recovery

oneillk

hey,
just started back doin weights on tuesday nite. Im pretty much concentrating on upper body strenght for now and am planning on doing a session every second nite as im trainin with footy every other nite.
the question is, i started back on tuesday and still very sore after. should i do them again tonite or wait for another day till i have recovered better.

cheers

Passport

wait.

justsomebloke

well what routine are you doing, do you do the same routine every session and do you lift to failure on all your sets.

oneillk

yep, for the next few weeks im doing the same routine. basically 3 sets of 12 reps aiming so im maxed after the last few reps

justsomebloke

well if you are going to failure each time and doing the same muscles 3 times a week (i'm guessing it is 3 times a week as you are going to be doing it every second day) you are going to overtrain your muscles pretty quickly. If you are going to target the same muscles 3 times a week lower the volume i.e. don't be doing weights that will mean you finish at failure.

oneillk

ok,
so if i cut down the weight to, say 80% ?? max, i should be ok to train every second nite.
I will be altering the routine after approx 5 weeks, but will be keeping some of the same routine.
I will also change the order of routine every second week or so.
What you think?

justsomebloke

ye 80% is probably fine,

other then that the usual goes, make sure you have a good few compund lifts in your routine and also you will probably get better results from doing a 3 day full body programme rather then just focusing on your upper body

oneillk

jsb ye 80% is probably fine,

other then that the usual goes, make sure you have a good few compund lifts in your routine and also you will probably get better results from doing a 3 day full body programme rather then just focusing on your upper body


I am really looking to build up upper body strenght and size for gaa. We train very hard on training nite and i feel like i coould over do it with a full body programme.

because_I_can

you've got to be a bit more specific in terms of what weights you're doing.

i get the feeling you're just doing curls / tricep extensions etc.
None of that type of Body building training is useful for soccer / gaa football.

Even Bench press is pretty useless.

going to failure when training for a power sport like soccer/gaa is useless too. Upper body for soccer is not really essential.

its very hard to lay out a program for you since we dont have specifics but a good plan would be one night push presses upto 3 sets of 5 work sets to build size/ strenght. Then another night med ball throws to help convert that into something you can use on pitch.

Any upper body strength you will gain however from an all upper body only program will be useless on a pitch. So its all pointless really pursuing upper body only. You probably will end up with worse performances.

Chucky the tree

Surely Leg strength is very important for GAA? Even core work, like lower back would be very useful.

Just sticking to upper body is a bad ide i think. Your missing out on the best excercise for gaining all over strength by not doing squats.

cudman

u really shud alow your body 2 days to recover evry couple of weeks and 1 day out of every four cos 3 nites gym and 3 nights football would take a lot out of u and also to build muscle your are actually causing slight tears in your muscle fibre which need time to heal and then expand as scar tissue thus making them bigger and over doing this could lead to damage

t-ha

oneillk wrote:

I am really looking to build up upper body strenght and size for gaa. We train very hard on training nite and i feel like i coould over do it with a full body programme.

Like because_I_can said, you've got ask yourself what you really want from your weight training time. In general, bodybuilding splits are no good for performance athletes, even if they involve many of the same movements as a full body programme, simply because they are done to totally anhialate a particular bodypart so some part of you is wrecked while you're trying to train.

What are you lacking on the pitch? What physical abilities would make you a better player?

oneillk

Thanks for the replies guys,

At the moment my upper body routine is, 3 sets of 12 of

bench, prone row, shoulder press, close arm chest press, lateral raises, bicel curl, tricep extension.
including sit ups and plank. i will also be adding shoulder swings for core.

What do i really want?
To be strong in a tackle, be able to take a tackle and still be holding the ball, be able to hold off a player,
generally increase my ability to hold up (legally) my opponent and beaing able to break a tackle.

In terns of lower body, i am looking for, quick off the mark, particuarly 5 to 10m distance, agility and flexability.
I was hoping (thinking) that my team training was adequate for this.
i.e. mixture of sprints, endurance running, drills, etc etc the usual.

cheers

because_I_can

well ok you need to be creful to not overwork. Thats the most important thing.

Then you need to get the most bang for your buck from your weights.

bench, prone row, shoulder press, close arm chest press, lateral raises, bicel curl, tricep extension.
including sit ups and plank. i will also be adding shoulder swings for core.

This is really too many exercises. Its a bodybuilding routine and probably the one that most gym instructors will regurgitate day after day. No good for gaa though. Plus it assumes that the lower body is independant to upper - which it isnt. Persaonlly i never split up body parts. My body works as one. i have no upper body or lower body. I just have a body and i use every part of it to hit and move. I split and isolate muscles very very rarely. There's no point.

Again id dont know the days you train or anything about you or your work capacity/diet anything so i cant really help you much. No one can online really .

What i will lay out here is a good program that helped me for ages when i had a match on sunday and team training - really only skillwork - 2x a week on tues/thurs.

so id do running and weights mon and thurs.

start with very good dynamic warmup (google this v important) (30 mins at least - and no static stretching the joints out of their sockets BullS that most coaches insist on)

then sprints. if you are doing sprints an weights on the same day- always sprint first. you dont want to go leaving your best in the wieghts room
3 sets of 3 upto 40m with decent recovery. Quality more than quantity

then jumps
about 50 ground contacts split into standing long jumps, standing vert jump, lunge jumps, lateral jumps. Sets of no more than 7

then weights
1 - an explosive movement - 3 sets of 3 of jump squat, or clean
2 - a form of squat or deadlift 3 sets of 3
3 - a form of press 3 sets of 3
4 - something for the back - 3 sets of 8 eg pullup palms out (not chinup mind) seated row, good mornings
5 - hamstring work - 3 sets of 8 - hypers or good mornings or revers hypers
6 - loads of core work

then static stretch and post workout shake. neither workout (weights or running) will take more than an hour.



Its really simple. And it works

cowzerp

train hard and give your body proper recovery-3-4 days minimum if your training proper-casual users can get away with 1 day rest as there not causing much damage to there bodies..