The holidays and having time off are a great opportunity to unwind. A chance to give you a break mentally and physically from your sport and training. The constant grind of training can begin to feel like a chore the longer preseason continues. A small break will do you good, hopefully resetting your mindset and returning back to enjoying your training.
However, if you can still do some sessions while you're away it will help ensure you don't lose too much fitness. The amount of training you need to do to maintain your muscle or aerobic fitness is very minimal. With studies showing you only need to do around 1/9th of your regular training volume. Speed on the other hand does need to be trained regularly so if you can do one session a week or 1 or 2 max effort reps of 4-60m, that would be enough to maintain your top end speed.
Some body weight exercises and isometrics are a good alternative to weight training and can be completed anywhere you have free space.
The key message in terms of training is doing something is better than nothing. Find activities while you're away that you enjoy doing and are physical in nature, this might be surfing, paddle boarding, going for a bike ride, hiking etc.
Now with your nutrition, you shouldn't restrict yourself too much when you're away. Having a dessert or going out for dinner is perfectly fine, you just have to be a bit smarter with how often you're doing it.
Avoid doing it when eating at a buffet or out at a restaurant and try to limit it so not every meal is a takeaway. If you're not preparing the meal, you don't what's in it or what extra ingredients are being added to it, that may have extra calories.
Your eating shouldn't be something you're thinking about too much when you're away. We want to encourage a healthy relationship with food where you are allowed to enjoy it when you can and still eat to help facilitate your performance and body composition goals when you're in a normal routine.
The key message is that 2 weeks of holidays and having some dessert or take out isn't going to undo the other 50 weeks of hard work you've put in. It takes a lot of effort to get to the stage you're at and it won't be undone by going on a holiday.
For more information on strength and conditioning for youth athletes and increasing your sports performance, check out our website and podcast...also available on Spotify and YouTube!
Matt Hucul
Strength and Conditioning Coach
Inner Athlete - Bayside's premium strength and conditioning coaching for youth athletes
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