Restarting Novice LP, Starting Police Academy in May

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi all,
I recently restarted my SS Novice Linear Progression after a two month bout of sickness w/ Mono, Tonsillitis, Flu. It really did a number on my system and I lost a considerable amount of what I had worked towards. In both strength and weight. I weighed around 198lbs before I got sick. By the time I was cleared by my doctor to train again, I weighed in at 185lbs.

My numbers before being forced into a two month hiatus were:
Squat: 165x5
Press: 95x5
Bench: 130x5
Deadlift: 305x5

I’ve been training again, consistently for a few weeks and my current numbers are (as of last night):
Squat: 150x5
Press: 80x5
Bench: 120x5
Deadlift: 235x5

I am 5’11", 195lbs currently, if that matters.

I’m liking the amount of progress that I’m making in such a short time span. I’m also working hard to get the correct form with each lift, something I wasn’t doing the first go round, on top of not being consistent with my training schedule.

I am starting a new job in two weeks with a local police department and will be attending the state police academy for Basic Police Training in May, which will last through August. Starting my first day I will be doing PT , which of course will consist of lots of running, pushups, situps, pull/chinups, etc. I’ve been told there will be some weight training included but I have my doubts other than Bench press, simply because it is on the final PT test for the academy.

Being sick for most of January and February really ruined my original training plan leading up to my new job. I had planned to be further along and lifting a much greater amount of weight, as well as peppering in a decent amount of cardio conditioning. That plan had to be completely abandoned.

I haven’t stalled out completely on the SS Novice LP yet and I’m not quite ready to abandon it for an intermediate program yet. Sprinting is important as a Police Officer, but so is strength when it comes to fighting with suspects. So obviously I’d like to be ahead of the curve when I graduate in August. My Primary Physician advised me to up my protein intake to avoid too much muscle atrophy.

What would you suggest I do to minimize the impact on my strength with all the cardio I’ll be doing? What kind of negative effect to my training can I expect?

I really appreciate what your team does. Watching Dr. Feigenbaum and Allan on YouTube talking about Starting Strength is what got me to buy into strength training. I’m so glad that I did.

Thanks so much.
Luke

2

First, I’m impressed with your primary physician’s advice.

As for your situation: I would suggest not worrying too much about it, trying to avoid unnecessary weight loss, and just doing what you have to do to develop the necessary amount of conditioning for your job. You will adapt to the work, and to the extent it shortens your LP, so be it. You have a whole life of training ahead of you to make strength progress, but you need to be ready to do your job when the time comes.

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Thank you for the response. Yes my Doc is pretty awesome, been with him since I was very young.

I’m a former long distance runner, so I’m not afraid of the cardio portion as I know I’ll regain that conditioning very quickly. I have my gait and everything honed so I can minimize joint damage.

As far as shortening my LP, what would you suggest after I get out of the academy? I’ve been reading through the .pdf for The Bridge. Is that what I should look at next. Just not sure where to go after SSNLP.

thanks again!
luke

4

Running does not “damage the joints”.

And yep, the Bridge would be a reasonable next step.

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5

High frequency bouts of repeated loading doesn’t damage a structure?

6

What would you say if someone asked with similar incredulity, “You mean repeated bouts of heavy squatting don’t damage your knees or spine?”

Here is a survey study of 675 marathoners, average age 48 years, who had been running an average of 36 miles per week for about 20 years. They had half the incidence of osteoarthritis (around 8%) compared to the matched general population (about 18%), and “there was no significant risk associated with running duration, intensity, mileage, or the number of marathons completed.”

The body is not fragile, and your structures adapt to the stress imparted upon them.

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7

The link explains. But a cyclic load at a lower force results in faster failure than a heavier static load. In that sense, the g-forces due to running are higher and occur at a much higher frequency than those for a heavy set of 5 squats.

8

And that might be relevant if the human body was a mechanical robot. Fortunately, it is not.

Just another one of those situations where applying “logic” fails in the context of human physiology / pathophysiology.

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9

I agree that living tissue adapts but there will be a limit to how much it can adapt per unit of time. What if the sample has a bunch of people with weaker structure and below the norm ability to recover? What if the people in the study were the ones with the genetics to survive the grind and the rest with inferior genes dropped out down the metaphorical road etc.?

End of the day, tissue is still a material that comes with a Goodman line and engineering prevails.

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I think you’re making dangerous assumptions that may alter programming management deleteriously and your engineering paradigm must account for a biologically active tissue, which it doesn’t.

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