It happens every fall. Athletes spend the summer getting stronger, faster, and more confident. Then the season starts, practices and games take over the calendar, and the weight room quietly disappears. By the time playoffs roll around in late October and November, many of those summer gains have faded. Athletes feel slower, more beat up, and more vulnerable to the nagging injuries that tend to show up late in a season.
It doesn’t have to go that way. For high school athletes across Lake County and the North Shore, in-season strength training is one of the most effective ways to protect what they built in the offseason, stay healthy through a long schedule, and finish the year playing their best. At SPEAR Training Center in Vernon Hills, in-season programming is a core part of our sports performance training, and here’s why it matters.
What Happens When Athletes Stop Lifting During the Season
Strength has to be maintained. When training stops completely, strength and muscle mass start to slip over the following weeks, and power and speed usually follow. At the same time, the demands on the body go up: sprinting, cutting, jumping, landing, and absorbing contact several days a week.
That combination of less strength and more stress is where trouble starts. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are weaker than they were in August are being asked to absorb as much force as ever, or more. The result is the familiar late-season pattern: tight hamstrings, sore knees, cranky shoulders, and the feeling of running on empty.
Training in season helps maintain the integrity of those tissues so they can keep handling impact and absorbing force throughout competition. The goal is not to build something brand new in October. It is to keep what your athlete worked so hard for all summer.
What the Research Says About Lifting In Season
Parents sometimes worry that lifting during the season will leave athletes too sore or tired to compete. When training is planned well, the research tells a reassuring story.
A 12-week study of young elite female soccer players, published in Sports Medicine Open, found that adding two 30-minute strength sessions per week during the season improved physical fitness and was linked to far fewer non-contact injuries compared with players who did not strength train. A separate 2026 study of teenage female soccer players found that two moderate-intensity strength sessions per week increased maximal strength without raising blood markers of muscle damage or inflammation.
Larger reviews of adolescent team-sport athletes point the same direction. Injury prevention programs that combine strength, balance, jumping, and agility work, with special attention to the hamstrings and core, reduce injury rates, even when sessions are short. And a recent study on Nordic hamstring curls in youth soccer players found that a low-volume program improved change-of-direction performance more than higher-volume versions did.
That last finding captures the whole idea. In season, more is not automatically better. Smart, focused work wins. No study can promise any athlete a season without setbacks, but the overall picture is clear: well-designed in-season strength training helps athletes stay strong, fast, and resilient.
How In-Season Training Is Different From the Offseason
In-season training is not the summer program squeezed into a busier week. It is built differently on purpose.
- Lower volume, higher quality. Most athletes do well with one or two focused sessions per week, often 30 to 45 minutes. Fewer sets, crisp reps, and no junk volume.
- Keep the intensity, manage the fatigue. Strength is maintained by lifting moderately heavy loads with excellent technique, not by grinding every set to failure.
- Schedule around competition. The more demanding work lands early in the week, lighter priming work comes later, and nothing taxing happens the day before a game.
- Target the weak links. Hamstrings, adductors, glutes, the rotator cuff, the upper back, and the trunk take a beating during the season. Keeping them strong supports structural balance and healthier joints.
- Adjust to the athlete. Minutes played, sleep, soreness, travel, and school stress all shape what a given session looks like.
This is where structural balance really earns its place. Every sport creates its own repetitive patterns, and a long season magnifies them. A pitcher’s throwing shoulder, a soccer player’s dominant kicking leg, and a volleyball player’s landing mechanics all benefit from targeted work that keeps the body balanced while the sport keeps pulling it one direction.
What a Typical In-Season Week Can Look Like
Every SPEAR program is individualized, but here is an example of how a week might look for a fall athlete with a Friday night game:
- Early in the week: The main strength session. Lower- and upper-body strength work at moderate loads, plus hamstring and trunk exercises. Short, focused, and coached closely for technique.
- Midweek: A shorter session built around speed, power, and mobility. Think quality jumps, a few fast lifts, and accessory work for the shoulders and hips.
- The day before the game: Rest, light mobility, or a brief recovery session.
- After the game: Recovery first. Hydration, a good meal, sleep, and supporting therapies like Fascial Stretch Therapy can help athletes bounce back for the next week.
For athletes with two or three games a week, the plan shrinks accordingly. Sometimes the best in-season session is 25 minutes of high-quality work and then home to rest. Knowing when to back off is just as much a coaching skill as knowing when to push.
Don’t Forget the Basics: Food and Sleep
Strength training is only one piece of staying healthy in season. Many high school athletes simply don’t eat enough to match what they burn between school, practice, and games. Coach-education resources like Precision Nutrition emphasize simple, consistent habits over perfect plans: a palm-sized portion of protein at each meal, plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables, quality carbohydrates around training and games, and steady hydration throughout the day.
Sleep matters just as much. Teenagers generally need 8 to 10 hours a night, and a busy in-season schedule makes that hard to protect. Consistent bedtimes and less late-night screen time go a long way. At SPEAR, nutrition coaching and supplementation guidance are part of how we support athletes beyond the weight room, so families get practical advice that fits real schedules.
Winter Athletes: Your Preseason Is Right Now
If your athlete plays basketball, hockey, wrestling, or another winter sport, October is the window. Tryouts and early-season practices arrive quickly in November, and the strength, speed, and conditioning built over the next few weeks set the tone for the whole winter. Starting now also makes the transition into in-season training smoother once games begin.
Why Lake County Families Choose SPEAR for In-Season Training
SPEAR Training Center is located at 100 Corporate Woods Parkway in Vernon Hills, close to families in Libertyville, Mundelein, Lake Forest, Highland Park, Deerfield, Northbrook, and across Lake County and the North Shore. Parents choose SPEAR for in-season sports performance training because:
- Programs start with a structural balance assessment, so training targets each athlete’s real weak links.
- Strict form and coached technique are non-negotiable, especially when athletes are tired.
- Private and semi-private sessions (no more than four athletes per coach) keep coaching personal.
- Team training is available for high school and travel club teams who want to train together through the season.
- Recovery therapies are under the same roof, so training and recovery work as one plan.
Keep Your Athlete Strong Through the Final Whistle
The season is long, and the athletes who finish strongest are usually the ones who never stopped taking care of their bodies. If you want your athlete to stay strong, fast, and healthy from the first game to the last, SPEAR is here to help. Call us at 847-383-5719, email info@spear.training, or request an appointment online. Visit us at 100 Corporate Woods Parkway in Vernon Hills, and let’s build an in-season plan that fits your athlete’s sport and schedule.