FOOTBALL IN SEASON TRAINING
In my experience everyone trains hard in the off season, but when the in season hits the weight room can quickly become a ghost town. I could never understand the thought process of training hard all off season only to lose the muscle mass and strength gains that were made by week 6 of the in season. Here are a few answers to common questions that we get on the topic.
How many times should I train each week?
We have found that two total body training sessions during the in season period generally work best. This allows the athlete to be consistent and is not overwhelming when combined with the addition of a sports practice schedule. For intermediate weight room athletes we recommend two additional strategically placed micro-sessions.
How would training experience influence program design?
Generally trainees at the middle/high school level would fall into one of three categories:
Novice – this athlete is in the 7th or 8th grade and is just starting to develop motor control and coordination. There is not a lot that needs to be changed here as the majority of athletes in this age range respond best to two days of training per week with total body sessions. These athletes have not developed their nervous system to the extent that it will be impacted by the training sessions as the intensity (based on total amount lifted) is still minimal. The goal with this athlete would be to establish a strong foundation so that they are not starting from square one during the off season.
Beginner – this athlete already has established adequate motor control and coordination, can execute exercises to perfection, but simply does not have the size and strength necessary to compete at the high school level. In this scenario training recommendations would be based on the number of snaps that they are getting in a game.
In the event that playing time is minimal we have found that training on a traditional offseason template with four training sessions per week is most beneficial. The thought process here is that the quicker we can bridge the size and strength gap the better opportunity this athlete would have for the following season to be a major contributor.
In a scenario where an athlete with this level of physical development is getting significant snaps we would revert to two total body training sessions. Session one would focus on linear strength development and session two would focus on leveraging our assistance and remedial movements to build and maintain lean body mass. Linear strength development means the athlete is adding a little more weight to the same exercise each time they train. For our beginner athletes the in season blocks can range from 4-6 weeks depending on the response we are seeing. From a weekly perspective session one would take place on Mondays and session two would take place on Wednesdays assuming game day is Friday night.
Intermediate – This athlete has been weight training for over two years and has acquired the prerequisite size and strength necessary to compete at a high level. In this scenario our first day would focus on a long term wave loading approach which gradually decreases the volume and increases intensity over the first half of the season and then repeats for the second half of the season with a slightly lower overall volume and a slightly higher intensity. This provides the best opportunity to optimize strength over an extended period of time. The second day, assuming the athlete is at a position specific bodyweight and lean body mass is not decreasing, would focus on power output. Using methods that focus on overloading force output in the top range would be most beneficial. This is a great opportunity to use chains, bands, and crash bars on the power rack to force an increase in bar velocity at specific intensities.
This is a general thought process that we use when approaching football in season training program design. In order to get even more specific, identifying how the daily training session is organized is also extremely valuable. Is there any benefit in supersetting or pairing exercises compared to not pairing exercises? Which exercises would be best given the athlete? We will have the answers to these questions in our follow up article. Stay tuned.
