In-season, Off-season? How are you training?

It's an interesting time of year... plenty of team sports are winding down at BCSS and others are starting up, the holiday-break seems like it's just around the corner (although it's still a few weeks away), and as usual our fitness and conditioning spaces are filled with students working hard.

Yesterday, our Junior and Senior Boys Football Programs began their off-season strength and conditioning workouts during the lunch-hour. A few weeks ago, our field event athletes started some weekly pre-season strength training sessions after school. It's especially amazing to see so many athletes working hard toward a goal that may very well be months away.

But if we're planning for the long-term with our strength training and fitness in mind, we should be thinking about the concepts that are related to long-term training and periodization. Athletes who break their training into specific cycles (marked by purpose, volume, intensity and other variables) over the course of a training year can benefit in many ways.

The concept of periodization is best understood as time-management for the specialized athlete who trains on a year-round basis. Is this you? If so, perhaps there's a lot to learn... 

Earlier this year, students in our Long Term Athlete Development and Sport Specific Fitness courses learned about concepts related to periodization and how to get started with long-term planning. If this interests you, you can check out our Smarter Athletes session on periodization concepts at StrongerBCSS.ca

If you'd like to chat one-on-one about periodization and a yearly training model for yourself, let me know! 

Happy training, 

DV