Fitness Training Program

Here’s a fitness training program for young athletes to take their fitness to the next level. Get ready for the sports season ahead and get in the best shape of your life with these Offseason Workouts Fitness.

This training plan will help young athletes develop speed, agility, strength, acceleration, and first-step quickness, which are essential in almost every sport.

Get in shape for the season ahead. One of the big advantages of this program is that you can complete it at home or a nearby park. There’s no need to drive across town.

18 carefully designed fitness workouts

A step-by-step breakdown of activities for this fitness training program.
Activities rotate from one to the next quickly to keep players interested and for the aerobic benefit.
It is designed for either six weeks with three sessions or nine weeks with two sessions each week. During the sessions, kids participating in a sport frequently find the nine-week time period works best. It is a fitness training program that gets you in shape.
E-book format. Print off the sheets you need and follow along for each workout, or follow along on your smartphone.

Each workout includes an inspirational story and quote.

Before each workout, we recommend players read the stories and quotes.

Life lessons like overcoming obstacles, treating people with respect, and the power of having a positive attitude are reinforced.

Information young athletes should know.

What type of players are these workout plans designed for?

Ages 10 – 17 years old – both boys and girls.

If the 66-minute time period is too long or the activities are too challenging for younger players, we suggest shortening the sessions to 30 or 45 minutes in length. To reduce the time, you can choose from the middle activities while maintaining the warm-up and ending activities.

Training Plans for Youth Athletes: Design Considerations

Some of the thinking that went into the overall workout plan and each plan include:

Aerobic fitness. Aerobic fitness, or cardio, is often the essential fitness that must be achieved to improve conditioning abilities. Exercise lasting more than two minutes is considered aerobic and includes almost all sporting activities.
Strengthening. You can take your game to the next level by performing basic, total body strengthening workouts. Being stronger does not simply mean pushing people around; it also increases speed and athleticism.
Core strength and stability. Having six-pack abs does not mean you have a strong core. The core muscles include all muscles that stabilize the spine from the hip to the shoulder level. Exercises to improve core strength are crucial for athletes because the core is where power comes from.
Footwork. To improve speed and agility, you must be efficient in your footwork. You lose speed and agility if you are wasting steps when changing direction or accelerating.

Get Fit

Plyometrics. Plyometrics is an exercise that gives the muscles involved a specific action in improving that muscle’s ability to switch from an eccentric contraction to a concentric contraction. It teaches your muscles to activate more quickly, increasing speed and power.
Shift activities quickly. Moving from one activity to the next fast keeps players interested and enables them to work on many different skill sets.
Increase difficulty over time. Some of the fitness drills will become progressively more difficult. Initially, we want athletes to grow accustomed to using different muscles, and then, as the plan progresses, we’ll ask for more repetitions or longer periods.
Feedback from results. Progression can be observed by logging sets, reps, time, distance, and other results tracking statistics. Use these results to compare to earlier workouts and see your progression. Review previous results to try and beat last times, distances, etc.

Mix it up

Change exercises from day to day. Rotating through different exercises between days keeps the routine fresh and keeps it from getting boring. It also helps avoid a “plateau” effect, where you stop improving because you do the same daily exercise.
This plan is designed for individuals but can be used with a bigger group. One player can complete the activities for these off-season workouts on their own. However, workouts can be more fun with a partner or two, and these plans will accommodate that. A whole team could work together if there is enough area and enough equipment.
Plans were designed for healthy kids who have played sports before. If you have concerns about having your child participate in this program from a health perspective, consult your physician. Kids should bring a water bottle with them and drink water as needed.

Why are offseason workouts important?

Start the season in great shape. By starting the season in shape, you put yourself in a great position to focus on the sport rather than constantly catching your breath.
Improve speed, power, and agility. The offseason is when athletic ability improves. Work on improving these components, and then use the regular season to apply them to sport-specific activities. For example, basketball players should enhance their first-step explosion in the offseason and then use it during the regular season to focus on exploding off the dribble.
Your team’s coaches don’t have enough time to improve all fitness components. Usually, practices involve some conditioning, and players are encouraged or required to do weight training at higher levels. However, coaches do not have enough time to improve each player’s speed, power, agility, and overall strength. Use the offseason to help the coach and yourself come to practice with improved abilities.

Be ready for the season.

Repetition. In the offseason, you have all the time you want to improve. If you notice something is going wrong, you can work on it. Slow it down to ensure you are doing it properly, then take as many repetitions as possible to perfect it.
This is especially important for the footwork during activities; if your footwork is off, slow it down, perfect it, and then work up to full speed. You cannot be expected to do everything perfectly on the first try, but you will improve with more repetitions.
Decrease the risk of injury. The better shape you are in, and the safer strain your muscles, tendons, and ligaments have had on them, the better the body is prepared to keep from injury.
It provides a platform to strengthen weaknesses and build on strengths. Individual workouts can be tailored to work on the areas specific to a player’s strengths and weaknesses.
It’s a relaxed environment where no one is watching. Individual workouts enable players to take risks without fear of evaluation or criticism. Sometimes, by taking chances and some risks, players improve their abilities.

About the Author

Nolan McMonagle, who holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Central Washington University, has worked alongside a physical therapist on a professional indoor football team. In addition to helping treat players’ injuries, he also put them through exercise programs to enhance their performance on the field. A basketball coach and author, he also co-wrote MVP Offseason Workouts for Youth Basketball.

Digital Download Available Immediately

Upon purchase, you’ll receive a PDF – this product is a digital download. The PDF works on Macs and PCs – ensure you have your computer’s latest version of Adobe Reader (available for free). The PDF lets you print out pages you want when needed.

The sample plan for this fitness training program includes an inspirational story and agenda explaining activities. Note that the size is 8.5″ x 11″ for convenient printing.

Appendix items for this fitness training program provide additional details on the workouts.

MVP Offseason Workouts for Fitness — $21.95

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