Your triathlon season is probably coming to a close. Perhaps you have a winter run scheduled or maybe you are getting ready to move indoors as the weather gets colder. Before jumping on your trainer or treadmill for the winter and pulling out the same off-season plan, come and talk to the Atlas Fitness team about how we can build a program for your off-season. A stronger, more flexible you will be a better performing and injury resistant athlete come spring.
What are the most important criteria for off-season training?
Tim Bruffy, Atlas Fitness Owner: All athletes can benefit from organizing their goals throughout the seasons. Identify goals that are attainable for each individual season while creating long term goals that can only be reached through successful completions of seasonal goals. This approach is called periodization. For example, the next 2-3 months can be used to establish a very solid strength and mobility plan for 2014 race preparation. The goals would be to build a stronger, more flexible and stable body that would ultimately help reduce over-use injuries in-season.
Rob Munn, Atlas Fitness Personal Trainer and Powerlifting Coach: Triathletes should use the off-season to focus on building overall strength, improving joint stability, incorporating more lateral movement and increasing their overall agility. This is a key part of our training for endurance athletes at Atlas Fitness. Not only do we believe this reduces the risk of injuries, but we find it to be a key component of success in elite athletes. Many athletes lose strength during the season and begin to build muscular imbalances. Pay special attention to these issues in the off-season, and then incorporate a maintenance program in-season to your sport specific training.
Eric Casper, Atlas Fitness Personal Trainer and Endurance Sport Coach: In addition to an effective strength program, don’t forget to build the core through strengthening and stretching the appropriate muscle groups. The core can be an ambiguous area of the body to identify. Atlas Fitness defines the core as the foundation of the body where power and stability are transferred between the lower and upper body. The less stable a person’s foundation, or core is, the less efficient that person’s movements will be or greater the risk will be for increased injury. As triathletes, you are constantly reminded to engage your core – this creates a better swim position, you can bike with less pain in your back and shoulders, and your running suddenly becomes more efficient.
Blanton Brown, Certified Nutritional Consultant: In the off-season many athletes are left physically and mentally exhausted and, perhaps, may continue consuming “in-season” caloric needs as their “off-season” caloric expenditures become much less. They may gain weight and not-so-good weight if off-season training doesn’t include a solid off-season nutritional maintenance and strength training program. Over time, fluctuating weight gain and loss can put individuals at risk to adrenal fatigue and many other serious health problems. There is no off-season for nutrition. You should never quit being an athlete. Maintaining this approach will make you more successful in your sport, all your recreational activities, and every day of your life. Schedule a consultation to discuss how a proper nutritional plan can keep you making gains both in- and off-season.
Where should an endurance athlete’s off-season training start?
The biggest mistake an athlete or competitor can make in the off-season is in believing they have what it takes to manage their seasonal race and event training on their own. The Atlas Fitness approach is modeled after the level of care, effort, and knowledge provided by the support teams of collegiate and professional athletic organizations. Begin your off-season by attending our free strength training class tailored specifically for endurance athletes or scheduling a consultation with the Atlas Fitness Triathlon Coach, Eric Casper. With the expert lead of Eric Casper, Rob Munn, Blanton Brown and Tim Bruffy, the programs at Atlas Fitness WILL improve biomechanical efficiency, performance, body composition, and reduce the risk of injury in the linear movements of running, cycling and swimming.
The Atlas Fitness approach is modeled after the level of care, effort, and knowledge provided by the support teams of collegiate and professional athletic organizations. Begin your off-season by attending our free strength training class tailored specifically for endurance athletes or scheduling a consultation with the Atlas Fitness Triathlon Coach, Eric Casper. With the expert lead of Eric Casper, Rob Munn, Blanton Brown and Tim Bruffy, the programs at Atlas Fitness WILL improve biomechanical efficiency, performance, body composition, and reduce the risk of injury in the linear movements of running, cycling and swimming.