Off-season and leg strength

[Elle]

Okay, here in Italy the competitions are over and it's time to think about the off-season.

How did you manage the off-season? I'll focus on improving back and leg strength, among other things (as technique). Do you have any programs you'd recommend? What do you or your athletes use that have worked best?

[Hawkpeter]

I wish I had an off season for my lifters - due to increasingly short qualifying periods, we're always straight into the next block of training.

When a longer block does present itself however, re-sensitising to squat variants like higher rep ranges, max reps for time, paused reps and lift offs I find a great stimulus. This is particularly true of more established athletes who have PB'd their conventional squats in the 1 to 5 rep range during recent training blocks.

[strapping]

Just break up the monotony of training. Do something different and have a bit of a play, this is a hobby for most of us after all. Bonus points for designing an environment where people are not worried to do it wrong, or messy, rather than trying to get it "right".

I think a week or two (or even more) of a transition phase where you simply mess around with different variations like clean grip snatch, clerk (clean into jerk) or whatever other atypical variations to get the brain going and thinking about how you actually want to approach the lifts in general rather than specifically that variation. As an example, the clerk is good for athletes who tend to lose tension and get dumpstered into the bottom of the clean. We all get complacent, so sometimes the weirder/more foreign it is, the more the athlete has to think and problem solve the lifts.

Accessory work should be in the program all of the time for this purpose, but getting people out of their usual training positions and into variable positions seems to help with managing niggles and things. Jefferson curls from a box, situps on the hyperextension machine leaning all the way back, split squats etc. Just start light on them and build up.

For leg strength specifically, if an athlete struggles to gain leg strength through squatting, try using a single leg wall squat (smith machine if you have one is better) with the feet forward. That way there is no choice but to use the quads. Weighted sissy squats and things of that sort are also quite helpful. I find the easiest way to do weighted sissy squats is using a landmine attachment on a bar.

"Warmup" games are fun if you have time/space for them.
You can use a gymnastics ring, karate belt, towel etc to play tug of war, with two hands or with one. One hand gets you moving laterally a bit more and you can swap over, but can be pretty taxing on grip. With a towel/belt you can wrap it around your hand like a strap to take grip strength out of it.

Limbo is pretty fun as well with a stick. You can basically get someone to do a walking sissy squat to try to get under it forwards. You can constrain it so that they need to be in a split position. Or to get under it sideways, holding a weight. It's a fun way to warmup and is a sneaky way to get in a bit of mobility work along with some variable positions.

A balloon is also a great tool. You can try to pass (2-3 people) the balloon to each other standing on one leg, but whoever misses the balloon loses that point. First to x (5, 10, whatever) points wins.That encourages hitting the balloon to somewhere that the next person has to try to quickly hop over to and change direction. For people who might not want to be hopping, you can play a game of trying to touch the balloon 10 times first so that they will have to try to jump over each other to touch it.

And spend 15 min on the airdyne, it won't kill you.

[Elle]

I wish I had an off season for my lifters - due to increasingly short qualifying periods, we're always straight into the next block of training.

When a longer block does present itself however, re-sensitising to squat variants like higher rep ranges, max reps for time, paused reps and lift offs I find a great stimulus. This is particularly true of more established athletes who have PB'd their conventional squats in the 1 to 5 rep range during recent training blocks.

Even now that the qualifying period hasn't started yet, isn't there time for a short off-season? Perhaps elite athletes, like yours, need it less anyway?

You're right, going a little beyond the classic rep range or execution could have interesting results, thanks!

[Elle]

Just break up the monotony of training. Do something different and have a bit of a play, this is a hobby for most of us after all. Bonus points for designing an environment where people are not worried to do it wrong, or messy, rather than trying to get it "right".

I think a week or two (or even more) of a transition phase where you simply mess around with different variations like clean grip snatch, clerk (clean into jerk) or whatever other atypical variations to get the brain going and thinking about how you actually want to approach the lifts in general rather than specifically that variation. As an example, the clerk is good for athletes who tend to lose tension and get dumpstered into the bottom of the clean. We all get complacent, so sometimes the weirder/more foreign it is, the more the athlete has to think and problem solve the lifts.

Accessory work should be in the program all of the time for this purpose, but getting people out of their usual training positions and into variable positions seems to help with managing niggles and things. Jefferson curls from a box, situps on the hyperextension machine leaning all the way back, split squats etc. Just start light on them and build up.

For leg strength specifically, if an athlete struggles to gain leg strength through squatting, try using a single leg wall squat (smith machine if you have one is better) with the feet forward. That way there is no choice but to use the quads. Weighted sissy squats and things of that sort are also quite helpful. I find the easiest way to do weighted sissy squats is using a landmine attachment on a bar.

"Warmup" games are fun if you have time/space for them.
You can use a gymnastics ring, karate belt, towel etc to play tug of war, with two hands or with one. One hand gets you moving laterally a bit more and you can swap over, but can be pretty taxing on grip. With a towel/belt you can wrap it around your hand like a strap to take grip strength out of it.

Limbo is pretty fun as well with a stick. You can basically get someone to do a walking sissy squat to try to get under it forwards. You can constrain it so that they need to be in a split position. Or to get under it sideways, holding a weight. It's a fun way to warmup and is a sneaky way to get in a bit of mobility work along with some variable positions.

A balloon is also a great tool. You can try to pass (2-3 people) the balloon to each other standing on one leg, but whoever misses the balloon loses that point. First to x (5, 10, whatever) points wins.That encourages hitting the balloon to somewhere that the next person has to try to quickly hop over to and change direction. For people who might not want to be hopping, you can play a game of trying to touch the balloon 10 times first so that they will have to try to jump over each other to touch it.

And spend 15 min on the airdyne, it won't kill you.

Great ideas, thanks so much!

In fact, using "exotic" exercises could both teach something and break up the monotony of training.

This time, I think the offseason will last at least until January, since competitions resume in March. But maybe I could try extending it further.

I'd like to work on many things, but it's not always easy. Leg strength is definitely always needed (especially for beginner/intermediate athletes).

[Hawkpeter]

I wish I had an off season for my lifters - due to increasingly short qualifying periods, we're always straight into the next block of training.

When a longer block does present itself however, re-sensitising to squat variants like higher rep ranges, max reps for time, paused reps and lift offs I find a great stimulus. This is particularly true of more established athletes who have PB'd their conventional squats in the 1 to 5 rep range during recent training blocks.

Even now that the qualifying period hasn't started yet, isn't there time for a short off-season? Perhaps elite athletes, like yours, need it less anyway?

You're right, going a little beyond the classic rep range or execution could have interesting results, thanks!

Continentals are all in April-May, you have to qualify for them and the qualification cuts out 3 month prior so that eats into the Dec-Jan period. In my federation, you then have to battle it out until final entries are named to defend your spot. The 'off-season' is basically this week and next for a couple of my lifters.

[strapping]

Max reps for time with moderate weights is useful for transference to classic snatch/clean. It encourages fast controlled eccentrics.