Close your eyes and picture your perfect season. Are you imagining yourself lifting the Seth Armitage Memorial League trophy? Are you pressing your lips against the warm, scratched plastic? Well, if you are, you’d better put that pint down and get to work.
There’s no time for sitting on your backside this off-season. If you want to be tasting glory next May you had better start conditioning your body for pre-season now, says Brock Christopher, performance director at Michael Johnson Performance – who specialise in pre-season preparation camps.
“The off-season is not an excuse for an athlete to do nothing,” explains Christopher. “Within the first week of the off-season, muscle strength decreases approximately one per cent
per day and your fitness declines by five per cent.”
To make sure your body doesn’t melt away like an ice cream in the sun you’ve got to “train smart”.
By following the right training programme you’ll reduce risk of injury, improve your ability to recover between sessions, boost fitness and shed body fat, insists Christopher.
“Train three days a week and incorporate a mixture of long aerobic runs, change-of-direction drills and shuttles with some sprint training at distances of 20-30 metres and recovery strategies. It’s like investing money in the bank to cash in upon later in the season.”
So, what are you waiting for? Get to it!
For more information on Michael Johnson Performance go to www.mjpgb.com or contact Brock@michaeljohnsonperformance.com
