Dr Dialo-Rudolph Brown
It is the last quarter of 2024, two months into the new school year. Many sports are well underway with their “background season” or “preparation phase” of training ahead of major competitions. Some have already begun competitions.
Track and field athletes at youth and senior levels, after a very competitive previous season—and a break late in the summer—use this preparation phase to emphasise high-volume general strength and conditioning. Other sports, like football, continue training in preparation for the start of competitions. “Schoolboy football” competition has already begun, and young footballers will compete over several months whilst continuing general training.
The “background”/“preparation” period applies to all sport and should be optimised. Not only should there be physical preparation for sports “performance”, but also comprehensive pre-participation screening by sports medicine physicians; full diagnosis and optimal rehabilitation of any lingering injuries from the previous season (or before) by appropriate sports medicine specialists; thoughtful and strategic return-to-play after a rest and/or rehabilitation period as appropriate; and implementation of injury prevention mechanisms wherever possible.
Strength and conditioning (S&C), which refers to exercise training using weights and other forms of resistance (aka “gym work”) to enhance sports performance, is pivotal during the background season/preparation phase and beyond. S&C spans the “performance spectrum” from rehabilitation of injuries to injury risk reduction/injury prevention (aka “prehabilitation” or “prehab”), to optimal sports performance.
S&C has been scientifically shown to improve key sport performance indicators such as speed, power, and work capacity (or “endurance”). It is also a key part of full/optimal rehabilitation for an athlete’s return to sports after injury; and can also help to reduce the risk of injuries/re-injuries. S&C accomplishes these goals via increasing general strength and capacity through general physical preparation, or GPP, the earliest phase of a structured S&C programme, which fits right into the “background season.”
With greater strength and capacity, track athletes can withstand longer and more intensive sport training throughout the season, with less undue fatigue and potentially less likelihood of injury. They can be better prepared for the rigours of repeated rounds of racing during championships at the high school, collegiate or even at the professional level, e.g. the World Athletics Track and Field Championships. For athletes in team sports, general physical preparation increases overall strength and capacity, potentially making them less injury-prone over the course of long competitive seasons, and indeed their whole competitive careers.
Gradual exposure to heavier weights and/or increasingly challenging training sessions – termed “Progressive Overload” – is protective. It prepares the athlete’s body for the significant forces encountered during sport, whether from collisions with opponents; forceful body movements like twists/rotations, “flip-turns” or throws; or powerful limb movements like swimming, hitting, kicking or sprinting. For example, while it is commonly felt that hamstring injuries occur due to a lack of flexibility or “tight muscles”, in many instances it is due to a relative lack of strength and capacity of the hamstring muscles to withstand the repeated, rapid, high forces that they encounter in sprinting. This lack of strength and capacity may be due to imbalanced gym programmes where emphasis is placed on strengthening the large and powerful quadriceps muscles (multiple versions of squats and lunges, popular in most track-and-field gym workouts) but poor attention to specifically targeting the hamstring muscles and how they work in sprinting. This predisposes the hamstrings to injuries when faced with the demands of training and competing. Likewise, other muscular injuries in athletes (e.g. shoulder, lower back, etc.) also occur when there is inadequate or imbalanced, strength work for the muscles and their relevant movements and functions.
Balanced, well-structured strength-and-conditioning, through general physical preparation (GPP) and progressive overload, develops greater “reserve” or capacity in the relevant muscles and their respective movements and functions, strengthens “weak links,” while potentially creating a buffer against the possible negative effects of training, school and life stresses.
For all the reasons mentioned above, S&C should also continue beyond this preparation season, and even throughout the competitive periods - “in-season strength-and-conditioning.” While it may seem “counter-intuitive” or counterproductive to maintain gym work during competitions, the opposite is true.
“Maintenance-level” S&C training during competitive periods has multiple benefits, including injury risk reduction over the long haul of a competitive season and increased resilience should injury occur. The in-season programme must be modified for intensity and overall “volume”, with fewer, but the most essential “bang-for-your-buck” exercises.
A qualified strength-and-conditioning specialist/S&C coach can analyse the needs and demands on the athlete throughout the background preparation and competitive seasons, to design effective programmes that support the athlete across the performance spectrum of rehabilitation and return-to-play, preparation, in-season maintenance and ultimately, optimal performance.
Dr Dialo-Rudolph Brown is a Sports Physical Therapist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist at The University of the West Indies Sports Medicine Clinic, Mona. Contact: dialob.rpt.cscs@gmail.com.
