Are you a fall athlete? Have you been training hard since the end of last season, or at least this past summer, to get stronger and faster for your fall season? Great.

 

Now, the big question is how do you keep from starting at square one again once this season is over?

 

More specifically:

• How do you perform well all season?
• How do you stay strong?
• How do you ensure that you recover well?

1. Maintain Strength

 

Me: Why do you avoid the gym like it's the dentist when you're in-season?

 

Athletes: "The practice and game schedule doesn't leave enough time for a lift. Seriously, I think coach is going crazy giving us this schedule. Plus, working out in-season doesn't make sense because we need to save our energy for practices and games. Really, Coach is CRAZY!"

 

Here's the thing. Regardless of what you think about your coach and your schedule, I don't think you or your coach wants you to be at your weakest point physically during the playoffs.

 

In-season strength training is designed with the goal of maintaining your strength level. By training less exercises and less volume your lifting time will be under an hour just twice a week. It's not the time to introduce new exercises, or blast your chest with 8 different sets of heavy volume dumbbell presses.

 

Instead, you should:

• lift twice a week, 3-5 exercises per day
• focus on the large exercises
• keep volume very low 

By implementing these strategies, you can actually stay strong without being sore. Two hours a week of weight room time should be very doable. Seriously, give yourself a break from Tinder and get into the weight room.

 

Here's a few examples that use major muscle groups, large motor patterns and are performed at low volume at a relatively high load.

 

Deadlifts

1 prep set, then 3 sets of 2 reps around 80-83% of your one rep max

 

Squats

1 Prep set, then 3 sets of 4-5 reps around 80-83% of your one rep max

 

Bench Press

1 prep set, 3 sets of 4-5 reps around 80-83% of your one rep max

 

Pull-Ups

3-4 sets of weighted pull-ups between 2-3 reps work great, or body weight pull-ups stopping 1 rep before technical break down are both good options.

 

Crawling

3-4 sets of 20 yards loaded Carries (Sandbag, farmer's, goblet, suitcase)

Keep in mind, carries can be very taxing for the nervous system so you'll want to dial back a little bit on how long you are performing them for. Your body's time under tension should be between 10-15 seconds.

 

2. Recover

 

Keep your tissues healthy by becoming a foam roll samurai. Use tools like the foam roller and tennis ball to hunt out trigger points.

 

When you're in-season your body is under continued stress mentally and physically. Any trigger points can be signs of overuse and may even serve as a potential warning flag of an injury to come.

 

In addition to clearing up trigger points using a foam roller, tennis ball, soft ball, dog toy etc will get healthy blood into the muscles. The nutrient enriched blood also aids in the recovery process leaving you fresher and more recovered on game day.

 

Here are just a few areas to focus on with the foam roller:

• Calves, especially lateral
• Anterior tibialis (lateral part of the shin) - where shin splints can be common
• Hamstrings and glutes
• IT Band - lateral of the quad, side of the leg
• Traps and pecs 

Sleep is probably one of the first things that tends to fall on the priority list during your season. It's hard to finish all of your homework between the practice and games, especially when you just can't stop snap chatting and watching Tosh.0.

 

Not only will sleep help with your recovery from practice and games, but it may even improve your sports performance if you increase the amount of time you sleep. (Source) Mah suggests that sleep is a "significant factor in achieving peak athletic performance."

 

3. Eat and Drink to Perform

 

Hydrate! Most athletes simply do not consume nearly enough fluid throughout the day. Being busy makes it simple to overlook your hydration, but the effects of dehydration will decrease your performance extremely quickly. Even a slightly dehydrated athlete begins to sacrifice muscle strength and endurance, explosiveness and concentration.

 

Undefeated professional martial artist "Slippery" Pete Barrett fills up a water jug that he takes to the gym. Using a Sharpie he writes things like "skinny water" or "1st round KO" to keep himself motivated to hydrate.

 

Eat eat eat! It can be difficult with hectic fall schedule of school and practice to get in enough calories when you're practicing and playing games almost daily. High school athletes are also limited with times they are able to get in food when they are at school. Regardless your body is using a great amount of energy during the in-season. It's vital for your overall performance that your body is properly fueled and ready to go.

 

Here are a few snacks that don't taste like seaweed and work great for on-the-go athletes:

 

• nuts/seeds/trailmix (homemade is best - nuts & dried fruits)
• beef jerky
• protein bars/shakes
• extra sandwiches (deli meat, egg salad, chicken, turkey etc)
• cheese sticks
• greek yogurt
• KIND bars
• fruits like banana, apples, pears, grapes
• vegetables - carrots, celery, cucumber, and various dips like hummus/guacamole
• hard-boiled eggs  

A huge percentage of athletes go into the season in their best shape, and then stop training during the in-season. Don't drop the ball during the season when you've put in so much work to get here. Make sure you're on point with your recovery, your nutrition and your workouts and make this your best season yet.

 

For more tips and information on our sports performance training program at Skill of Strength, check out @SOSCompete on twitter and skillofstrength.com.