It’s cool to do the exercises and drills pro athletes post but no one seems to want to actually train the way these athletes train.

Training isn’t about the workout you perform next; its about the way your last workout impacts your next workout, its about how the progress you make this week affects the plan for next week, its about sequencing your training so when you return to your sport you have taken care of old injuries and you have improved your speed, agility and strength.

You see a pro athlete performing a set of heavy squats or cleans and you assume if she or he does it, so should you. What you don’t know is why she is performing the exercise at this point in the offseason. What you don’t ask is what did she do yesterday. You don’t know how injuries from the previous season impacted her offseason training. Basically, you see an athlete performing an exercise but you have no idea why. The “why” is what separates training from working out.

Most pro athletes will begin their offseason training by rehabbing old injuries and performing lower intensity exercises to prep their bodies for the more intense training to come. Heavy strength work will start to pick up after the prep period and will become more intense as the offseason continues. As the season nears, the training emphasis might switch to more of a power and speed emphasis. Strength is an underlying driver of speed and power, so athletes will build strength and then use that strength to drive speed and power improvements before athletes return to their sports.

Their training schedules don’t change. Monday and Tuesdays are lifting days, Wednesday is an active recovery day, Thursday and Fridays are lifting days. Saturdays and Sundays are rest days.  They lift then they go home and fuel up/recover for the next workout. They don’t throw in extra, random workouts during the week because they know that recovery between workouts is crucial.
They don’t change up the workouts because they understand that what they do today affects tomorrow’s workout. They recognize that each week builds on the previous week. They recognize that training isn’t about todays workout, it’s about how todays workout affects what will happen on the final workout of the offseason.

If you want to train like a pro, you need to have a plan.