Winter is Coming… North Hemi Off-season strength training starts November 2th, 2020

The Off-Season Strength Training Program starts now! If you are part of the Paddle Monster Family, it means you are passionate about paddling. Perhaps you are competitive and your main goal is to win races. Maybe you are time-limited and you thrive under the guidance and structure of a professionally designed program. Or it could just be that you strive to become the best version of you, constantly improving your fitness with the sport you love. Regardless of your reasons for being a Paddle Monster, there is something for everyone. If you are new to the community, welcome to the team! This is a great starting point for taking your training to the next level.

The Off-Season Strength Training Program

This time of year one of two things happens (and sometimes even both if you are lucky enough!). You are forced off the water due to cold weather, or you have finished your last race and are looking forward to next season already. Either way, it doesn’t mean you should stop training. Now is the time to turn your focus and efforts into off-water strength and conditioning. This is one part of the Paddle Monster training program that sets it apart from anything else out there. If you are wondering why off-season strength and conditioning is important for paddling, check out this article I wrote in a previous winter that is pretty in-depth on the topic.

Not only will strength and conditioning help you with your training and racing, but it will greatly help you in preventing injuries. By increasing the capacity of your muscle, bone, and connective tissue to handle the load, it means you do more activities of daily living AND training with a lower risk of injury. By increasing your strength you increase the margin of safety, the amount of stress those tissues can handle. This can also carry over into other aspects of your daily living, as strength is one of the physical qualities that deteriorates most as we age, yet is so important for a long and healthy, active lifestyle.

The Off-season gives us a period of approximately 4 months to prioritize strength training without worrying about all of the on-water training, racing, and its interference with adaptations. Endurance and strength both fight against each other when doing high volumes of both, and during race season obviously paddling takes priority. 4 months of a structures program that focuses on one strength quality at a time allows us to dig in and make some meaningful changes.

When it Starts

The Off-season program will begin on Nov 2^th with the first block of the Winter Strength Program. This will give those of you who raced Chattajack at the end of the virtual race window a week off, but if you need a second week of time away take it as you need it. Recovery from a long season is the first step to building success for the next season.

If you did the Off-season program last year, move up a difficult level. So Novice > Intermediate, and Intermediate > Advanced, Advanced > Elite.

Put in the work now and it will pay dividends to come next race season! Looking forward to seeing those gains!

Chris

Not a Paddle Monster Coaching Client?  Join today – check out our strength and fitness training programs here!