Thread: Taking MONTHS away from the gym??

Do you have access to any sort of resistance training eqpt w/ the football practice - or just field stuff? IMO you're getting lots of workout w/ the football practice. Also considering I'm assuming you'll be practicing outside where it will be hot - which tends to suck even more energy out of you and makes recovery time even more important.

If you want to get creative, can you do stuff like pushing / pulling a truck up & down the road? Flip tires? Carry heavy stuff like a StrongMan Farmer's Walk? These are the types of things you can rig up at home.

We do not have any access to weight lifting equipment at practice. We just run around, jump, smash into each other, normal football stuff lol. I have some light weights at home, nothing that would get me down into the 6-8 rep range on really any workout though...

I suppose it should also be mentioned that when I refer to losing my gains I mean heavy lifting seeing as that is what I have been working at for the last 8 months. I know I will stay in shape from football, cardiovascularly and such. But when I get back in the gym in september would I still be able to bench press 225 lbs close to 15 times? Would i still be able to max bench at 325 lbs? Would I still be able to hit 3 reps at 400 lbs on squats and deadlifts? these are the things I am worried about the most.

You are worrying too much about the total max you can lift. If you are in great shape and doing well on the football field, the last thing you should worry about is the max you can bench.

You say you have light weights at home. Why not buy more weights? I workout in a 7'x7'x7' room and I can do pretty much everything in there. If you dont have a squat rack then do hack squats. You dont need an entire gym to stay in shape. Anything is better than nothing. But you answer your question, if you take months away from the gym, no you wont be able to lift that exact amount when you try to lift again. But who cares, your main focus is on Football. Being able to bench 700lb does not mean you will be a great football player. Dont worry about the numbers.

Obviously the exact amount I can bench/squat/deadlift/ w/e is not the most important factor on the football field. But I worked very hard to get those lifts up, and being able to squat 450 lbs versus 350 does make a difference on the football field, as does being able to bench 325 instead of 225. I am obviously not under the impression that taking time away will leave me with no losses, but just how much? How severe of losses would one see by taking four months away from the gym?

On the note of buying more weights... Well I might as well just get a gym membership seeing as weights tend to be stupid expensive, plus I am staying at my parents house over the summer, so filling their basement with weights (when its already full as is) wouldn't really be the thing to do.

Sounds like Football is your main focus as a career for the rest of your life.. I don't want to sound like a jerk but if you TRULY want to keep lifting AND play football, you WILL find a way.

I don't get any kickbacks or anything for recommending this book, but I think it would be a worthy read:

5/3/1 for Football: Jim Wendler/Angry Coach Interview

Lol, just to clear things up I play semi pro, aka minor league its an amateur league, not professional. We dont get paid and I dont really have any aspirations of playing for a living =). Its something I do for fun during the summers. Ill read that when i get a chance.

why not just scale back your training and keep it fun?

You have to keep in mind that your body is always changing. "Gains" is not a static thing. FWIW, I had shoulder surgery a year ago. I went from doing max 60 lb incline DB presses to 1 lb weights without full ROM yet. Currently I incline press 80s (w/ a spotter to get them up) and have gotten 75s up by myself for reps (on a 3rd set too )

What you don't lose is your muscle maturity that you built - even if you lose some initial size & strength - it will come back quickly. Your body responds to what it is conditioned for. YOu might not walk back into the gym after 4 months off and press your max, but within a couple weeks you will. You'll also have a modified body composition from all the aerobic activity for football. Its not a linear progression - but IMO, unless you've sustained a significant injuiry that limits your ability to lift, you can always get back to your previous 1RM and advance beyond.