Strength Training In Season vs. Off Season: What Athletes Actually Need

Athletes should strength train year-round, but the purpose of that training should change with the competitive calendar.

During the off-season, the goal is usually to build qualities such as strength, power, muscle mass and work capacity. During the season, the priority shifts toward maintaining those qualities while staying healthy, managing fatigue and performing well in practices and competition.

The exercises may look similar in both phases. The major differences are the amount of work performed, how aggressively the program progresses and how the training fits around the demands of the sport.

The off-season is the best time to build

Improving strength and power requires a training stimulus that is greater than what the athlete is already accustomed to. In practical terms, that usually means progressively increasing some combination of load, repetitions, sets, exercise difficulty or movement speed over time.

The off-season provides more room for this because practices and competitions are reduced or absent. An athlete can tolerate more strength-training volume, recover between sessions and gradually work toward heavier or more demanding training.

For example, an off-season water polo player might strength train three days per week. Across those sessions, the athlete may perform multiple sets of squats or deadlifts, presses, pulls, jumps, throws and accessory exercises. The program can progressively increase training volume and intensity because the athlete is not also trying to be fresh for two games that weekend.

This does not mean every off-season workout should be exhausting. Quality still matters, and training should progress gradually. However, building a new level of performance generally requires more total work than maintaining an existing one.

Research supports the use of planned, progressive training. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found that periodized resistance training produced greater improvements in one-repetition maximum strength than non-periodized training when volume was equated. The advantage was especially apparent in trained individuals.[1]

The in-season goal is different

Once the season begins, sport practices, games, travel and school or work commitments create much more fatigue. The weight room is no longer the only meaningful training stress in the athlete’s week.

The goal of in-season strength training is therefore not to do as much as possible. It is to use the smallest effective dose needed to maintain important physical qualities without interfering with sport performance.

That usually means:

• Keeping some moderately heavy or heavy strength work in the program

• Continuing to perform jumps, throws or other explosive movements

• Reducing the number of sets and unnecessary accessory work

• Avoiding frequent training to failure

• Adjusting sessions around games, practices and the athlete’s readiness

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An in-season swimmer, for example, may reduce from three gym sessions per week to two shorter sessions. Instead of four or five hard sets of a main lift, the athlete might complete two or three high-quality sets. The load can remain relatively challenging, but the athlete stops well before technique or movement speed deteriorates.

This approach allows the athlete to receive a meaningful strength stimulus without creating soreness and fatigue that compromise practice quality.

Why intensity should not disappear

One common mistake is turning all in-season lifting into very light “maintenance” circuits. These sessions may feel easier, but they do not necessarily provide a strong enough signal to preserve maximal strength and power.

Training volume can usually be reduced substantially during the season, but some intensity should remain. In other words, athletes can do less work without making all of the work easy. A review on the minimum dose needed to maintain physical performance reported that strength and muscle size in younger populations can be preserved for extended periods with as little as one strength session per week and one set per exercise—as long as training intensity is maintained.[2] This should not be treated as the ideal program for every athlete, but it demonstrates an important principle: maintaining a quality takes less training than developing it.

In professional soccer players, one weekly strength session maintained the strength improvements developed during a 10-week preparatory period across the following 12 weeks, while training only once every two weeks was not frequent enough.[3] In professional rugby league players, appropriately organized concurrent training helped preserve maximal strength and power across a 29-week season.[4]

The practical takeaway is simple: reduce volume first, not the entire strength stimulus.

Strength and power both need attention

Strength is the ability to produce force. Power is the ability to produce that force quickly. Athletes need both.

A stronger athlete has a larger force foundation, but strength alone does not guarantee that force will be expressed rapidly. That is why a complete program should also include explosive exercises such as jumps, medicine-ball throws, Olympic-lift variations or appropriately programmed loaded jumps.

For example, a volleyball player may build lower-body strength in the off-season with progressively heavier squats and split squats while using jumps to improve rapid force production. During the season, the athlete may perform fewer total lifting sets and only a small number of high-quality jumps. The objective is no longer to accumulate fatigue; it is to remind the neuromuscular system to continue producing force quickly.

Research on tapering reinforces this concept. Reducing strength-training volume while retaining meaningful intensity can improve or preserve power by allowing fatigue to fall without removing the training stimulus.[5]

What should actually change?

Training variable	Off-season	In season
Primary goal	Build strength, power, muscle and work capacity	Maintain strength and power while supporting sport performance
Typical volume	Moderate to high	Low to moderate
Intensity	Progressively challenging	Challenging enough to preserve strength, adjusted for readiness
Frequency	Often 2–4 sessions per week	Often 1–2 sessions per week
Exercise variety	More room for variation and accessory work	Fewer exercises focused on the highest priorities
Fatigue tolerance	More fatigue can be accepted when recovery allows	Fatigue should be tightly managed around competition
Progress measurement	More weight, repetitions, muscle or power over time	Stable strength and power with good sport performance

These are general guidelines, not fixed rules. Training age, injury history, age, sport schedule and position all affect the correct dose.

A simple example

Consider an athlete who uses a trap-bar deadlift as a primary strength exercise.

In the off-season, the athlete might complete four sets of five repetitions and gradually increase the load over several weeks. This creates enough volume and overload to build strength.

In season, that same athlete might complete two sets of three repetitions with a similar relative intensity. The workout creates less fatigue, but the body still receives a clear signal that producing high force remains important.

The same idea applies to power. The athlete might complete four sets of jumps in the off-season but only two crisp sets during a busy competitive week. If jump height or movement quality drops, the set ends. Power training should look powerful.

The weekly schedule matters

An effective in-season program cannot be separated from the sport schedule. A hard lower-body session placed the day before an important competition may be a good workout on paper and a poor decision in practice.

Whenever possible, the more demanding strength session should be placed farther from competition. Training can then become shorter and lower in volume as game day approaches. During congested weeks, the program may need to be reduced further. During lighter weeks, slightly more work may be appropriate.

This is where individualized coaching matters. The correct program is not simply an off-season plan with lighter weights. It is a flexible plan that accounts for the athlete’s total workload and preserves the qualities that support performance.

The bottom line

Off-season strength training is designed to create adaptation. It normally requires progressive overload, more weekly volume and enough recovery to build new levels of strength and power.

In-season strength training is designed to protect those adaptations. Athletes generally need less volume, but they should continue to lift with purpose and perform high-quality explosive work. When the program is organized correctly, strength training should help the athlete compete—not leave them too tired to compete.

The best year-round plan is not one program repeated for 12 months. It is a program that changes its dose and priorities as the athlete’s needs change.

References

1. Moesgaard L, Beck MM, Christiansen L, Aagaard P, Lundbye-Jensen J. Effects of periodization on strength and muscle hypertrophy in volume-equated resistance training programs: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2022;52(7):1647–1666. PubMed

2. Spiering BA, Mujika I, Sharp MA, Foulis SA. Maintaining physical performance: The minimal dose of exercise needed to preserve endurance and strength over time. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2021;35(5):1449–1458. PubMed

3. Rønnestad BR, Nymark BS, Raastad T. Effects of in-season strength maintenance training frequency in professional soccer players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011;25(10):2653–2660. PubMed

4. Baker D. The effects of an in-season of concurrent training on the maintenance of maximal strength and power in professional and college-aged rugby league football players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2001;15(2):172–177. PubMed

5. Pritchard HJ, Barnes MJ, Stewart RJC, Keogh JWL, McGuigan MR. Higher- versus lower-intensity strength-training taper: Effects on neuromuscular performance. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2019;14(4):458–463. PubMed