The Importance of Weight Training In Season
Most high school athletic seasons will last about three months. Weeks 1-3 are filled with tough, grueling practices with maybe a few scrimmages and games. Weeks 6-8 move into real in-season play and include one to three games each week. Then, if you earn it, you have 2-3 weeks of playoffs. The question you need to ask yourself before the season even begins—is do you want to be your strongest at the beginning of the season, or at the end when you’re making a run for the playoffs?
Eddie Houck, a freshman at Cape Henelopen HS, putting in work during his first high school wrestling season!
One of the biggest fears athletes face is the fear of exhausting their bodies for games and practices if they go to the weight room during season. But the truth is, when you train correctly with a professional strength and performance coach, like our team at Incontrera Strength and Conditioning, you improve your overall performance. Your body will be operating at a higher level, you will reduce the risk of injury, and it will take less time to recover in between games and practices.
How Do You Train In-season
If you haven’t caught on by now, I firmly believe that strength training, when done right, can be beneficial to absolutely every person who has a pulse. That doesn’t mean every person is going to be doing the same thing or operating at the same intensities. It does mean that there is a program and a weight for everyone—and in-season athletes are no different. In fact, these athletes can still move some heavy weight. Generally, we will reduce overall volume by dropping the weight slightly and reducing the amount of reps, but the heavy weight is still in the mix. By reducing the overall volume, athletes can still train hard and stay strong, but they won’t get as sore or cause enough fatigue to interfere with their play. One of the rules we live by at ISC, is that you always want to leave a rep or two in the tank—meaning you always want to feel like you could do one or two more reps. In season, we try to increase what’s in the tank to three to five reps. We want to train both hard AND SMART!
Along with going heavy, we will also be able to focus on recovery. During the off-season we spend about 5-10 minutes on mobility work—focusing more on dynamic stretching to prepare the athlete for their session. When an athlete is in-season, many coaches only have their players stretch at the beginning of practice, if at all. It is really important after a hard, physical game or practice that the athlete focuses on recovery. This could mean extra stretching immediately following their practice or game, or getting in the gym the following day and putting their joints through full ranges of motion under load. This helps loosen up the body and ultimately make you feel better. It’s one of those times when you can barely walk and you think going to the gym would be the worst thing in the world, but you come in, we do some good mobility exercises, band work, and maybe get a little heavy on a compound movement and then you leave the gym ready to go play another 60 minute game!
There will be days that the athlete’s energy levels are completely depleted—such as their first week of practice or a long week of very tough games. In this instance, we want to make sure they focus on rest, hydration and nutrition. ISC will also be offering yoga classes in the near future, in order to further assist with their recovery and eliminate some of the stress that our bodies can experience with weight lifting.
Last, not training for three months will drastically put a damper on your gains and your progress. It is well documented that strength levels will decrease after three weeks with no form of weight training. No matter how tough a practice is, you cannot replicate the benefits that come with resistance training. Additionally, it has been shown that youth athletes who are not done growing will lose their strength at a higher rate than their peers who have already hit their growth spurt. So all that hard work that the athletes put in over the off-season could become moot after just a few weeks, and you may have to start all over again after the season. So I ask again, do athletes want to be their strongest at the beginning of the season, or at the end?
Hard Work Pays Off Client Spotlight!
This week our client spotlight features both Marykate Barnhart and Zoe Brafman! These two are Rehoboth Beach locals who train with ISC when they are home from Hill School—a boarding school located in Pennsylvania. These two are typically the last clients of the day, arriving between 7 and 8PM, and ready to give their session 110% of their energy. They arrive focused and with the goal of being the best version of themselves in preparation of their first high school lacrosse season. With zero prior experience in doing squats, these two have already advanced to 100 pounds for reps. Their broad jumps and push-ups increased immensely, and though I am writing this before their final session when we test their sprints, I can say they have visibly gotten faster. These girls come with a great attitude, have fun, and they work so hard!! Stay tuned to social media to see their final numbers but I know they will not disappoint! Best of luck to Marykate and Zoe in their upcoming season!!