Goals for the Off-Season

Why Is the Off-Season the Perfect Time to Alter My Body Composition?

Are you an athlete that is currently heading into their off-season? As we enter summer, many sports, such as football, rugby, netball, and hockey, are entering their off season. If you are, then now is the perfect time to alter your body composition. Continue reading to find out why this is the perfect time and how you can go about doing this. 

What is body composition and why is it important?

 Body composition refers to the overall make up your body, including your height, mass, muscle mass, and fat mass. You can alter your muscle mass and fat mass through training and nutrition in order to provide you with the greatest competitive advantage in your sport. 

 Whatever sport you play, your body composition will have a huge impact upon your overall performance. Whether you’re a footballer looking to reduce their fat mass so you can run around more within games; a rugby player looking to increase your muscle mass to be more dominant with your collisions; a netballer trying to reduce fat mass so you can be more agile; or a hockey player looking to increase muscle mass so you can sprint faster, altering your body composition will allow your performance to improve.

If you’re unsure if you need to alter your body composition for performance then click here to view my body composition services.

NB. These are just examples of how alterations in body composition can improve performance, everyone’s goals are independent to them as sport is not a one size fits all environment.

Why is now the perfect time?

There are many stages to the season for most team sports, and these are in a constant cycle from year to year. As one season finishes players enter the off-season, then pre-season to prepare for the actual season ahead. 

The off-season is a perfect opportunity to alter body composition, due to the unique freedom it provides. There are no restrictions put in place to maximise performance.  This is a rare opportunity in sport to focus on body composition rather than acute performance. As a result, there is a chance to alter calorie intake and the type of training you are taking part in. 

During the season putting on muscle mass can be difficult for 2 reasons:

1.     It can be difficult to eat sufficient calories to allow for performance, recovery, and muscle growth and repair

To put on muscle mass, it is recommended to be in a calorie surplus as this helps with the rate of muscle growth (Aragon & Schoenfeld, 2020). Due to the demands of training sessions and playing matches, it can be extremely difficult to eat sufficient calories to put yourself into a surplus. Therefore, any progress is going to be slow or stopped completely. 

2.     The extra resistance training required may not allow sufficient recovery to occur and cause performance to reduce due to a lack of recovery

To increase muscle mass, resistance training is required (Schoenfeld, 2010). This extra training on top of the other demands in season may be too much to recover from without impacting performance. If you start a match without fully recovering from the weeks training, then your physical performance will be reduced, and your chances of injury will be increased. 

Trying to reduce fat mass during the season can result in reduced performance. 

To lose weight you are required to enter a calorie deficit (Finkler et al., 2012). This means you are eating fewer calories than you are burning. This reduction in calories will lead to poorer recovery from training sessions and fuelling for matches. You need calories in order to provide energy during matches, without these extra calories you will feel fatigued earlier, and performance will reduce. 

How can you alter your body composition?

In order to gain muscle mass in the off-season you need to eat and train properly. Your diet should be high in protein and have sufficient calories to support muscle development. You should follow a hypertrophy-based exercise program to provide the stimulus the muscle requires. 

To lose fat mass you must be in a calorie deficit, this can be created through your nutrition as well as your lifestyle and exercise habits. 

The off-season is the perfect time to do this as you have the time to carry out the appropriate training and have no performance requirements to influence your nutritional intake. 

As we enter off-season for many sports, is now the time for you to change your body composition?

Would your performance benefit from a change in body composition?

If you answered yes to both those questions, then please get in touch so I can advise you on the best way to achieve your goals.  

About the Author.