Haven't Played in Years? Wanna?? Prepare Like This!

I'm a regular over at www.bigfooty.com in the health and fitness forum bit and a couple of weeks ago a bloke posted about wanting to return to playing footy next year.

Here was what went down.

ORIGINAL POSTER:

'...Decided to put my lazy strength training to use and get back into footy next year

Got a pretty strong understanding of strength and conditioning... read alot. Love CptKirk's work and his blog. 

As far as where I'm at right now, I'm 210 pounds/95kgs @6ft1... Carrying I'd say about 8-10 kilos of fat that'll need to go for me to get in game condition

My bench is somewhere on that long journey between 2 plates and 3... My goal is to get to 3 plates, possibly rep it multiple times

As far as what program I'm doing for that/have been doing for that for ages.. Just a basic texas method type volume/recovery/intensity 3 day a week

Haven't done deads or squats in about 8 or so months.. Kept restraining a hamstring squatting (lowbar/flat shoes).. and have been real lazy since. I was squatting around 405/180kgs and was intermittent with deadlifts so no clue where that was, but it was definitely in the 405+ territory... 

So right now my focus is on fixing my posture and mechanics with basic core work, rehab sort of stabilizer exercises around the hip and throwing lunges/cossack squats/one legged ham curls just to get my weak side/glute back up to par, along with low load bilaterial exercises like just some air squats and light high bar squats just to get the movement pattern back

Always reading alot, being active to fix this imbalance... Pretty on top with mobility.. Have followed Kelly Starrett for 4 or so years now, got band and try and clean up all my mobility ROMs especially through the hips and ankles + soft tissue myofascial foam roller work most importantly in the glutes

The sooner I can fix the weak glute/imbalance issue, the sooner I can get back to the heavy compounds and kickstart that muscle memory to get me back to where I was. Not too fussed about this, I am genetically strong squatting/general hip extension movements. In the beginning it took me only 8-10 weeks to start repping 315 squatting... Honestly I really didn't do much work or stay consistent.. I'd be on track for 2 weeks then have a week off... Looking forward to just being consistent for a whole 6 or so months.

And as far as the conditioning and body comp side of things... Been reading on the more specific sides of things for mixed energy sports... I'm understanding the whole High-Low principles and the focus on aerobic and alactic training. Not sure when i'll start doing this, but I have been researching some stuff about a guy who has combined Strength training with marathons... Concurrent training essentially. I probably could keep progressing my lifts whilst improving conditioning, but I'm a bit thin on the how to and information for that as of right now.. Just focused on fixing the imbalance and then getting the big three numbers back up. Also the fat loss/leaning period might be another issue.. Easy for me as intermittent fasting makes it so. Not sure when I'll start this as I want to first get my lifting numbers/strength levels to strong benchmarks first. 

Perhaps I can fix the imbalance, starting regaining and increasing the gym lifts, and work on conditioning at the same time, then once I've reached solid benchmark strength levels, begin to slowly lean down. Any help on how if this is all possible/how I could plan/periodize this? I got rough understandings but I'm notorious for keeping things simple..

So I guess some specific questions you guys could perhaps help me with

What's the most optimal strength based routine to get the big three numbers up as fast as possible... I've kept to the basic texas method for a long time now... Have always thought about trying a high frequency bench program like Sheiko or Smolov JR that can apparently get a 10kg PR increase in 2 months or so... 

Anyone have good knowledge on combining strength training and conditioning with the main objective to increase the strength levels, before I lean down and the priority shift to the conditioning... I know it can be done, just have a lack of knowledge and idea how to plan/cope/regulate such a thing... Based around High-Low principles? I'm not sure. it'd seem like it'd be the more time eficient thing to do instead of being lazy and waiting until I've gotten the strength and leaned down to then start conditioning...

As far as time frame.. I'd like to be cooking ready for next season... Just at amateurs so it's pretty casual.. Was playing WAFL colts a few years ago, felt I wasn't in the best condition/fitness, so I want to get back into footy, play a year in amateurs to get back in the groove, then perhaps try give WAFL level a go again. I was an elite high jumper in my teen years, got a vert that's probably high 30's at worst, perhaps 40's maxed out with solid training foundation.. Getting a bit ahead of myself, but that's the general time frame. I'm still very young, only a couple years removed from WAFL colts, so I've got plenty of youth and time. 

Also i'm a bit fuzzy/clueless on the body composition/conditioning relationship... I understand the power to weight ratio aspect, just not the former.

Long ass post.. Any help/feedback would be appreciated..."

MY RESPONSE:

"...The number 1 goal of EVERY local footballer should be body comp as it will make you faster and increase endurance simply by having to lose less mass...combine that with actually getting faster and improving endurance and you're set so you've made a solid choice first up

Strength wise for footy benching 1.25 x bw and squatting 1.5 x bw is probably enough for local footy and would be top end more then likely so once you get to those numbers then you shouldn't waste valuable energy resources going higher...that being said you do have plenty of time before next season

One thing i want you to do is think about how bench, squats and deads each affect football performance - let me know what you come up with

Hit some weighted glute bridge/hip thrusts for those glutes as they will give you a sense of heavy lifting once you load them up

Also think about why your hamstring keeps going...is it mobility? is it stability? this will go a long way to fixing the problem then just trying to cover everything and hopefully it goes away

Conditioning wise it's all about aerobic capacity and alactic power and it's just a matter of how you break them up where you might go something like:

Month 1 - aecap x 2/week + alp x 1/week
Month 2 - 2 + 2
Month 3 - 1 + 3
Month 4 - 1 + 4

Something like that...remember you've got plenty of time so you don't need to rush anything and if you're gonna do footy properly such as pre-season training pre and post x-mas, then that will be enough to get you ready for that which is what the aim of your training should be now

Consolidation of stressors is something to look at which too as well as competing demands of training to get the best results with as little stress

Losing the fat will take the longest and shouldn't lose strength if doing so on "diet" if you take it slowly...there's no point getting potentially fatter when you're long term goal is to be slimmer - makes no sense

Alex Vida you mean?

Smolov won't really stay with you once it's over and it's a simply terrible program to go through - I did the jr version some yrs back - and there's plenty of ways to get 10kgs pr without tearing yourself apart

I've done sheiko too a little so if i was you i'd do that first if you're into high freq to build great work capacity which may get you the 10kg pr without the cns stress...also look at dan john's 40 day program which i also did with success and it's piss easy...i'd actually do that over shieko...it's all about getting the most from the least

Going back to competing demands of training you can train max strength and aerobic cap at the same time with minimal interference IF you keep the aerobic cap low in - like 65% max int...it has to be low...and like i said start leaning now where you only need to make 1% changes to your diet for this to happen

High/Low doesn't have to followed right now but gym would be high and aerobic cap would be low so go from there..."

What are you waiting for!!