Throughout the year I get a lot of athletes stopping training during a season. Especially during the spring time since we’re so spring sport heavy. Due to the demands of their sport and a variety of reasons. I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about training while inseason whether it’s smart to do or not. Which is why I wanted to write up an email that breaks down some of the misconceptions of training while inseason and what’s actually true and what our approach to training in the middle of the season is.
And for those of you who read my last email about Blake, one of our last conversations together was an in depth conversation about what he can do inseason to make sure he maintains the strength and performance he gained with us all offseason. So here’s some misconceptions, let’s separate some fact from fiction with it comes to training inseason!
Misconceptions
I shouldn’t be lifting weights inseason
Lifting while inseason is actually vital to maintain the strength, speed and performance you gained all offseason. It takes about half the energy and volume/intensity of training to just maintain what you have while inseason. This will make you more injury resistant while inseason allowing your to hit the ground running once the season is over and it’s time to start training hard again.
2. I shouldn’t be lifting heavy inseason, instead focus on higher reps lighter weights
while this at surface level seems to make sense what actually is true is that high volume of training is what can cause soreness in the muscles and joints. This can push an athlete over the edge to more overuse injuries while inseason. You already have such a high volume of sports specific movement wearing down your body. Instead maintaining the training intensity (heavier weights) actually does a great job of maintaining your strength and power without beating down your joints as much as high volume work.
There are some considerations to take in here though. While we will still be lifting “heavy” it still isn’t nearly as heavy as you would go while off-season. It will be closer to 80%-90% of that. While at the same time total exercises in the program will go down by about 25%-50% as well as the overall volume. We’ll also be decreasing the amount of eccentric volume of each lift (the lowering phase of an exercise). This is the primary source of muscle soreness from lifting weights.
3. I don’t have enough time to train or training will hinder my recovery
it takes about half the time and volume to maintain performance in the gym while inseason. On top of that recovery becomes a top priority in training. Where mobility and corrective exercises take up much more volume of training promoting better recovery and better movement. And I get it, inseason it’s hard to juggle getting out to our gym and going to practice while keeping up with your grades! That’s why I have a few solutions outlined at the end that will help our athletes fit training into their busy schedules!
4. We train the same way inseason as we do offseason
once an athlete is inseason our training takes a big shift to accommodate all the extra work the athlete is doing in order to not hinder recovery. Instead our goal is to maintain peak level of performance and health for as long as we can.
This is more of a maintenance approach, and requires much less volume of training to do so. We’re also constantly checking in on our athletes as to how they’re feeling and if any areas in their body are in pain or feeling over worked. With this feed back we’ll adjust the workouts accordingly to promote better readiness the next day. We even encourage our athletes to come in on game day to do a pre-game prep routine whenever possible!
5. If I can’t get stronger or improve my performance in the gym while inseason why should I train?
True the chances of you getting stronger while inseason aren’t as high as during the offseason depending on your training age. The more advanced athletes will have a hard time getting stronger while the more novice athletes will most definitely continue to get stronger.
On one hand while this is true, but on the other if you don’t train at all while inseason your chances of getting weaker and losing your gains are 100%. Which means you’ll have to start back over in many chases at the end of the season from square one. Compared to our athletes who train during the season finish up their seasons just as strong as they were when they started. hitting the offseason with a full head of steam ready to progress even farther!
With the long term in mind the athletes who train throughout their season as well as throughout their travel season will end up getting close to 2x as many workouts in throughout the year than an athlete who only trains during the offseason. Doing this over the course of your high school career will create massive sepration between you and your peers that don’t do this. The ones who train through the season every year end up getting 2-3 years more of total training than the ones that don’t! That means they’re heading into college sports with a great foundation of strength, power and speed and ready to compete with athletes that may be 2-4 years older than them.
6. Lifting while inseason will put me at more risk of injury
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Lifting poorly with no regard that you’re in a season can lead to injury, but a well thought out plan in the gym while inseason will make you more injury resistant than athletes that don’t train. As you miss out on resistance training for months on end you will quickly start to detrain your strength and power leading to more fatigue in games and practices which will slowly put you at more and more risk of injury. This is especially true in the higher levels of sport. In fact one of our athletes that play in the MLB for the Red’s said he found himself getting little injuries throughout the season because his strength was detraining. It’s also amazing what a little corrective exercise work can do for you and your movement quality. I’ll have athletes sore as hell, stiff as can be coming in after a practice only to do 3-4 corrective exercises in their warm up and their moving like they’re fresh again! at the right doses movement and strength training will stimulate the body to recovery faster and break up soreness and stiffness in the body.
So how can you make this work? You’re inseason, it’s officially become that much harder to come into the gym. Maybe you want to make it in but your schedule just can’t workout as much as you’d like it to. This is a tough situation I see many athletes get in once April hits and each year I try to come up with solutions for this! Here’s some options I have developed and will have available this year.
Something is better than nothing. If you need to decrease your frequency of training that’s a whole lot better than stopping all together! Even if it’s just 1x per week that will have a massive impact compared to not training at all!
2. Hybrid/online training. Not a lot of people know this but we have an app we use to online/hybrid athletes whole find it easier to do some or all their workouts on their own at a local gym. Workouts get delivered to them on their phone through the app with videos of every exercise and notes on what to do. Anyone who have been training with us consistently and are self motivated and feel comfortable training on their own can benefit greatly from this!
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