By PAUL YOST ©Copyright-2009 Houston5ABaseball.com

Hopefully, you've used the off-season (if you had one) to build up an appreciable amount of size, strength and power to keep your body healthy and performing well. If not, the in-season period for a high school athlete doesn't necessarily need to be in-season work (maintenance). Yes, you can make positive gains during the in-season period as long as you minimize risk. If you're smart and consistent with your training, you can definitely make some positive gains during the season.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the word "maintenance", because this typically means slacking off in the gym. I've heard it used as an excuse from multiple athletes and I feel it's just used as an excuse to be lazy. Some may have a good reason, but most don't, and I'm a "majority" thinker. Anyway, the immediate and end result from this thought process is: faster rates of size, strength and power loss, leading to reduced performance and greater potential for injury. So, in effort to keep you playing and performing your best, I've come up with this to do list:

In-Season Training Program Essentials

1. Focus On The Basics - Spend your time on the big basic movements. This means squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc. and de-emphasize smaller muscle work even more than usual to economize your time. Some exercises may be warranted, but the majority of your time should be spent in this fashion.

2. Reduce Training Frequency - I'd rather this not happen, but a schedule can make it impossible to maintain a high training frequency. If this is you, switch from upper/lower splits to total body or reduce the number of total body workouts performed during the week.

3. Keep It Short - Your workouts shouldn't take that long to begin with, but you can, and probably should, reduce time spent in the gym. This means keeping workout time under an hour and preferably closer to 30 minutes.

4. Get In, Work Hard, Get Out - I use this phrase a lot with my clients to emphasize the main point of training. You're wasting your time if you don't put in a lot of effort. This doesn't mean using weight that you cannot control and throwing technique out the window. This means still using challenging loads, but possibly with lower volume of work (sets). Obviously, the beginner and injured athlete are exceptions to the rule.

5. Rest And Recover - This may sound a bit contradictory to my recommendations, but you cannot keep intensity high without facilitating appropriate recovery. This means getting enough rest and using appropriate means to speed the process in the form of sleep, nutrition and supplementation.

Conclusion