How Many Days Per Week Do Athletes Need To Train To Be Successful?
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“How many days per week should we train our athletes?” This is by far one of the most asked questions that I have been asked from coaches. As much as I would love to give you an exact number, there really isn’t any magic number. However, let me discuss how we view this question and how it can differ from athlete to athlete and season to season.
Context:
There must be context to this question. Just asking the basic question “how many days should we train” doesn’t allow for a true picture. Some followup questions we would ask would be:
What part of the season are you in?
What level are your athletes at in the weight room?
Do you have injuries?
What is your practice and/or game schedule like?
What is the school schedule like?
Do your athletes play other sports during this time?
Do you have access to a weight room and if so how many days per week and for how long?
What kind of equipment do you have?
These are only a few of the questions we would ask a coach when trying to program for their team or for the athlete themselves. Having context is the only thing that will truly allow us to create a proper training program to ensure the team and/or athlete is meeting their goals and needs.
What We Prefer:
In a “perfect” world we would train slightly differently depending on the season and the athlete’s level.
In-Season Training:
High School (Level 1-3) - typically we like to train 2 days per week with one day being a heavy lifting day and one day a lighter (bodyweight/mobility) style day.
High School/College (Level 3-5) - we prefer to do 3 days per week depending on their travel schedule. We would complete the same heavy and light workouts as the lower levels but we would add in another light day or just a full day of recovery/movement.
College/Pro (Levels 4-5) - With these athletes we would go as high as 4 or 5 days per week if possible, however, we would stick to the 2-3 training days and add in 2-3 movement/recovery days to target issues they may be having to ensure proper recovery for games.
Off-Season Training:
High School (Level 1-3) - During the off-season we would train 3 days per week with this level. Typically a 3-day program: Mon, Tues and Thursday. With high school kids, a Friday workout has never been successful so we balance it with back to back days at the beginning of the week. We would perform an upper/lower or push/pull split Mon and Tues and then a full body on Thurs.
High School/College (Level 3-5) - Once you hit this level, typically these athletes are wanting more. So we could move to a 4-day program on Mon/Tues and Thurs/Fri. However, depending on their schedules, we may stick to the same 3 day program above.
College/Pro (Levels 4-5) - We have done a bit of everything with this level from 3-day to 5-day programs. 5 days would include a lot of mobility/movement style work or extra plyo or power work, depending on the athlete’s goals.
Summer Training:
High School/College (Level 1-5) - We would train this group 4-days per week: Mon, Tues, Wed & Thurs. We typically do not train on Fridays during the summer with this group as many are out of town for sports or leisure. Balancing the workout can be tough but usually we would add in a circuit day during the week and stick to our off-season training schedule of back to back push/pull or lower/upper split with a full body power day to end the week.
College/Pro (Levels 4-5) - With this group, especially the Pro Group, we would train all 5 days. Again, this group is needing and wanting to do whatever it takes to take their game to the next level so we give them every opportunity we can. We would do 4 days of lifting and usually one day of circuit training outdoors. We may even throw in some sport specific work on those days as well.
One Day Per Week:
So, we all know the world isn’t perfect so many times the above schedule is thrown out the window when you start asking those questions. In the past, we have had many high school athletes that can only come in one day per week during the entire school year because they are a year-round athlete (which we actually prefer!) One day a week??? Yes, one day.
Can you even accomplish anything with only one day per week? The answer is absolutely! Our strongest female athlete we ever trained only trained one day per week during the school year for 5 years (8th grade-12th grade.) During the summer we would only get her for maybe half the time because of travel ball. However, when she came to the gym she worked her tail off and almost never missed a day during the school year. She progressed faster in almost every progression chart and finished her senior high school year by performing 7 chin-ups with a 70lb kettlebell around her waist and would hang clean 185lbs (not power clean.)
Would we have wanted to train her more? Absolutely! However, with school and sports we felt it was best for her to only do one day per week to ensure she was recovering properly for her games and continuing to make progress in our gym.
Action Items:
Ask yourself some of the questions above and answer without any bias. If you find that your athletes all are year-round athletes, maybe utilizing a one-day program is just what they need to be successful. However, if your team is primarily single or even double sport athletes, then a more traditional approach could be beneficial as well. Always remember that quality is more important than quantity.
