Frequency of training is a big question for high school and college athletes. How many times per week you’re hitting the weight room will change throughout the year depending on the demands of your sport. As the volume of your sport goes up your volume and frequency of training usually goes down to allow recovery. It’s important to note that there shouldn’t be any breaking in training throughout the year even during the inseason, just the volume and intensity should go down. Understanding how to program the correct amount of volume and intensity based on the frequency of training can be the difference between having the results you want and coming up short. That said here’s some examples of training splits I use throughout the year depending on an athletes frequency.
Off-season
4 days a week
Monday- Dynamic effort lower body
Tuesday- Max effort upper body
Wednesday- rest (or active recovery/conditioning)
Thursday- Max effort lower body
Friday- Dynamic effort upper body
Saturday- rest
Sunday- rest
3 days a week
Monday- Dynamic effort lower body
Tuesday- Max effort upper body
Wednesday- rest (or active recovery/conditioning)
Thursday (or Friday)- Max effort full body with focus on lower body
Friday- rest
Saturday- rest
Sunday- rest
Pre-season
During the pre-season it’s expected that sporting volume should be increasing as well as conditioning based on their sport. Sports that have a high focus on conditioning and endurance will see an increase in this in the training sessions if they train 3 days a week or more. If they train less than that I focus on the big rocks like strength and power and encourage them to work on conditioning on their own or many times it happens in their pre-season practices. For athletes like baseball players there will not be much conditioning, in fact most of the general conditioning will be done during the offseason for baseball athletes. During the preseason there will be an increase in special strength training where most of the speed in power work will be coming from sprints, jumps and throws. During rest days it’s assumed that the athlete may be practicing their sport or performing some sports specific conditioning so that must be taken into account. We also encourage athletes to condense their stressors as much as possible, we would rather them workout and play their sport on the same day so the following day they can have a low day where they can recover.
4 days per week
Monday- Dynamic effort lower body (finish with conditioning with endurance-based athlete)
Tuesday- Max effort upper body
Wednesday- rest (or conditioning)
Thursday- Max effort lower body
Friday- Dynamic effort upper body (finish with conditioning if endurance based athlete)
Saturday (or Sunday)- sport specific conditioning
3 days per week
Monday- Dynamic effort lower body (finish with conditioning with endurance-based athlete)
Tuesday- Rest (or conditioning)
Wednesday- Max effort upper body (finish with conditioning with endurance-based athlete)
Thursday- Rest (or conditioning)
Friday- Max effort full body (finish with conditioning with endurance-based athlete)
Saturday- Rest (or conditioning)
Sunday- Rest (or conditioning)
3 Days per week (full body model) this tends to be more effective for athletes that are more endurance based
Monday- Dynamic effort full body (lower focused)
Tuesday- Rest (or condition)
Wednesday- Max effort full body (upper focused)
Thursday- Rest (or conditioning)
Friday- Max effort full body (lower focused)
Saturday- Rest (or conditioning)
Sunday- Rest (or conditioning)
2 days per week
Monday- Dynamic effort full body
Tuesday- rest or conditioning
Wednesday- Max effort full body (or rest)
Thursday- Rest or conditioning
Friday- Max effort full body (or rest)
Saturday- rest or conditioning
Sunday- rest or conditioning
In-season training
During in-season training most athletes should be doing 2x per week or 3x per week. At the minimum they should be doing 1x per week for maintenance only. I will note that the most effective form of inseason training is actually to have mini-workouts 3x per week where you go through a warm up and perform 2-3 exercises that aren’t fatiguing but just stimulate strength and blood flow to tissue. Something like this might look like the following
A1. Trap bar deadlift- 3x3
B1. Chest supported rows- 3x12
C1. Banded hamstring curls- 2x20
Perform this after practice 3x a week while maintaining the same exercises throughout the season to avoid soreness. You can rotate 3-6 different exercises always performing 2-3 per workout.
That said here’s some examples of inseason training splits.
2x per week
Monday- Repeated effort full body
Tuesday-
Wednesday-
Thursday- Dynamic effort full body (upper focused)
Friday-
Saturday-
Sunday-
3x per week
Monday- Repeated effort full body (mini workout)
Tuesday-
Wednesday- dynamic effort full body (mini workout)
Thursday-
Friday- repeated effort full body (mimi workout)
Saturday-
Sunday-
1x per week
Monday-
Tuesday-
Wednesday- full body workout (4-6 exercises) do this on the day you have a game (after the game) or the same day of a hard practice
Thursday-
Friday-
Saturday-
Sunday-
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