Power Through the Season: A Guide to Maintaining Strength and Performance

Strength training is a pillar of any athlete’s training program to help on-field performance. During the season, it can be challenging for athletes to maintain their typical strength training program. Furthermore, it is difficult to maintain or build strength throughout the season.

So how can you achieve this?

Have a Plan!
To continue strength training effectively, it is vital to plan. An annual plan is used to place the various demands of an athlete’s training within a calendar year. All the way from Day 1 of the Off Season right up until the final day of competition.

We do this by using:

Macrocycle
This is the overall big picture. What are the athlete’s demands? What does the athlete’s season look like? The macrocycle is the combination and linking of all of this. The Macrocycle involves a general physical preparation phase, the specific preparation phase, the pre-competitive phase, the competitive phase, and the peak phase of the season.

Mesocycle
This is the intermediate duration of time planning that usually lasts from weeks to two months. The mesocycle is important as a functional principle for training planning where specific training goals are allocated and achieved. A mesocycle is significant in breaking down and achieving these training goals rather than merely one large program.

Microcycle
The smallest time frame that lasts from one to two weeks. The microcycle is helpful at being able to be adjusted easily to the specific athletic demands of that one-to-two-week time frame. Whilst still being able to help achieve bigger picture training goals.

So, breaking the season into macro, meso and microcycle’s is a beneficial framework to plan for the season ahead.

But how can you still see strength gains from the season?

It’s time to get FITT!

Using the FITT Principle, here are some tips to still achieve your strength goals throughout the season! Stopping strength training during the season is never the answer.

Modifying the FREQUENCY and INTENSITY of Workouts  

The first step in modifying a gym program for the in-season is to adjust the frequency and intensity of the workouts. It is important to re-schedule your gym program and structure. Typically, athletes should reduce the number of sessions per week completed compared to the off-season and pre-season. This is to accommodate your recovery, training and game day into your weekly schedule. Two or three sessions per week may be sufficient to maintain strength gains, with a focus on high-intensity exercises and a lower training volume. A small reduction in the load prescribed (number of sets and reps per exercise) in combination with a higher intensity of exercise can help maintain strength while allowing the athlete to perform at their best during competition.

Some examples of reducing the intensity of a given muscles such as the quadriceps is changing a barbell deep squat to a barbell squat to box. This reduced the range of motion the joints go through and hence reduces the relative eccentric load and hence fatigue of the muscle. Another examples is modifying a full range dead lift to an elevated dead lift, so the excursion of the hamstrings is less. These modifications still allow strength gains while reducing the demand on the major muscle groups.

Modifying and prioritising the TYPE of Workouts.

The next step is to prioritise the athlete’s specific sport demands. This must be reflective in the type of strength training that you are performing and prioritising during the competition phase of a season. Are the exercises that you are performing actually targeting your priorities and specific sport demands?

Modifying and prioritising the TIME spent

In-season training can be challenging, time consuming and tiring to say the least. Athletes should listen to their bodies and adjust as needed. Thinking, modifying, and prioritising the time spent strength training is vital. The time spent strength training should reflect the time spent recovering, skill training and competition play. Overtraining can lead to an increased injury risk and decreased performance, so it’s essential to find a balance between training and recovery.

How can you achieve and maintain strength goals and gains throughout the season?

Plan ahead! Modify and prioritise!