Hi
I ve been doing StrongLifts for a couple of months, and I’m a Skateboarder.
However, I can’t Skateboard and Squat several times a week. Squatting fatigues my legs too much to Skateboard.
So my question is, can I drop squats or do them only once a week?
I just can’t really figure out how to combine both without having to cut on Skateboarding.
Greetings from Germany
Guten tag!
How often are you skating? You could always skate on non-squatting days or skate earlier in the day if you’re planning to squat that day. Also I’m surprised your legs are wrecked so much from squatting, especially after a couple months of doing them. Maybe you’re overdoing the volume or (more likely) under-recovering.
Another possibility is you ARE capable of skating and squatting but you’re just used to performing optimally all the time and “feeling fresh”, so to speak. I struggled with this for years (climber here, also started lifting very recently) and it’s a trap. I became addicted to performing and tried to out-do myself every day. This caused me to not train as hard because I wouldn’t perform while in the middle of a hard training cycle. Now I accept the supposed feeling of weakness because I know I’m getting stronger in the long-run. Once in a while I take 2-3 days off from climbing, and this helps a lot because it shows me I really am getting stronger.
Obviously if it’s causing severe pain/immobility and you really can’t skate at all you’ll need to cut back on something. Are you using Plazma? If you can afford it, it will definitely solve your problem.
When skateboarding I have to make fast movements, so it doesn’t really work when I’m still kind of sore from squatting yesterday.
Probably I’ll cut down on lifting to twice a week and alternate between deadlift and squat each time.
I’ll see how it works.
What is your actual current goal: To build strength? To increase muscular size? To compete in skateboarding events?
Is the skateboarding recreational (for fun or your only transportation) or are you competitive? If you’re competitive, then it’s a matter of training like an athlete and treating the skateboarding like any other sports practice and working . If it’s recreational, then it might be best to deal with skating at less-than-100% for the short term while focusing on improving gym performance.
Figuring out exactly what you want to do will let you figure out a better plan to get there. But without knowing any details, yes, you can be fine only squatting/hitting legs once a week with a well-designed program.
Also, like Shralpinist said, workout nutrition like Plazma or Surge Workout Fuel can definitely cut down on soreness and help with recovery.