You Should Be Training Year Round

This is advice given to many athletes and parents and it is often met with resistance. Typically the push back is the athlete is too busy with practices and games to make time for training.

At STS our stance is that preparedness for games and practices should be the priority. I also believe that an athlete cannot be optimally prepared if he/she does not allocate time towards strength and conditioning. Please understand that time spent on S&C in season usually entails reducing training volume so that the “athlete’s cup” has more to pour from for their sport practices/competitions.

A few reasons to train in-season:

1. A lot of folks assume that the only benefit to training is to improve athleticism so the athlete can perform better in their sport. While this is definitely true, another overlooked benefit is that a proper strength and conditioning programming serves as a fantastic injury prevention mechanism. Keeping muscles, joints, stabilizers strong in the most physically demanding part of the athlete’s training calendar just makes sense.

2. Athlete’s tend to reduce the expression of athletic adaptations they gained during off-season training when they stop training. Providing an appropriate amount of training stimulus in-season helps maintain the presence of those sport enhancing adaptations. You want all that off-season work to help you out when it counts, no?

3. In-season training aids recovery. Training can help all that soreness and junk feeling after fatiguing in-season events. Performing movements not typically present throughout their sports week gives joints an opportunity to move through different ranges of motion. Through this, certain underutilized muscle groups activate and are better conditioned to support the demands of sports. Getting blood flow through the body after tough days helps it return to fighting shape faster.

What about holidays?

Go for a walk, do some abs, stretch. Do something. Or do nothing. Seriously, it’s probably not a big deal either way for one particular day. The point is, if you have athletic goals you’ll find a to work towards them. If you consider yourself a serious athlete, there should seldom be weeks of the year where you are doing nothing in the gym.

“Training is like moving a pile of dirt. Some days you have a shovel. Some days you have a spoon. The most important part is that you move some dirt.”-John Welbourn (NFL Vet and Founder of Power Athlete HQ)

Best of luck with your training today!

With Thanks,