Last month, I talked about how focusing on developing strength in the weight room can make you a faster, more explosive, all-around better athlete. Strength training is a necessary supplement to a training regiment that involves sport skill development, speed/Agility/Quickness, conditioning, game analysis, and recovery work. Notice I said supplement. Strength training is a part of the whole, not the entire program. In part II of this article I’m going to discuss how focusing too much on the weight room can actually hurt athletic performance. Furthermore, while working to create big weight room numbers with heavy lifts to improve performance, there is a point of diminishing returns.

A common mistake many coaches make when designing strength programs for athletes is forgetting that strength training should not be a separate entity from the rest of the program. It should be integrated. The point of the weight room is to get better for your sport, not get better for the weight room. Increases in the weight room should observe measureable increases in speed, jumping ability, and other athletic demands. If they don’t, the weight training program isn’t athletically effective and should be modified. Coaches and athletes make the mistake of creating nearly a separate sport with the weight room. For example, putting a primary focus on the amount of weight lifted is the sport of power lifting. There are special techniques, equipment, and training programs involved with this sport. Putting a primary focus on muscle size and aesthetic is the sport of bodybuilding. Like power lifting, there are special techniques, equipment, and training programs for the sport of bodybuilding. While there are some valuable aspects of each that can benefit athlete, accuracy and magnitude of sport skill execution is the criteria that athletes are judged by. Having strength and size can help improve these criteria, but cannot single handedly do the job. The amount of time and energy you spend in the weight room should reflect this.

Two things that are definitely finite variables for athletes are time and energy. You have a limited amount of both. If you are going to become a better athlete, there are an array of skills you must improve. If you spend all of your time on one skill or aspect of your program, the others will suffer.Consider this in regards to the weight room. In training, as with human nature, you generally gravitate to what you are good at, if left to your own devices. Large male athletes with above average natural strength will love the weight room. Their muscle fiber type often favors the high-force, short duration work that is done in the weight room. Even though it’s strenuous work, their bodies are designed for it, so it feels right. Consider, however, what tends to be true about larger male athletes’ and speed, agility, quickness and conditioning. Due to their heavier bone frame, larger overall body mass, and muscle fiber type that is not very resistant to fatigue, training these variables of athleticism is not as enjoyable to them. It is downright unpleasant, so it is generally avoided when possible. These athletes will spend nearly 100% of their off-season training time in the weight room. Their strength improves, they continue to increase their body mass, but they don’t do anything to put the new strength and mass into athletic use. Remember, your body only learns and improves new skills by practicing those specific skills. If you are lifting weights because you want to get faster, that’s great, but you have to practice getting faster as well! A good athletic development program should spend a majority of time and energy improving player’s weaknesses, not merely glorifying their strengths. 

Considering all of the above, here are my suggestions for the role of strength training in an athletic development program:

40-60 minutes in the weight room
Regardless of your athletic ability, or time of year in your training cycle, you shouldn’t be in the weight room longer than 40-60 minutes. Remember, a primary role of the weight room for athletes is to shock the brain and body into being able to create and control more force. Your ability to create these significant forces dwindles as training time drags on. Additionally, your body starts to break down past what it can build up. With my professional athletes, I generally spend about 30-35 minutes on pure strength work. If they are working out at the right intensity, with the proper amount of rest, any more work would be sluggish and well below what they are capable of doing. Younger athletes (15-18yrs) generally need more time (40-50 minutes), due to the fact there is more teaching and general “practice”. Additionally, young athletes usually are incapable of generating significant forces, so their neural system doesn’t fatigue as significantly.

Ditch the weight belt, straps, gloves, wraps, or anything else you wouldn’t have on the field.
A lot of athletes walk around the weight room looking like they are wearing a suit of armor. All of this equipment helps them lift more weight, but not necessarily by virtue of usable strength. I don’t want my athletes using straps because I want their grip to strengthen. I don’t want them using lifting belts because I want to strengthen their core muscles. If someone’s back hurts, I don’t put a belt on them to mask the pain, I figure out why their back hurts and employ resources to fix it. After all, they won’t be able to wear a lifting belt on the field!!! If you can’t lift something by virtue of your actual, real-world, usable strength, I don’t see how it can help you athletically. You are in essence lifting well more than your body can naturally handle. This is a recipe for injury.

The weight room is not your sport; it is a supplement to your sport
Many strength coaches are focused on creating high numbers for a handful of lifts. This is often based on convention and novelty, not actual athletic results. If you find that a significant amount of time and energy in your program is geared towards doing drills that improve certain lifts, not athletic skills, you need to change y our focus. For example, it is not a good use of weight room time to do 4 drills that improve your maximal output on bench press, unless the bench press is your sport. Better time would be spent doing a heavy pressing motion and then employing other lifts that help stabilize and improve mobility of the shoulder joint. Don’t get me wrong, I want my athletes lifting as heavy as possible with the time and energy that is available for the weight room. I realize, however, that the program I design has to address many other factors than merely how much weight is moved during a certain lift. I want to reinforce athletic posture, so I’m not willing to compromise form to get numbers. I have to create a strong, mobile, balanced, biomechanical system from feet to fingertips, so I can’t spend excessive time on one lift. These considerations will slightly comprise the maximal amount of weight that can be moved for certain lifts, but will ultimately create a higher performing, well rounded, injury free athlete.

Modify your program through the course of the year
You can’t be everything all the time. You need to be able to shift mental and physical focus of your training program to favor certain gains. If you train as hard as you can for strength everyday, all year, and at the same time train as hard as you can for speed everyday, all year, you will hit a physical and mental burnout point. This usually manifests with injury, losing interest in the sport, or a decrease in performance. Mark out certain points in the training year where you are going to spend a large amount of time and energy on developing a certain component of athleticism such as strength, body size, speed, or sport skill. During this time, make sure that other components are addressed, but at a smaller frequency. For example, lifting weights 4 times per week, doing speed work twice per week for a few months post-season, then as the season nears, shift the time and energy focus to speed and sport skill work. This gives you the mental and physical focus to commit to specific skill improvement.