?

Should I be doing cardio before or after lifting, or do I need to do that on off days to get the most out of the lifting?

Should I be cycling the reps (12 down to 3) as I'm doing, or should I be doing less reps/higher weights all of the time if I'm lifting for strength?

Should I be taking a week off after I finish my 12 week cycle or should I be starting right over?

Should I be working out each muscle group more often than once a week? (I do work some of them out twice kind of.. with a second bench and squat, and the bis are worked with the back, and the tris are worked with the chest)

Any advice would be appreciated, or any links to information online would be great as well. Thanks!
 
Every 8 to 12 weeks advanced trainees should considered a week off but i don't think you should worry about that yet. I never really looked over your post but looking at your goals you should drop the split and pickup fullbody compound lift workouts.

This should work great for you.
 
I wouldn't want to squat 3 times a week or work my back that often. I've had problems with my knees from overuse in the past, and I'd have had some back issues recently that have slowed me down. I'm also trying to lose some weight, and that program wasn't recommended for people trying to do that.

That program does have constant low rep sets, and that's one of my main questions. If cycling back up to 12 reps is necessary or beneficial when I'm not lifting for size. I do want to develop/maintain some level of endurance, but I'm really looking to maintain a low weight to put less stress on my joints.. while still gaining strength and power.
 
You can't gain much more strength using high reps.

I can relate to you a lot frankly, i'm 27, i had knee surgrey and until i started to deadlift again about 7 months ago i was really feeling my lower back. I also worked out off and on since i was 12 or 13.

You can't seperate reps with the load, for example you can do 3x3 at %95 1RM, 8x3 at %80 1RM etc there's a huge difference.

I after having a couple drinks so i can't really get my head into this but you might want to try a waterbury program. And so far has weight lifting for strength and not putting stress on your joints, not going to happen.

How long have you been back training? I'll give you a suggestion of a waterbury program.

The difference between training for strength and hypertrophy is not that different besides the total volume, you still have to train hard.
 
It's not the stress the weight lifting puts on my joints that I'm worried about. What I meant was, I would prefer to gain mostly fast twitch muscle mass and am not looking for a body building physique. But at the same time, I want a varying workout program to continue to shock my system. That was the main reason for having the reps cycled like that. But I don't know if that's how I should vary the reps.

I work the lower back once a week, on and off (off when I injured it a few times since summer) since March. Usually 8 sets with 2 exercises. Deadlift is always one of them. I was working it out twice a week, but I think the fatigue from the second day.. while playing basketball was making injury more likely, so I'm moved the back day and reduced it to just once a week.


The difference between training for strength and hypertrophy is not that different besides the total volume, you still have to train hard.
Click to expand...

Could you elaborate on that?
 
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I'm going to bust out a couple links I haven't in a long time. Make sure to take care of your lower back or it won't take care of you.





(the program you might give a try)
 
Thanks for the links. That vertical article was excellent.

After continuing to look for information.. I guess I have to try and see what works better. There doesn't seem to be many agreed upon principles.
 
Muck-
Thats the beauty of weight training, there are so many variables that no one program does it all! All of Joe DeFranco's work is excellent, however, I'm not sure if that is what you are looking for. I would personally say to try a Pavel Tsatsouline style program. In his book Power to the People he outlines a very simple and basic program focusing on the deadlift and a press for total body strength. It basically uses these two exercises for 4-5 days a week, doing 1 set of 5 with a weight you can do for around 6 reps, then 1 set with a weight 90% of the original. i.e.

100 x 5
90 x 5

Do this for both the press and the deadlift, and add 5 lbs per session on the press, and 5-10 lbs to the dead. Simple, yet EXTREMELY effective. You are keeping fatigue to a minimum, and making tremendous gains while staying fresh.

Hope I helped,

Andrew
 
I don't like the idea of doing an exercise or working a muscle group two days in a row. And 4 sets in a session.. that wouldn't be enough of a workout for me.

Anyway, I appreciate the help.. added a few exercises from that vertical article as well and my legs already feel it. Thanks!
 
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