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Optimal performance and long-term health start long before competition with a game plan. By looking at the year ahead, we can proactively plan our training schedule to ensure peak performance when it’s most desired. This is of pivotal importance as training emphasis shifts throughout the year, pending our training goals and target competitions. Taking a yearly view of your training will assist with reduced injury risk and improved performance.
Post-Season
Priority: Rest & Regenerate; Foundation for Strength & Conditioning
Post-season, priority number one is a mental and physical reset. While heavy workouts in-season are followed by periods of rest, this principle should be followed on a yearly scale as well. This is your time to relax post-competitive season. Post-season is also an ideal time to build a base and work on weak points. Whether you’re a distance runner, shot putter or jumper, athletes put themselves in a position to succeed with a thoughtful strength and condition training regimen. Luckily, this part of the year may look similar despite your target event.
By building a solid strength base, we’re creating a larger “engine” that allows us to train more with less risk of injury in-season. By doing so, our bodies are capable of tolerating training, allowing us to “get away” with more training without injury. This is good because more training typically equates to improved performance.
In this case, the engine looks like bones, muscles, joints, etc. Benefits of strength training include improved lean muscle mass, connective tissue strength, decreased risk for injury, increased neural drive, intramuscular coordination, larger type II fibers (Maestroni 2019).
A good strength program will involve a variety of movements. Exercise prescription may look like the following: Perform 3-4 times a week, 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps with 2-3 minutes of rest in between sets.
Set 1:
- Exercise 1: Barbell Squat
- Exercise 2: Landmine Press
Set 2:
- Exercise 1: Dumbbell Lunges
- Exercise 2: Loaded Carries
Set 3:
- Exercise 1: Calf Raises
- Exercise 2: Pull Ups
Middle and distance runners will benefit from a solid cardiovascular base. This means easier runs and less intensity. This may look like running at 40-50% effort 5-6 times per week. Although athletes may be eager to perform high intensity workouts, it remains vital to have some periods of yearly training to dial back your sport and accommodate for strength and conditioning for long term health and performance. This phase will allow recuperation, while keeping the body prepared for next season.
Pre-Season
Priority: Sport-Specific Skills
Strength and conditioning will continue during pre-season; however, intensity is reduced. With the additional time gained from reduced strength and condition, pre-season is an ideal time to dial in the base we’ve built over the course of the post-season and begin to harness it in more specific training. Inclusion of form and skill drills would be a sensible approach to perfect each skill; by doing so, we can translate our strength and conditioning into our desired event.
A pre-season prescription may look like the following: 2-3 times a week, 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps with 1-2 minutes of rest in between. Below is an example of skill drills that may be incorporated into an athletes workload:
- Runner Specific Drills: A/B/C Skips, Wall Drill, Figure 4 Fall outs
- Thrower Specific Drills: Seated Med Ball toss, Standing static throws
- Jumper Specific Drills: Bounding, depth jumps
In-Season
Priority: Maintain skills and strength/conditioning; Prepare for competition
In-season, strength and conditioning will look to be maintained but intensity will continue to be reduced. This reduction in intensity is required due to accommodate optimal performance in competition. In-season is also where we work on our sport specific strengths. For example, a middle-distance runner will incorporate added high intensity interval sessions to better mimic a quick race. This is in contrast to the off-season that comprises mostly low intensity runs. A simple rule to follow, the closer to competition we are, the more specific our training to our sport.
In-season strength training prescription may look like the following: 1-2 times a week, 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps with 1-2 minutes of rest in between. Middle and distance running training regimens typically take a pyramidal model approach. The pyramidal model is characterized by training in 3 separate intensity zones throughout the season:
- 80% of work is complete in zone 1 (below threshold), or relatively easy running
- The remaining 20% of workload is complete in zone 2 and zone 3 (high intensity)
This approach allows a heavy aerobic base while allowing enough recovery to adapt and become faster (Blagrove 2021).
The most difficult part of a training season is the constant juggling of workloads with the delicate balance of positioning an athlete to be their best at the right point of the season. This balance is a skill that can be practiced each season. Physical therapist and athletics trainers are two professionals who can assist with this. In doing so, performance can be optimized while injury likelihood reduced.
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Sources:
1. Maestroni, L., Read, P., Bishop, C., & Turner, A. (2019). Strength and power training in rehabilitation: Underpinning principles and practical strategies to return athletes to high performance. Sports Medicine, 50(2), 239–252. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-019-01195-6
2. Blagrove, R., & Hayes, P. R. (2021). The science and practice of middle and long distance running. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.