Pioneer Valley Youth Sports and Fitness Institute

the source for sound athletic advice

New Year Program Design

Here we are, the beginning of a new year, a time to reflect on the past years fitness and performance triumphs and what should of, could of, or would have been. This is all also the time to put the wheel in motion to achieve new goals, maybe take on additional interests, or redesign our focus. Whatever your performance goals of the new year may be the best way to get the foot going in the right direction is to layout a plan, an outline, or needs assessment. There are multiple stages you can look at to map out your agenda, most of all keep it simple, easy to follow, and allow changes if and when they are needed.

Think about the whole year to ahead. Ask yourself questions. What activities/sports will I be participating in this year? What events, games are most important to me and/or my team? When do I need to be at my peak level of performance? When are the pre-season, in-season, rest periods and off-seasons? With these questions actually look at a calendar and identify some of these time periods. You have now created the big picture or macrocycle. 

Now, based on your activities/sports identify what are the main performance based components, speed, power, agility, endurance, flexibility, core strength, etc.? What are common injuries that occur with this particular activity/sport? The idea here is to have an idea of how to use your time wisely during your workouts and focus on the performance specific adaptations that need to occur to have your body at its peak performance level when needed. 

There are three phases of training that occur when preparing for a season, hypertrophy, strength, and power.  The length of each phase depends on your big picture layout or macrocycle, let’s say 8 weeks for each with 1 to 2 weeks of active rest between each phase. The intensity and volume of training differ in each phase; the hypertrophy phase, high volume 3-5 sets of 10-15 repetitions at a low intensity, 50-70% of a 1 repetition maximum; the strength phase, moderate volume 3-5 sets of 7-10 repetitions at a moderate intensity of 80-88% of 1 repetition maximum; the power phase, low volume 3-5 sets of 3-6 reps at a high intensity of 90-95% of 1 repetition maximum.

Exercise selection depends on the sport or activity. Here is a basis to go by. There are 5 pillars of movement our bodies conduct everyday; push, pull, hip level change, rotate, and locomotive. There are also 3 planes of movement that we move in everyday; forward/backward, left/right, and rotation. Including an exercise that will cover each of these movements will ensure total body multi-joint movements, muscle balance, and movement of prime moving muscle groups. If your sport or activity requires power and explosion include a jump series, or plyometrics in some of the workouts. If your sport or activity requires sprinting of the course of the game or activity (anaerobic capacity), or long distance stamina (aerobic capacity) include time for sprint or long distance workouts.

When designing a new plan for your workouts there is a lot to consider, but try to keep it simple. Look at the calendar for the year ahead, identify the performance components necessary, Work your body in all ranges of motion and include performance components in the workouts. All workouts should include a proper dynamic warm-up and stretch and a proper cool-down and static stretch. 

To discuss program design and how to cater it to your sport or activity please contact Len Haggerty at len@strideshpi.net.  Len Haggerty,CSCS is a Sports Performance coach operating STRIDES Performance & Wellness, Inc. in Northampton, MA. They provide an experience for youths, athletes, and adults of all ages and abilities to discover their athletic potential.