Diva La Fitness
With Tony Maslan
Owner: Custom Fit
Staying Strong Through The Competitive Season
How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake Most Athletes Make With Their In-Season Conditioning Program.
Does this sound familiar? You worked extremely hard all summer long lifting weights, doing your stretches, working on your footwork, and practicing the skills necessary for your specific sport. Now the fall season is here. You feel great. You have made huge improvements with all of your conditioning and now you have the chance to see all that hard work pay off in competition. Now it is time to begin a “maintenance” program or even stop your weight training until the off-season.
STOP RIGHT THERE!!! You are about to fall into the same trap and make the single biggest mistake that most athletes make when it comes to their in-season conditioning program. Let me ask you a few questions.
If you were a baseball or softball player and your batting average was .300 would you begin a “maintenance” program for your hitting? Would you not want to do anything to get better and just try to “maintain” your current batting average?
If you were a cross-country runner, and you were running at a 6:30 pace for your race, would you go into a “maintenance” program and not try to get any faster?
If you were a basketball player and were shooting 75% from the free throw line, would you go into a “maintenance” program for your free throw shooting and not try to improve on that percentage?
NO! NO! NO! To all of the above!
If that is the case, why would you want to go on a “maintenance” program for your strength and conditioning program? Do you not want to get any stronger? Do you not want to improve your endurance any more?
Even worse, what will happen if you stop strength training all together during your competitive season? Many athletes and teams do this, and this is will hurt your athletic performance even more than doing a maintenance program.
If you spend the entire off-season working hard to get stronger and prepare for the season and then stop strength training as soon as the season starts, here is what happens. The first few weeks of practices, there isn’t a noticeable change. Your body is adjusting to the new challenges it faces from the practice sessions. Then before you know it, you start heading down hill. By the time you reach the end of the season and the conference and post-season tournaments, you are now WEAKER than you were at the beginning of the season, when you need to be at your strongest and performing at your highest level. Think of the difference it will make if you work hard with your strength training program IN-SEASON when most of your competition is not doing that. When you reach the playoffs you will be faster and stronger than you were at the beginning of the season and they will be just the opposite. Your chance of victory has just greatly increased!
So what are the essentials of an “in-season” strength and conditioning program? What do you need to do to make sure you continue to get stronger, but do not hurt your performance in competition?
Strength Training Workouts – During at typical off-season training program, we recommend athletes lift weights at least 3 times each week. Each workout consists of at least 18 “work sets”. Our “in-season” workouts are usually 2 days each week and consist of 10-12 work sets. You MUST focus on your large, multi-joint, athletic lifts such as the squat, bench press, pull-up, dead-lift, power clean (with proper instruction ONLY), and box squats. Isolation movements such as tricep kickbacks, leg extensions and other exercises that only focus on one muscle are not essential for an in-season training program. They MAY be included after completing your core lifts, depending on the time you have available and how you are feeling, but isolation movements should not be the focus of this portion of your strength training program.
Agility and Flexibility – We recommend athletes to do dot drills or jump rope and stretch 6 days each week. Even in-season. The jump rope or dot drills are used as a combination of a warm-up (we never stretch a cold muscle) and an exercise to help improve their footwork and the mind-muscle link.
Cardiovascular Conditioning – The conditioning you do in practice should be sufficient for your in-season cardiovascular conditioning.
If you want to be as competitive as possible this fall, it is absolutely essential that
you continue to train to get stronger. Do not make the same mistake most athletes make and be weaker at the end of the season, when you need to be at your best. If you have specific questions regarding a proper in-season strength training program for your sport feel free to contact me at tmaslan@cfpt.us or 812-437-2378.
Tony Maslan is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and the Owner of Custom Fit Personal Training, LLC. He can be reached at tmaslan@cfpt.us or 812-437-2378.
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