Not training in-season will decrease your outputs and performance potential, though.
“But won’t lifting in-season make me sore?”
No.
Continuing to train, in a trained state will only enhance your GPP & outputs in sport.
Choosing not to train will detrain you & decrease your output potential.
Properly dosed In-Season training is paramount to performance.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
One of the most common questions and sometimes excuses, I get about training in-season is that athletes and parents are reserved about it because they think “it’ll make them sore.”
I totally understand the thought and desiring to feel fresh on game days, but let me explain to you why lifting in season, won’t make you sore.
For simple analogy purposes let’s say you walk 2 miles every single day on flat ground. You’ve been doing it for 6 months. Your body is adapted to and damn good at walking that 2 miles, right?
Well now let’s say on the first day of the 6th month, you decide to walk your 2 miles, but instead of walking it on flat ground, you decide to do it up hill.
You wake up sore the next day.
Was it the walking or the hill that made you sore?
Of course it was the hill. The original stimulus (flat ground walking) you’re conditioned to didn’t do it, the new stimulus did.
This parallels lifting weights/strength training in-season.
If you’ve been training like you should in the off-season and maintain your training in-season, the stimulus that your body is adapted to, isn’t going to “make you sore”, maybe it’s the increased volume of sport (the hill) that your body isn’t adapted to?
Of course it is.
Now don’t get me wrong, during the season, sport is the “main stressor” and the majority of our resources will need to be utilized for sport participation (practices, games, etc.)
This means that training must be complimentary to and not detract from the main thing.
Adjusting volume, frequency, exercise selection, & etc. are essential to maximizing an In-Season program that will be conducive to thriving.
Jumping into a HS Football Off-Season “weights class” as a baseball, lacrosse, or soccer player in-season probably (definitely) aint it, especially this time of year as football coaches everywhere turn up “beast mode” before shortly running out of gas.
But you have to train (in modified fashion) in-season.
You absolutely have to if you want to maximize your potential.
Every reputable College & Pro sports team trains In-Season, you think the developing athlete can get away with skipping it?
You skip in-season training and you’re leaving opportunities and potential on the table.
