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.
Latest posts by Lisa Guggisberg (see all)
- Lisa Guggisberg: Offseason Bench Day - July 16, 2018
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- LISA GUGGISBERG-OFFSEASON BENCH & SQUATS - June 22, 2018
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