Strength Gains After A Layoff

[bonan]

alright guys, first a little background info. Im 17, 6'00" 210, have lifted seriously for 3 years, and train for strength, not apperance(though looking good isnt all bad). Last spring weighing 225lbs i squatted 355 x 5(no wraps, no suit, just belt, and about an inch below parrallel), benched 250 x 1(touch and go, no equipment), and power cleaned 235 x1(i thought power cleans would be a better choice for football). In football and over the summer i lost weight and ended up at 200lbs in October, ive since gained 10 pounds and started my power training again.

my workout is based on Bill Stars heavy-medium-light program(squats, cleans, bench) with a few assistance exercises thrown in(glute ham, thick db work, coc gripper, and neck harness. im just doing this untill my strength gets back to an acceptible level.

today i squatted 245 for 5 and it was kind of hard!!!!! THIS PISSED ME OFF, HAVE ANY OF YOU GUYS EVER CAME BACK THIS WEAK AFTER WEIGHT LOSS AND LACK OF TRAINING FOR 7 WEEKS?

how long do you think it will take me to get my squat, bench, and clean up to where it was in the spring?

im starting to get impatient!!!!!!!!

anyway, thanks, any response would be cool, you guys seem to know what your talking about

 

[powerlifterjay]

Its pretty safe to say once you been there it comes back really quick. In my last 3 lift meet in Dec of 2000, i injured my hip pretty badly, i couldnt squat at all for 3 1/2 months. Before the injury my best squat was 710lbs. In June Of 2001 i squatted 740lbs. It came backl pretty freakin fast. The first few workouts were pretty shaky though. But once i got my groove back and especially when i started to suit up again it came back quick. Give it a month for a short break 3 months or less. Anymore then that i am not sure. Never been injured longer then that.

 

[bonan]

thanks bro, and another thing, when did you enter your first meet?

 

[powerlifterjay]

I entered my first meet Nov 6th 1999. I was 25yrs old and weighed 215lbs. I benched like 410lbs, In a loose fitted poly shirt.

 

[Cubanito17]

Hey man i'm 17 myself and had that same problem before summer ended my bench was at 285lbs, clean&jerk somewhere round 225lbs or more, and squat was at 375lbs. I got injured not playing football though it was b/c of boxing. And now that PL is starting back up in Feb I started lifting 4 weeks ago and my maxes were really down bench was at 225lbs cleans 165lbs and squat 275lbs. Honestly if you know bout cleans you know it's all form and you really don't lose much b/c it's how you really show your whole body strength I dont max til next week but i'll let you know around how much it takes to get back up there I know last friday max cleaned and hit 205 although it wasn't max cuz i got it twice. Just keep at it like all these guys tell me and you'll get back there. By the way i lost 20-25lbs while off of lifting so I could come back and be in a smaller weight class. I honestly think that screwed me b/c I was only eating twice a day instead of 4-6 times which helps alot. I personally like to lift for strength but the looking somewhat good counts too in our case (teens) the girls love it and fall for it. The best thing personally i think to bring ur cleans back up which i did was dependin on how u train on one Power clean day like the full clean change it up with high pulls or hang cleans

 

[bonan]

thanks again for the feedback bros, i feel better now.

by the way cubanito17, howd you hurt yourself boxing?

i like to do some boxing myself

 

[Cubanito17]

I threw my left shoulder blade out and it was messed up for a while I had some electric stimulation therapy(spelling???) done to it. That therapy lasted about 1 1/2 months and the next month went to a chiropracter then rested until 3 weeks ago. I started lifting again.