Athletes usually consider the off-season as a period of rest, but this is the time to get strength and conditioning work done! During “downtime,” sport-specific activity like practices and games are at their lowest level, so your training activity should increase.
Once an athlete has completed his or her sport season, a rest/recovery period of about one week is suggested. Since the demands of the sport season have decreased, strength and conditioning should be a priority. An athlete can now train with maximum frequency (number of days per week), intensity (amount of weight, loads) and volume (number of sets and repetitions).
Think of your off-season in phases. This promotes long-term training and performance improvements. Keep in mind, the key word here is performance; it doesn’t benefit an athlete to improve in the weight room unless those improvements can be applied to his or her sport(s) of choice.
Hypertrophy/Endurance Phase
Very low to moderate intensity and very high to moderate volume; the goals for this phase are to increase lean body mass and develop muscular endurance in preparation for more intense training in later phases.
Exercises ideal for this phase are:
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Romanian Deadlift
- Bench Press
Basic Strength Phase
High intensity and moderate volume; this phase progresses to more complex, specialized, and sport-specific training.
In addition to previous exercises, add:
- Lunge
- Step-Up
- Push Press
- Lat Pulldown
Strength/Power Phase
High intensity and low volume; this phase involves increased strength training intensity and power/explosive exercises.
In this phase add exercises like:
- Hang Clean
- Push Press
- Medicine Ball Throws
- Plyometrics
Get STRONGER, Get FASTER!
