You’ve had a great season and now you are looking ahead to 2006 & beyond….making the senior club team, playing top 7’s tournaments in the summer, getting into the provincial academy training squad, getting into the NPC training squad, making national age-group trials, making the AB’s!! (Of course you’ve thought about it – or dreamt about it anyway).

Well now is the time to plan your training and take those first steps towards achieving your goals….leaving no stone unturned in the process.  Remember that “failing to plan is planning to fail”!

• So what will your weights program look like?
• How will your weights program and goals fit in with your overall training strategy?
• What will you focus on in the gym?
• How will you plan your weights routine?

Remember when you are planning your program whether it be the weights component or another part of your training regime, good things take time (as they say in the cheese adverts!).  Be prepared for gradual progress and reward yourself accordingly.  Go about your training in a methodical, organized, disciplined & dedicated way – a professional approach – and you will get the results you want.

Planning your weight training may well be determined by access to appropriate weight training facilities (membership cost, location/accessibility, equipment, etc), access to suitably qualified trainers/instructors knowledgeable about your sport/position, and therefore access to ideal programs.

What makes a good program?  Sure there are the exercises to consider, the reps, the sets, the rest time between sets, the gradual load increase, the concentric vs eccentric ratio, the split routines, etc.  The good news is that all programs work – it’s just that some are better than others and a small few are a lot better than all the others put together!

You will also get out of it what you are prepared to put into your training.

Here is an example of a general conditioning program that will get you started in the off-season.  I would recommend you work on this for 4-6 weeks at which point a change in the program will be necessary to keep the stimulation going and to trigger the body out of a potential complacency mode.

The importance of choosing the weight for an exercise must not be underestimated as this will determine the outcome for that exercise, that day, that week and potentially for the duration of that programme!

Remember the example above is purely an introductory programme that will get the body used to a variety of training exercises and conditioned to training regularly.  You are simply preparing yourself for the next phase of your training so you are not aiming to break world records!

Keep the weight you lift at a level so that you are extended on the final set but not failing.  Walk out of the gym feeling like you could have done more.  This way you will be back in the gym keen to train as opposed to feeling sore and tired and therefore not particularly inclined to do weights again!

Your next phase of weight training will most likely start to target or focus in on your key goals for your off-season training.  Whether these are increasing your speed, strength, size, stamina, or power, your next programme will incorporate the ideal exercises, sets & reps to improve yourself in this area.

It will be your personal discipline and desire to improve & succeed that will drive the results – no-one else can do it for you!

Richard Dryden

Olympic Weightlifting NZ Coach, Strength & Power Trainer