A common practice in football conditioning (training) is to do strength exercises to increase strength in-season. This seems to be a universal practice as I haven’t seen any recommendations to the contrary. Can this practice be substantiated by science?
The in-season strength training is typically high-intensity in which players use weights in the 85% to 95% of maximum range for anywhere between three and six repetitions. The exercises are typically compound and involve two or more joints.
Although in-season strength training for increases in strength is a standard practice, it appears to be substantiated mostly by myths. Most notable are:
Myth 1. In order to maintain strength in-season it is necessary to increase the athlete’s strength.
There is no need to continually increase strength in-season because it has negative results associated wwith. Strength should be maintained without increasing the athlete’s strength.
From science and practical experience it has been shown that in order to maintain strength it is only necessary to work out one day a week with submaximal weights. The exercises selected should be those that deal with the major muscles involved in execution of the sports skills.
The emphasis in-season should be on speed, quickness and explosive power. Understand that practice during the week to improve these abilities should be enough to maintain strength. If there is a drop in strength levels then there should be some maintenance work to bring it back up to the previous level.
Myth 2. Increased strength in-season will enable the athletes to perform better on the field.
This is a fallacy. The idea that increased strength in-season enables athletes to perform better has never been substantiated. It is only assumed that the athlete will perform better if he does better in the weight room. From all indications most players actually performs worse or at the same level from increased strength in-season. This is based on several factors.
First, in-season, the players usually need several days for recovery. The players are typically in a fatigue state but must be able to carry out the practices with a high level of energy. Doing high-intensity weight training, however, is even more fatiguing which then does not allow the athlete to have an effective practice session or to be optimally ready for the next game.
Increased strength in-season can interfere with the player’s technique of the skills that he must execute. This is especially true of quarterbacks whose prime concern in-season should be to improve their pass execution and to carry out the pass pattern tactics and strategy called for.
Myth 3. You need increased strength using high-intensity/maximum weights to increase speed.
This is a myth that has gained a strong foothold in the last decade. As a result we see more running athletes doing high-intensity programs. This, in turn, is actually making them slower. This is substantiated by many studies that show athletes do not improve speed after four years of such training during their college careers.
In cases where the athlete becomes faster or simply maintains his speed is usually due to the emphasis on speed running and training. In other words, the speed training out-distances the strength training. It overcomes the negative aspects of high-intensity weight training.
To increase speed the athlete must be on a high energy level and have adequate rest in between speed repetitions. The player can, however, do specialized strength exercises to improve the strength of running specific muscles as they are used.
In other words, he can do a single joint exercise to improve the strength or more specifically, explosive strength, of the muscles as they are used in the joint action seen in the running or cutting action. This is not taxing and helps to improve key actions that produce explosive power in the run or cut.
Myth 4. You need increased strength with high intensity in order to develop explosive power.
Maximum weights do not improve explosive power as much as lighter weights. The key to developing explosive power is to execute the movement in the shortest amount of time possible. When lifting heavy weights it is impossible to move the weights as quickly as needed for faster execution which is the key to explosive power.
In essence, the heavier the weights, the slower the movement. The lighter the weights, the faster or quicker is the movement and as a result, the greater the power.