Lifting Before/After Practice?

[Riot984]

Does anybody lift before or after practice for whatever sport you have? How does that work out for you? Is it something that would be suggested, or probably not the best idea in the world.

[DieHollywoodDie]

i swim and play water polo. i practice/play and then go lift. i know that supposedly you won't be able to lift as much weight, but after i lift i can barely swim 100 yards, so i HAVE to do it after my practices.

[dmoore323]

i wouldn't do it

[Ace50]

if u have to, lift before

i don't really have time to lift during the season. But sometimes can fit in a lift before.

[Riot984]

i swim and play water polo. i practice/play and then go lift. i know that supposedly you won't be able to lift as much weight, but after i lift i can barely swim 100 yards, so i HAVE to do it after my practices.

How often do you have practice? I'm going to be having practice every day and I'm trying to decide whether it would be a good idea to lift while I'm in season.

[deserusan]

You can but I would add sufficient time between sessions. Also, the amount of recovery and performance could greatly be enhanced with proper nutrition and supplements.

[gators53]

It's really dumb not to lift during season. However you goals should change from getting bigger and stronger, to just maintaining. I would stick to just lifting 2-3 times a week full body routine.

[neworleans]

i find it hard to lift after practice because i'll be very tired. i usually lift before practice during the summer though. i rarely lift in season because practice and homework is too time consuming

[Firepower]

i lift before. at first it was hard, but then i got used to it.

[DieHollywoodDie]

How often do you have practice? I'm going to be having practice every day and I'm trying to decide whether it would be a good idea to lift while I'm in season.

i lift 5 times a week and swim 6 times a week...my schedule goes like this:

MON: Practice Only
TUE: Practice/Weights
WED:Practice/Weights
THU:Practice/Weights
FRI:
SAT:Practice/Weights
SUN:Practice/Weight


Practicing in sports is essential of course, however if you're tired/a little sore/not at peak during practice, your form and focus will be lost a little (for myself at least this is true). The key to becoming better in a sport is NOT practice, but PERFECT practice. I'm a big believer that how you practice is how you play, so I like to have perfect technique and form in practices, which I cannot fully achieve having worked out. True, my workouts are a little less heavy because I lift afterwards, however the thing to remember for sports also is: you are not playing sports to get strong, you are getting strong to play your sport. thus remember, nothing is more important than ability/sport technique, even strength training. Cardio on the other hand can be done whenever you feel comfortable/have time if you're relatively in shape already.

[MASTER175]

we have practise 6 time's a week, I lift on monday and thursday in the morning/then have practise after school, and on saturday 7 hours after practise

[deserusan]

I'm curious if you guys drink some sort of post "practice" shake or something?

[teriyakisaki]

before practice. not only do you get better lifts, but that way you are nice and tired before practice. that way, in practice its like its 4th quarter the whole time instead of 1st. many successful teams do their conditioning before practice instead of after like duke basketball and usc football. i did it all through hs and my teams were always second half teams. thats what i would do if i were you.

[DieHollywoodDie]

I'm curious if you guys drink some sort of post "practice" shake or something?

yep. i do a pre-practice small meal of a protein shake and maybe a banana. then i down some beef jerkey afterwards with some powerade usually in between lifting and practice. then i lift and drink the rest of the powerade and maybe another shake. then an hour or 2 later i'll have my actual meal of dinner.

[gators53]

i lift 5 times a week and swim 6 times a week...my schedule goes like this:

MON: Practice Only
TUE: Practice/Weights
WED:Practice/Weights
THU:Practice/Weights
FRI:
SAT:Practice/Weights
SUN:Practice/Weight


Practicing in sports is essential of course, however if you're tired/a little sore/not at peak during practice, your form and focus will be lost a little (for myself at least this is true). The key to becoming better in a sport is NOT practice, but PERFECT practice. I'm a big believer that how you practice is how you play, so I like to have perfect technique and form in practices, which I cannot fully achieve having worked out. True, my workouts are a little less heavy because I lift afterwards, however the thing to remember for sports also is: you are not playing sports to get strong, you are getting strong to play your sport. thus remember, nothing is more important than ability/sport technique, even strength training. Cardio on the other hand can be done whenever you feel comfortable/have time if you're relatively in shape already.

Holy overtaining batman!!

[austinf34]

i lifted after football practice on tuesdays and thursdays. I was proply the only one on the football team that acullay got stronger though out the season. We just lost in the playoffs 38-41 we were raw as hell and should have won the game. Wrestling is starting on monday. lifting is a part of the practice so i wont lift after. ill be to tried anyways. but if you can lift after practice i would just get alot of sleep or you will start feeling real tried.

[superhombre2k]

I'm a sprinter/jumper on a Division III team and I lift and practice every day, but separate them by 6-7 hours. I lift each morning at 8am and practice on the track at 3pm. This gives my body time to recover some and restore glycogen stores.

[mmondo13]

I play high level hockey and I have practice every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Tue. and Thu. we have off ice as well, which usually consists of lots of sprints, jumping, sit ups, pushups etc. But the thing is I dont lift for hockey, I lift because I love to lift. So I have my own split routine that I do on my own time as well.

[DieHollywoodDie]

Holy overtaining batman!!

not really. our practices only consist of about 1 hour of medium intensity swimming. the rest is all ball work/technique. I usually do weights for about 1.5 hours however. If you're using good nutrition, getting enough sleep, and listening to your body, you're fine.

[gators53]

Overtraining is about CNS fatigue/failure, has nothing to do with your muscles.

[Nic_Paul]

actaully, i was a swimmer and i can say that ALL swimmers overtrain




its a backwards oldschool thing that no swim coach wants to admit is wrong. Gary Hall has proven that they all way over train for races (highschool is all about sprinting)

all out efforts under 2 minutes use a combination of ATP energy (not pure ATP if its that long, but a considerable amount) so basically, 200's n below are anerobic! so then why do swim coaches ruin everyones shoulders by forcing them to do "aerobic" sets. Swimming helps running. If aerobic energy helped swimming, then running would help swimming. running does not help swimming. therefore swimming races 200 yards and less are not aerobic

so why do all the aerobic trainning 10 times a week (your gonna learn to LOVE double workouts...probly the worst idea EVER..."hey lets deprive our athletes of sleep, rest, a social life on friday nights so we can make them cranky before their friends at school even are up to shower!")

basically, mission viejo had a lot of sucsess trainning like 20,000 yards a day in the 80s....so then every coach just copied that and now none of the old school old farts want to try anything different...becuase they are scared it wont work, or are too stubborn

any new coach has to start as an assistant somewhere before he gets a head coaching job and thus is brain washed into thinking people like me are lazy by the time he is then an old fart


disclaimer> i recently had shoulder surgeries and am now bitter about how retarded my swim coaches are...


{/} end rant.....

[Robb_P]

What do you do on your lifting days DHD? Sounds like you got to be careful, that's some high volume.

In regards to the initial question general rule of the thumb is - What takes priority must be done first in order to get the best performance.

So if you prioritize your sport (that is, you consider your sport more important) then you do practice first and then weights. This is a biggie for sprinters.

However, if you just want to get stronger then lift first.

This is because your sport skills will suffer after lifting so to get the most benefit what is more important must come first.

[DieHollywoodDie]

What do you do on your lifting days DHD? Sounds like you got to be careful, that's some high volume.
.

yep. In addition, you should be training in the offseason too with weights, so you should have a decent amount of strength built up and you shouldn't be terribly sore usually. Except leg days still RAPE me haha. I'm DEFINITELY no expert, but on my lifting days i position it so my leg days i get the most rest, and back day the 2nd most. I also make sure to take a nap in between lifting and practice, and get a meal or two in. I put chest/tris and my miscellaneous stuff on the days when im going to be swimming in the future w/o rest too. I usually do something like:

CHEST/TRIS:
Bench Press x 4
Incline Dumbell Bench x 3
Pushups x 3 til failure or Flyes x 3
Tricep pushdowns x 3
Dips x 4

LEGS
Squats x 5
Leg Extension Machine x 4
Leg Curl Machine x 4
Walking Lunges x 3

BACK/BIS
Pullups x 4
Deadlift x 5
Rows x 3
Chinups x 3
Alternating Dumbell Curls x 3

Misc (thrown in on day of choice, i try not to do shoulders though b/c of stress of swimming):
Shoulder Press
Calve Press
Power Shrugs

[mastergrim8]

Well my practice use to end at 6 at night so i couldnt have time to do that. I usually went to the gym on fridays and weekends right after practice/ a game.

[frobro]

I have a weightlifting class at school so I get in 3-4 days a week of lifting which doesn't really affect me during practice. No I don't go all out but I get enough to maintain my strength.

The guys who don't have a class lift after practice on Tuesdays, its more of a light lift. And they'll have a more intense session on Saturday.

[Robb_P]

yep. In addition, you should be training in the offseason too with weights, so you should have a decent amount of strength built up and you shouldn't be terribly sore usually. Except leg days still RAPE me haha. I'm DEFINITELY no expert, but on my lifting days i position it so my leg days i get the most rest, and back day the 2nd most. I also make sure to take a nap in between lifting and practice, and get a meal or two in. I put chest/tris and my miscellaneous stuff on the days when im going to be swimming in the future w/o rest too. I usually do something like:

CHEST/TRIS:
Bench Press x 4
Incline Dumbell Bench x 3
Pushups x 3 til failure or Flyes x 3
Tricep pushdowns x 3
Dips x 4

LEGS
Squats x 5
Leg Extension Machine x 4
Leg Curl Machine x 4
Walking Lunges x 3

BACK/BIS
Pullups x 4
Deadlift x 5
Rows x 3
Chinups x 3
Alternating Dumbell Curls x 3

Misc (thrown in on day of choice, i try not to do shoulders though b/c of stress of swimming):
Shoulder Press
Calve Press
Power Shrugs

Dosen't look so bad as long as you are fully recovered between sets and practices.

However on leg day....leg extension and leg curl? I would seriously consider trying:

Reverse Hyper machine
Glute-Ham raise

Pick one of these instead of the other two. I don't understand why you have squats on the leg day and Deadlift on back since these both work lower back?

Remember you don't need the curl function of the hamstring much in swimming, more hip extension. And Leg Curls shorten the hamstrings ---> only good for pre-season.

[Axe Murderer]

i do before and AFTER....well sorta

I run before...do MMA...lift afterwards.

Works alright...I was reading one of those posts about doing it before and i was like man i should start doing my stuff before so i can get tired...then i rmeber...i run like 3 or 4 miles a half hour before going into MMA...

[DieHollywoodDie]

Dosen't look so bad as long as you are fully recovered between sets and practices.

However on leg day....leg extension and leg curl? I would seriously consider trying:

Reverse Hyper machine
Glute-Ham raise

Pick one of these instead of the other two. I don't understand why you have squats on the leg day and Deadlift on back since these both work lower back?

Remember you don't need the curl function of the hamstring much in swimming, more hip extension. And Leg Curls shorten the hamstrings ---> only good for pre-season.

there's actually a big difference in strength required for swimming and water polo. swimming is indeed somewhat unrelated to muscle, but if i am trying to keep another playing in place by wrapping my legs around him and then pushing off of him to get the ball, without getting caught, it's key. And of course you need the curl function! When you're treading without your hands in waterpolo, you leg comes up curling, then pushes back down.

As for squats vs. deads, i put deads there because i don't really feel my back in squats. In addition, if i do both of them on 1 day, i get WAY too tired and sore WAY too fast.

I use leg extension and leg curl machines solely to finish off the muscles/as isolation work. I find that squats/deads/lunges are enough for me to get decent overall legwork for the week.

Reverse Hyper Machine? everyone always talks about hypers but a) i dont know what they are, and b) if its some sort of machine, we don't have it...plus i really don't like using machines except leg finishers as i said.