Once the season starts, the schedule fills up quickly. Between practices, games, school, and travel, it is easy to let strength training fall off the calendar.
My view is simple: the strength an athlete worked to build before the season is worth maintaining during it. That does not mean adding hard workouts just to do more. It means keeping an appropriate amount of purposeful strength work in the week.
There are two reasons to make room for it: maintaining physical qualities that support performance, and helping reduce certain injury risks. Neither requires us to promise that training will make an athlete injury-proof.
Keep the strength you worked to build
Playing a sport and training for strength are different demands. Practices and games do not necessarily provide the same stimulus as a planned strength session.
In a small study of 14 male professional soccer players, Rønnestad and colleagues compared strength training once a week with once every two weeks during the first 12 weeks of the season. The weekly group maintained its preseason gains in strength and sprint performance; the every-other-week group lost ground in those measures. [1]
That study measured performance, not injuries, and professional soccer players are not the same population as every young athlete we coach. Still, it gives us a useful example of how a modest, consistent training commitment can help maintain strength during a season. It does not establish one session a week as the right prescription for everyone.
What does the research say about injury risk?
One useful example comes from Petersen and colleagues. They studied 942 male soccer players across 50 teams. The intervention group completed a progressive 10-week Nordic hamstring exercise program, followed by weekly training during the season. The comparison group followed its usual training. Researchers recorded 15 acute hamstring injuries in the intervention group versus 52 in the comparison group. [2]
That is evidence for a particular strengthening program and a particular injury outcome. Because the program included both a build-up phase and ongoing seasonal work, we cannot credit the in-season portion alone. We also cannot assume that any gym workout will produce the same result in every sport.
The broader research supports taking strength work seriously. A 2018 systematic review and meta-analysis by Lauersen and colleagues included six studies with 7,738 participants and found fewer injuries in the strength-based intervention groups. The programs, populations, and injuries differed, so the finding is not a universal prediction for an individual athlete. [3]
Reducing risk is different from eliminating it
We cannot prevent every awkward landing, collision, or unexpected moment in sport. No honest training program can guarantee an injury-free season.
The aim is to help athletes stay physically prepared for the demands they face. Maintaining muscular strength is one part of that preparation. The studies above support structured training programs; they do not prove that stronger muscles, by themselves, explain every reduction in injury risk.
That is why I would rather talk about helping reduce risk than promising to prevent injuries. Training should also account for the athlete’s practice load, recovery, and any existing injury.
In-season training should fit the season
At Warrior Sports Performance, my approach is to look at the athlete’s whole week before deciding what belongs in a session. A week with several games calls for a different decision from a lighter week.
That can mean doing fewer sets, keeping familiar exercises, or adjusting when the session takes place. We can keep the work meaningful without making soreness or exhaustion the goal. A busy athlete needs a manageable plan, not another competition in the weight room.
A player who has been lifting regularly can build on that experience. An athlete who is new to strength training needs a gradual starting point, even if the season is already underway. Persistent pain or an existing injury calls for appropriate assessment and coordination with the athlete’s healthcare professional.
Consistency matters more than a complicated workout
The practical message for athletes and parents is to keep strength training in the conversation when the season begins. Talk with your coaches about where it fits, what needs to be maintained, and how to adjust it as the schedule changes.
You do not need to chase personal records every week. You need a clear reason for the work and an amount the athlete can recover from.
If you would like help building an in-season training plan, contact Warrior Sports Performance in Norfolk, MA, at info@warriorsportsperformance.com. Bring us the practice and game schedule, and we can talk through a practical starting point.
Research referenced
[1] Rønnestad BR, Nymark BS, Raastad T. Effects of in-season strength maintenance training frequency in professional soccer players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011;25(10):2653–2660.
[2] Petersen J, Thorborg K, Nielsen MB, Budtz-Jørgensen E, Hölmich P. Preventive effect of eccentric training on acute hamstring injuries in men’s soccer: a cluster-randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2011;39(11):2296–2303.
[3] Lauersen JB, Andersen TE, Andersen LB. Strength training as superior, dose-dependent and safe prevention of acute and overuse sports injuries: a systematic review, qualitative analysis and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018;52:1557–1563.