Is the weight room helping or hurting you during the season?

Is the weight room helping or hurting you during the season?
Courtesy of Jimmy Lamour:Youth Fitness Specialist

I am thankful that Andy allowed me to speak to his audience and offer help to those athletes preparing for their sport. I have seen many athletes that choose to stop lifting completely during the season and that is a mistake. Someone said that when the purpose of a thing is unknown abuse is inevitable. The season is when many athletes are causing trauma to their muscles on the field of play, so we must be strategic with our use of the weight room.

1. Manage outside stressors
The body does not know the difference between a weight, practice, long night of studying, or lack of nutrition. It just knows that the body is stressed and adjustments need to be made. We believe in holding our athletes accountable for their lives outside the field or weight room. Our sheet holds the athletes accountable for sleeping 8 hours a night, eating for performance, managing stressors, stretching, and staying hydrated. Feel free to email us to receive a copy of our M.A.P (Mental Advantage Plan) regeneration sheet.

2016-10-20 MAP

2. Program Design
We structure weight room with activity that will not add soreness to the athlete. We do not change the exercises around during the in season, so the body will not get sore while being introduced to a new stimulus. We do not load the back as much during the season as many athletes compress the spine during collisions in the game. We prefer the Front Squat to a Box, Zercher Squat to a Box, or Trap Bar Deadlift. Also, our rep ranges are in the 3-5 area as we are trying to maintain or gain some strength. You do not want to work all summer and throw all the strength you earned away during the season. It will strengthen your bones and help maintain the efficiency of your central nervous system. A big mistake that athletes make during the season is to lift the same way they did during the offseason. For instance, they take weight training where they lift 5 days a week. We lift two times a week during the season. Our workouts end 2 days prior to the game as we believe that the body and the central nervous system must recuperate to have a successful game day. We lift the day after the game for regeneration purposes. We want to pump as much blood into the body as possible to help heal the muscle trauma from the game. These workouts are low intensity; time based, and include a circuit style of training. We also include some box jumping during the season as that is low impact, but still develops the stretch reflex for the power needed for the game. We enjoy medicine ball throws in place of Olympic lifts as that takes pressure of the wrists. They get enough use during the games. We train different positions differently as well as athletes that do not play as much. For instance, our QB’s are required to perform 100 band pull aparts daily to counteract the amount of internal rotation they perform during throwing. Also, we do not stay in the weight room past 40 minutes. Practices take precedent during the season and the weight room is part of our general preparation to keep us resilient.

2016-10-20 weight room

3. We sprint
Some Coaches feel like they do enough running during practices, but most of what I see is conditioning. When you run in a state of fatigue you will not improve your speed. Also, speed is a skill, so going a long time without exposure will help you become detrained. Every year out athletes come back slower than we sent them to their HS teams. The key is not overdo it…we do no more than 3 all our sprints with full recovery. Also, the distances are short as the hamstring is already taxed during practices with running plays. We do quite a bit of form running at low intensities to reinforce form, so we do not have to teach it as much when the players start off season training.

2016-10-20 Sprint

4. Eating for performance
If you are not getting enough protein in during the day you will not repair muscle that is broken down during practice. The last thing we need is to lose muscle during the season. We recommend 1 g per bodyweight in lbs. A 180 lb. athlete would take in 180 grams of protein a day. We know most athletes will not eat that in whole food such chicken, beef, eggs, etc…Our favorite protein power is Dymatize 100% Whey protein 2-3 times a day. Also, when athletes are eating fried foods they are just slowing down the healing process. Those foods are not anti-inflammatory like fish oil and vegetables.

2016-10-20 Dymatize

5. Recovery is key
You are only as good as what you can adapt to and recover from. We recommend doing Cryotherapy after the game. We also foam roll during training sessions and we activate ourselves through a breathing/stick technique. It activates all the muscles that need to be awaken to perform at your best. Also, players are encouraged to use the Sauna, cold bath, salt bath, and stem treatment to speed up the recovery process.

2016-10-20 Cyro

Jimmy Lamour is a former Guilford College in Greensboro, NC All South Defensive Back. He set the record for interception return yards at the school. Upon Graduation, he tested numerous philosophies on strength and speed through seminars, self-study, conversation with renowned strength coaches, and training of hundreds of athletes. This led him to develop the 4.30 40 Speed System a system that helped him improve his 40 yard dash from a 4.66 to a 4.30, which gave way to many professional football workouts. He later developed Lamour Training Systems with the help of his lovely wife Charlene to help athletes improve their performance and receive knowledge he missed out on as a child. He continues to consult with several Division 1, prep schools, and high school coaches. LTS has helped many football athletes play at the D1, D2, and D3 levels. He believes that his passion to see young men become all God intended them to be and provide knowledge of the defensive back position which will allow young athletes under the tutelage of Pick 6 Academy to flourish. He is currently certified as a Youth Fitness specialist, 7on7 Performance Director, and High School Strength & Conditioning Specialist. Also, Coach Lamour is a devout Christian and enjoys being a part of Harvest Church. He has two children Camdon (19) and Micah (12).Sign up for his newsletter to receive his free speed report at http://fastyouthathlete.blogspot.com/ on For more information, call 336-257-9151

2 thoughts on “Is the weight room helping or hurting you during the season?

  1. Great article. At Eastern Guilford HS we finally got a principal this year (Lance Sockwell) who understands this. The principal he replaced only knew that she wanted us to win but never gave us the tools to get us to that point. When I was an assistant coach at NE Guilford HS that was the main factor of why we were winners. Coach Pursley had every FB player in WL class their entire HS career. Having these kids in class enabled them to play multiple sports (which we encouraged) which left no time for them to lift after classes were over. A school that does not offer strength development, speed development and agility classes will not be successful in their athletic programs.

  2. Thank you Coach. The best programs make sure they are developing their athletes year round while prescribing the appropriate volume depending on the season. We have put together a great yearly speed program that has helped many of our area athletes.

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