20 Nov Balance the Unbalanced: The Importance of Having an Offseason

By Lisa Guggisberg

For me offseason is a time to return to a “normal” life.  My mindset changes from meet prep mode during offseason and I balance my life scales.  As Brian discusses in 10/20/Life “to be great at anything you have to be a little bit unbalanced”.  For me I become selfish and get tunnel vision during meet prep.  As awful as it, is I steal time away from my family during meet prep and I know that wears on them. So for me offseason is essential, it’s time to balance myself, evaluate where I am at in my lifting, decide where I want to go and most importantly give back some time I take away to my family.  With that said I don’t let offseason go to waste, it is just simply a time to turn down the intensity and rebalance myself.

[wa-wps]

Here are a few musts for a successful offseason and why offseason is so important.

1.      Spend time with your family

Not only do I sacrifice things during meet prep but so does my family.  I am fortunate that I have a family that supports me and my goals but my goals are not their goals.  I get pretty selfish during meet prep and become a grouchy hermit.  Offseason is time to put my lifting a little lower on the priority list and take the extra training time I spend during meet prep on my family.  This means if I miss a day of training to spend it with my kids it’s no big deal. I’ll make it up during the week or worse case scenario I just skip a training session. I did it this past week and the world didn’t stop; crazy isn’t it? Offseason is the time to plan vacations and activities. It’s time to be “normal”.

2.      Attack your weak points

Offseason I hammer my weak points.  A lot of times I don’t see weak points until I have done a meet or two but by then it’s too late to fix them.  I take what I learned during meets and address issues I need to correct during offseason.  Addressing my weak points during offseason means coming into meet prep time stronger and more prepared.  This leads me to my next point.

3.      Address form issues

Dean Guedo is a perfect example of this.  He knew he had form issues that needed to addressed but he was too close to meets to break his form down and build it back up.  You don’t want to completely change your form two weeks before a meet, minor tweaks you can get away with but for any major changes stay the course and save your rebuilding work for the offseason.  You may have to take a few steps back in strength to correct which is why you do it in the offseason. 

4.      Reset your body

Think like a professional athlete, NFL players have an offseason to let their bodies repair from the damage done during the regular season.  So should you, meet prep is grueling, hard on the body and mind.  Listen to your body and know when to push and when not to push. You can’t go balls to the walls and blow your load year round; those that do will have a short lived lifting career.     

5.      Experiment

Offseason is the time to try a new diet, a new training schedule, new supplements, etc. Offseason is the appropriate time to try new things, see what works and doesn’t work.  You don’t want to do any crazy experimentation during meet prep as you run the risk of having a shitty meet and wasting an entire meet prep.  I cringe when I see powerlifters deep into meet prep who try a Crossfit workout for fun or decide to take up MMA, its just too risky of a chance of sustaining an injury by introducing new movements the body is not use to.  Save the fun for offseason.

Offseason isn’t a time to not train for an extended length of time, it’s simply time to back off on the intensity and rebalance your life.   Don’t redline your body and training year round. Going “hard” year round will eventually break you and potentially your family and friends.

Want to know more about offseason work and deloads? Get the 10/20/Life e book here.

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Lisa Guggisberg

A self-proclaimed former high school band nerd turned meathead nerd, Lisa has been coached and mentored by Brian Carroll using 10/20/Life principals for 3 years. She started CrossFiting in 2006 but gave that up after realizing all she wanted to do was squat, bench and deadlift heavy. She now competes as a raw and multi-ply powerlifter in the 114 and 123 weight classes. Lisa has All-Time top 10 totals in both raw and multi-ply in her respective weight classes with a raw pro total of 936 lbs at 114 and a pro 1118 lb multi-ply pro total at 123 and 1090 lb multi-ply total at 114. She is currently ranked the #1 female multi-ply lifter at 123, #2 at 114 multi-ply female and #3 raw with wraps. Lisa has a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration, but hates politics and political debates. She is a mom of two, a firefighter wife and has worked as a full time litigation paralegal for almost 20 years.

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