Seasonal Training: The Key to Year-Round Success

If you're a dancer or a hybrid athlete that trains year-round, does your training shift or is it generally the same thing no matter what the season? With this week's newsletter, I want to cover what's the importance of adjusting your training based off the time of year it is within your sport.  

Let's begin.

In-season Versus Off-season Training

What's the difference?

The main objective for in-season training comes down to maintaining your mobility, strength, and endurance while prioritizing peak performance and recovery. There shouldn't be a reason as to have your training sessions be at a high effort level when you should be saving that energy for your rehearsals or competition/race days.

What I'd suggest is to keep volume & frequency low (i.e., 8-12 reps of 8-14 sets total each workout; 2-3x/week).

On the other hand, off-season training is where most of the experimentation, development of skills, and creativity comes into play. I'm talking fixing imbalances in areas that we lack during in-season, strength training and conditioning, and the inclusion of cross training in the mix.

What that can look like for dancers can be taking more dance intensives or classes, having more freestyle sessions, and making choreography.

For my hybrid athletes, this can look like performing in different kinds of activities other than your go-to cardio based exercise.

What I'd suggest is to increase to a high volume & frequency (i.e., same rep scheme of generally 15+ sets total each workout; 3-5x/week of activity).

If you can manage these shifts in training, you're nothing but a smart, unstoppable, and relentless athlete.

This is where true growth lies.

Train with a Coach That's Been In Your Shoes

When I was in it deep as a collegiate dancer, I did exactly the latter. Unfortunately, I trained at high volumes and effort during in-season, spreading myself too thin and overall, not realizing I was burning myself out. Not to mention, I was doing all this on top of attending college and going out to occasional late night parties on the weekends thinking that my body was "invincible".

However, I've come a long way to see that that wasn't the most ideal way to see results as a dancer and an overall healthy human being.

Whether you're in deep with dance or you're an athlete that eat, sleeps, and breathes' their sport, I want to help you use your time efficiently in your sessions/outside the studio as well as make a plan that can generally provide you progress in your dance or sport.  

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