I was just talking to my team and we were discussing the importance of adding in strength training in the preseason.
Why is strength training in the preseaon important?
This is important because now is the time. You must build the strength and resilience in key muscles to help sustain your body through the rigours of the season. Getting in the gym now is essential as getting this done in the season can be very difficult. Commonly going to the gym can be inconsistent during the season. This is due to juggling training and recovery around the matches you are playing.
If you don’t make this a priority now, it will roll on to increasing your risk for injury. Flow on effects of not doing strength training can be the following:
- Increased risk of soft tissue and knee injuries
- A reduction in your capacity to recover from games
- You will have reduced performance in the back end of your games
- You will have less speed, evasiveness and change of direction capacity.
- All of this will leave you frustrated as you will start the new year on the back foot.
And I don’t want that for you.
What are the benefits of strength training in the preseason?
I want you to be confident in your body, have resilience to run out games while everyone around you is tiring. I want to have a quicker first step and break free from your opponent and recovery faster between games and handle the season with ease. Additionally, let’s spend more time on the training track and playing rather than being injured on the side lines.
So here is what I want to share with you today:
The benefits to lifting heavy weights in the preseason if you are an adult and doing strength training if you are a child / teenagers are the following:
- Increased running speed
- Increased first step on your opponent
- Increased ability to run out games in the final quarter/half
- Increased change of direction speed
- Reduced time to recover between games
- Reduced risk of many injuries
- Jump higher
- Increased ability to back up efforts from one to the other
- Outplay your opponent
- Improved confidence in your body.
Now this list is not exhaustive, but you get the idea.
So, what are you waiting for?
If you need guidance on where to start with this, reach out we are here to help. At Freedom Sports Medicine we are specialists at getting you set up and ready to rock your next season with ease.
Listen, I hope this was helpful
P.S: Want to learn more about how we can help you to build your strength moving into the new season?
