Why the Post Season is One of Your Most Important Seasons in Training
I don’t use the word “off” season with my athletes.. Yep I said it… there is no off season but rather there is a POST season. If I am going to be honest I believe it is one of the most important seasons you can take. The post is season is with out a doubt where you can make the most gains and set yourself up for the best season you can have.
Personally, the best seasons I have had are the ones where I take my post season seriously and really focus and make the best of it. Now… this doesn’t mean that we go all out and launch into some serious volume, in fact it is usually the opposite.
Two of the biggest mistakes I see with athletes is that during the post season they do 1) too much of an unstructured break - I’ve heard time and time again I just need a break from coaching but I promise to keep training only to start back up with the athlete in the spring and they have barely been on their bike, haven’t dipped a toe in the pool, and well they’ve actually probably been running too much and 2) train to hard because they are afraid to lose fitness - ps. you must lose fitness in order to gain fitness it is the only way that your body will adapt the the load you have put on it.
“Post season is a phase of preparation in which you develop the bedrock of technique and tissue readiness which will maximize the yield of your hard work awaiting you in the months ahead” - Matt Dixon Purple Patch Fitness
A post is very simply a time to de-load; ie: time for purposeful reduction and carries three goals.
1) Development of fitness through an increased focus on strength.
While you may loose your overall fitness what you maintain is your fitness through strength. It is just that you are building your muscular strength and fitness vs. your overall aerobic fitness. So yes maybe you won’t be able to run a half marathon at the same speed but you will have gained more power that then translates later. A strength focus provides yourself an increase in mitochondria within your muscles which then later (months later) you have the ability to produce more ATP which means more oxygen to your muscles.
2) Development of muscular, skeletal, and physiological resiliency - quality vs. quantity.
This correlates directly with the first one because through a strength focus you increase your resiliency in your muscles, skeleton system and overall physiological system. On top of the with lower volume we can do specific session such as high intensity combined with high resistance training to focus on building each of the systems at the top end with small stress on the system. With short sessions your body can recover faster and give us the ability to push it quickly and smartly.
3) Lower overall volume that provides a chance to have some fun.
Maybe that means taking your gravel bike or mountain bike out for some punchy power house building. Maybe you switch your aerobic day for some skiing or snowshoeing. This is where you have the ability to add in things that you may skip or not get the chance to do as much of because of time.
Now, I am not saying that it isn’t important to take a break. In fact it is very important. You need to take a short break of unstructured training but what I am really getting at is that you don’t want to let that go to long. More often what I see is someone says oh I just need a short break from coaching I’ll come back to you in the spring but I promise to keep training….. this does not happen. When they come back its usually on no swimming, very little biking and usually too much running if they are doing something and they say oh yes… I have a race in three to four months. So what happens is that instead of spending the time building up your skeletal and muscular system so that it is ready to take on load we have to throw you into what we can. This usually leads to burn out, higher risk of injury, and more often than not you’ve left something out on the table that you didn’t even know was there.
Using your post season for purpose is one of the best things you can do for yourself as an athlete, and I can guarantee you that if you talk with your coach you can make it work for you so that you get the most out of it without feeling too much. I know for me as a coach I always work with my athletes to make it the best that they can, maybe that means doing two full rest days a week, or an optional choice free day to give them freedom to choose, or one of my favorites is where I give them options to do on a day which allows them to still get good solid structured training in but the freedom to do what the body wants in that day and not feel stuck to a schedule.
The post season can be a lot of fun and if you take it seriously you will see so much gains and feel propelled into your next season with so much strength!!