In Season Training - Do You Do It Right? Part 2

The 1 thing that you cannot forget when planning your in season training program is that this is not the pre season.

Your number 1 goal is your performance on Saturday. Your number 2 goal is your training performance on a Tuesday and a Thursday. Your number 3 goal is training to performance in the gym or any extra work you take on to compliment goals 1 and 2.

As you work down from goal 1 to goal 2 you need to determine if there is anything that negatively affects your performance for goal 1. For example you might be an older player (like me!!) with a few runs on the board which generally means that you can't go all out every Tuesday and Thursday night like your 20.

Working back down from goal 2 to goal 3, you also need to determine if there is anything you're doing in the gym that will affect goal 1 or goal 2. For example that chest and back fits nicely in your 4 day rotation in the summer but when you're barely getting to the gym 2 a week during the in season, then that plan has to change because if you're not training your legs in the gym, in the in season, then you're not serious.

So if you're only getting to the gym once or twice a week then you're sole purpose is to get the most from the least. Everything you do must be fully justified and in line with improving yourself as a footballer. There is already enough "goal confusion" in the summer where you're torn between gym training to actually improve your football or your chances at the beach, so let's not make that mistake again.

The next thing you want to look at is intensity. As you're aiming to get the most from the least then that means that intensity needs to be pretty high. Now when most players think of intensity they think of more volume or more fatigue like drop sets (never, ever do these please) or even worse, forced reps. This is not increasing intensity. Intensity is classed as a % of your maximum. For the gym this is based on your 1 rep max (actual or projected) and on the track it is a % of our max speed (time or pace) or max heart rate.

Once you do a drop set then you're intensity has actually decreased dramatically because you've decreased the weight, not to mention volume output in most cases. So plan out your program to add in periods of high intensity but you don't need to go high intensity all the time as you'll find out when the manual gets released in the next few weeks.

Like I said in my last post, I think in season training is on par, if not more important then pre season training because there's no point getting strong, bigger and fitter then you've ever been if it just falls away during the playing months. A, you'll start like a freight train and fall away when your gains fall away and B, you're back to start again in September meaning you'll only build back to where you are again now, not actually better.

2 posts in 3 days - I'm back!!!