How to Train During Competition Season

A landmark meta-analysis by Suchomel et al. (2018) in Sports Medicine demonstrated that athletes who completely cease resistance training during a 6–8 week competition season lose an average of 12–18% of pre-season maximal strength — and that much of this detraining-related loss occurs in the first 3 weeks of cessation. More strikingly, teams that maintained just 1 heavy resistance training session per week retained over 90% of pre-season strength across a 12-week in-season period.

In-season training is not about gaining strength — it is about intelligently preserving what was built during pre-season while managing the additional physiological load of competition, travel, and psychological stress. This guide provides a framework for any team or individual sport athlete to structure in-season training that protects performance rather than compromising it.

The In-Season Training Paradox

Most coaches and athletes intuitively reduce strength training volume during the competitive season to avoid fatigue — and they are correct to do so. The paradox is that reducing volume without maintaining intensity leads to faster strength loss than many assume, while maintaining intensity with appropriately reduced volume can preserve nearly all pre-season adaptations.

The key variable is intensity. Detraining research consistently shows that a ≥10% decrease in maximal strength occurs when training intensity falls below approximately 60–65% of 1RM for more than 3–4 weeks — regardless of how many sets and reps are performed at that low intensity. Conversely, maintaining sets at ≥80% 1RM, even with a 60–70% volume reduction, preserves neuromuscular adaptations nearly completely (Zachwieja et al., 2001).

The practical implication: a strength session during competition season should be short (30–45 minutes), low volume (2–3 working sets per main lift), and moderately high intensity (80–90% 1RM or equivalent velocity zone).

Minimum Effective Dose to Retain Strength

Research establishes a clear minimum effective dose (MED) for in-season strength retention:

For team sport athletes (basketball, football, soccer), 2 sessions per week — typically Monday/Tuesday and Thursday — provides a superior maintenance stimulus compared to 1 session while remaining manageable within a congested fixture schedule. Individual sport athletes (powerlifters, track and field) competing weekly may need to reduce to 1 session during peak competition weeks.

Weekly Structure Around Competition Days

The timing of resistance training relative to competition is as important as the training itself. Heavy strength work in the 48 hours immediately preceding competition impairs explosive performance — vertical jump height decreases by an average of 3–6% at 24 hours post-heavy squat session (Cormack et al., 2008). Plan accordingly:

Single Competition per Week (e.g., weekend game)

• Monday: High-intensity strength session (main session of the week). Competition is 5 days away — sufficient recovery time.
• Wednesday: Maintenance session if two per week is the plan. Moderate intensity, lower volume. Technical work.
• Thursday–Friday: No resistance training. Sprint and skill work only.
• Saturday/Sunday: Competition.

Midweek + Weekend Competition

• Monday: Moderate-intensity strength session (not maximal — competing Wednesday).
• Tuesday: Active recovery or skill only.
• Wednesday: Competition.
• Thursday: Light movement, mobility.
• Friday: Competition preparation — no heavy strength training.
• Saturday/Sunday: Competition.

For congested schedules (3+ competitions/week), resistance training may need to be limited to a single 20–30 minute session on the day furthest from the most important competition, with the primary focus on CNS-activating work (2–3 heavy sets of a primary movement at 85–88% 1RM) rather than volume work.

Velocity Monitoring for Daily Readiness

The most significant in-season training error is executing a planned high-intensity session on a day when the athlete is genuinely under-recovered from competition — particularly in contact sports where neurological fatigue persists for 36–72 hours post-game even when subjective soreness has resolved.

A brief pre-training jump test and a velocity-based reference set provide objective readiness data that subjective RPE cannot reliably supply. Protocol:

1. Perform 3 countermovement jumps (CMJ) before the session. Record mean jump height.
2. Compare to the 5-session rolling average. A >5% CMJ decrease below average indicates residual neuromuscular fatigue.
3. Perform a 2-rep set at 75% 1RM on the main lift. Record mean concentric velocity.
4. If MCV is >5% below the established baseline, reduce planned top-set intensity by 5–8% and cap session volume at 80% of planned.

This protocol takes approximately 8–10 minutes and eliminates the guesswork of whether an athlete is ready for a high-quality session or should perform a reduced-intensity maintenance session instead.

Sport-Specific Considerations

Team Invasion Sports (Soccer, Basketball, Rugby)

Game-related physical load (GPS running distance, high-speed running volume, contact count) must be factored into the total weekly load calculation alongside weight training volume. Post-game neuromuscular fatigue peaks at 24–48 hours and dissipates by 72 hours in most players. For players accumulating >10 km GPS distance per game, the 48-hour post-game window is non-negotiable recovery time — no high-intensity resistance training during this period.

Powerlifting and Weightlifting

Meet frequency for competitive powerlifters ranges from 4–8 meets per year. Peaking for each meet involves a 2–3 week taper (volume reduction with maintained or increased intensity), making each "competition season" a 2–4 week window. Between meets, training reverts to preparatory phases. The key in-season principle applies during the taper: intensity goes up, volume comes down.

Track and Field (Throws, Sprints, Jumps)

Competitive track seasons can span 20+ weeks with weekly meets. Weight training transitions from strength development in winter to power maintenance in spring. Olympic lifting derivatives (power clean, hang snatch) replace maximal strength exercises as the season progresses — they maintain neuromuscular power without the 48–72 hour recovery requirement of near-maximal squats and deadlifts.

Nutrition and Recovery in Dense Schedules

In-season training produces a net catabolic environment when competition and training load is not matched by adequate nutritional support. The two evidence-supported nutritional priorities during competition season are carbohydrate periodization and protein distribution:

• Pre-competition carbohydrate: 5–7 g/kg body weight in the 24 hours preceding competition. Muscle glycogen stores directly affect high-intensity sprint and power output in the second half of competition (Burke et al., 2011).
• Post-game protein: 0.4 g/kg body weight of high-quality protein within 2 hours of competition, repeated every 3–4 hours for 12 hours. This dose-frequency pattern maximizes muscle protein synthesis and accelerates recovery of force production capacity.
• Sleep: Research in professional athletes shows that each hour below 8 hours of sleep reduces next-day power output by approximately 2–3% (Fullagar et al., 2015). During congested schedules, sleep optimization (timing, environment, napping) is frequently the highest-return recovery investment available.

Avoiding Overtraining During Long Seasons

Functional overreaching — a short-term performance decrement that reverses with 1–2 weeks of reduced load — is distinguishable from non-functional overreaching (2–6 weeks to resolve) and overtraining syndrome (months to resolve) primarily by its duration and associated symptoms. Early warning signs during competition season include:

• CMJ height below 5-session rolling average on 3 or more consecutive testing days
• Resting heart rate elevated >5 BPM above baseline for 3+ consecutive mornings
• Session RPE increasing for identical loads over 2 consecutive weeks
• Sleep quality degradation (reported) without change in sleep opportunity

When two or more of these signs appear simultaneously, an immediate 5–7 day load reduction (competition participation maintained, all training volume cut by 50%) is the most effective intervention. Attempting to "train through" these early warning signs converts functional overreaching into non-functional overreaching with high reliability.

The acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) provides an objective early-warning system: ACWR above 1.5 (this week's load is 50% higher than the 4-week rolling average) correlates with a 2–4 fold increase in injury risk even in professional athletes. During in-season, maintain ACWR between 0.8–1.3 by adjusting training load in response to competition load rather than ignoring game volume in total load calculations.