On this blog, I am going to outline the importance of maintaining and building strength and power during an in-season training phase and how to stay fresh while still training hard.
A majority of trainers will say the key to an effective in-season strength program is to train ‘light and fast’… Well, to be completely honest, I could not disagree much more with this.
Don’t get me wrong, you want to spend a short duration in the gym (30-45 minutes), however I just can’t get on board with the whole ‘train light’ aspect of this out dated way of thinking. In my opinion, this way of programming is an excuse for a lazy trainer not to think outside of the box when it comes to set/reps schemes, loading, and daily recovery.
The goal of any high quality Resistance program is, and always will be, to allow your athletes to perform at a high level when it matters most.
It’s common knowledge that without any maintenance work, strength levels begin to decrease after approximately two weeks. So, knowing this, you will have to implement a very regimented training protocol in order to ensure your athletes are firing at a high level late in the season, when your competition is beginning to wear down.
But, don’t take my word for it…
On the week prior to the New England Patriots third Superbowl win New England all-decade wide receiver was quoted in saying how they had lifted up to 80% of their max up to and during that week.
“We paid a serious price to get to this point. We put in a lot of work. We’re practicing in pads on Super Bowl week. We’re squatting 80% of our maxes on Super Bowl week. I mean, we worked for this. Our bodies were ready. Our minds were ready.”
– Matthew Slater (Patriots Wide Receiver – Super Bowl Champion)
Obviously, you will have a lot of scheduling considerations and will have to be very careful not to program too much, which would cause an excessive level of fatigue and have a negative effect on performance. When you are in-season, the number one thing you want to avoid is getting beat down to the point where performance is hindered.
That said, if you follow a structurally sound program, your performance will not be impacted and you will be able to see strength/power improvements like the ones Bluezone fitness has for individual athletes on The Healthy Baller Program.
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