If you’re reading this, hopefully you’re an ATS athlete who’s ALL IN on training this in-season. You’ve read the 3 part blog leading up to this 4th installment just for you so you know WHY training in-season is so important and you’re DEDICATED to making it GO, BUT of course you’re not sure exactly how to navigate it. So in this 4th installment, I’ll outline OPTIMAL scheduling, recovery studio usage, AND why it’s so important to have a coach in-season.
OPTIMAL SCHEDULING
This may be the most important part of a successful in-season program. It’s all about establishing RHYTHM (consistency) and pushing past some perceived barriers. Your time is now going to be more precious than ever. You’ll still have to balance your school work WHILE practicing everyday and playing 3-5 games per week. I’m not saying getting in the gym to train is EASY but it is SIMPLE and WORTH IT. Optimal in-season training schedule is 3 days per week. Usually laid out like one of the following:
Monday ,Tuesday ,Thursday
Monday, Tuesday, Friday
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
I STRESS Monday’s as the first lift for a plethora of reasons, the most important of which being that it establishes your rhythm and checks one of your three workouts off first thing.
Starting pitchers should look to do their first lift of the week the NIGHT they pitch or the next day and run their schedule based off of that. Position players simply need to establish a rhythm, much the same as bullpen arms.
So you may be looking at zenplanner now and thinking “I can’t make the 6:30 or 7:30pm from school” I totally understand that. Two things to be aware of, in-season we’ll be opening up a late night session so guys can get their training in. M-H we’ll have an 8:30PM session and on Fridays we’ll have a 7:30pm session. This takes out any and all excuses regarding session times, YOU CAN MAKE IT.
The next hurdle to jump however is going to be personal energy and desire. If you want to be GREAT (which isn’t for everyone) you’ll get into the gym 3x per week. If you want to be GOOD you’ll find a way in 2x per week. In terms of energy we have a host of metrics both objective and subjective to measure your readiness for training and we’ll be responding to those daily. If your body is telling us it’s beat up and can’t go: we’ll focus on movement quality and recovery, if you and your body are amped up and energized we’ll train as appropriate. That monitoring and adjusting programming we call “reactive coaching” which is one of the many reasons it’s SO important to continue training with me, your coach, in-season. Myself and my team are constantly trying to educate you on how to advocate for yourselves in terms of training, nutrition, and recovery BUT especially when it comes to in-season training it’s important to have a professional in the passenger seat with you to help work around the bumps and bruises, establish in-season training peaks, and manage fatigue while still getting better!
RECOVERY STUDIO
So as you may or may not know we’ve recently invested close to $20K into our BRAND NEW Recovery Studio here at ATS. The recovery studio features normatech pneumatic compression therapy options, heat and vibration therapy options, MarcPro E-Stim therapy options, and even an infrared sauna. Memberships are currently on sale for our ATS members to add a Recovery Studio membership to their arsenal for only $25/MONTH. Yes, you read that correctly. To get up to 9x monthly access to the recovery studio, for you an ATS athlete, its $25/MONTH for the time being. That is our founding members price point and once we hit 15 members in our recovery studio that price will go up.
I want to outline best practice for your 9x usage of the recovery studio per month. In terms of WHICH modality best fits you, I can provide some specific recommendations for you as an individual, but in terms of VISITS to the recovery studio. I’d plan those out AFTER your scheduled training sessions. Position players once after your first visit of the week and then once after your third visit of the week (If and when possible). Starting pitchers your outing day should go: pitch, train, RECOVERY STUDIO and then your third visit of the week may be another good time to use the studio.
It’s important to understand that the use of modalities like the recovery studio offers can greatly amplify your ability to recover in-season WHEN you’re doing everything else you need to do: training, eating well, hydrating, and practicing and improving all of your dimensions of recovery.
HOW TO HACKS:
Now the in-season is going to be here before you know it, so I want to give you some tangible “hacks” to set up for success in-season.
Every SUNDAY look at your schedule for games and practices upcoming, also refer to your academic calendar and see what big assignments or tests are upcoming. After you’ve done this lay out your training schedule for the week by signing up for the 3 sessions you want on zenplanner and booking your zenplanner slots for the recovery studio.
Every SUNDAY bulk cook 5 monster mashes, just ask if you need the recipe, and everyday before school heat them up and put them in a thermos food jar. This way everyday you have at LEAST one GREAT meal on deck and ready to eat.
Every morning and night take 5 minutes to write in your gratitude journal. If you don’t have one they’re $5 on amazon and worth 10x that amount for your mental space and clarity.
-CJ Appenzeller, MS