Building the Physical Qualities That Support Next Season

We are right in the middle of Junior and Open State Championships, a time of the year where many of you are either preparing for races or have just come off an important competition weekend. 

For some athletes, the focus now shifts toward the final part of the season as you prepare for National Championships. Others may have already completed most of their racing. 

Either way, this is a good moment to keep thinking ahead. 

While your focus right now is still on performing well in the remaining competitions, it is worth beginning conversations with your personal coach about what the next phase of training might look like once your final race of the season is complete. 

Last month’s newsletter focused on how the off-season is typically structured, outlining the different phases athletes move through once competition ends. 

This month, we want to go a step further. 

Instead of only thinking about the structure of the off-season, it is important to start thinking about what physical qualities you may want to improve during that period and how those qualities might be built into your training plan. 

What Do You Want To Improve? 

A useful starting question for every athlete is simple: 

“What physical quality do I need to improve before next season?” 

For some athletes the answer might be strength. For others it might be speed, body composition, movement quality or general capacity. Trying to improve everything at once rarely works. Progress usually comes from targeting one or two clear qualities and allowing the body the time and stimulus required to adapt. 

Hypertrophy - Building Muscle That Supports Force Production 

Some athletes will use the off-season to increase lean muscle mass. 

Muscle hypertrophy occurs when resistance training places the muscle fibres under sufficient mechanical tension and metabolic stress. This stimulates muscle protein synthesis, which over time increases the size and density of the muscle fibres. 

In simple terms: 

• more contractile tissue allows greater force potential 

• larger muscle fibres create greater force output capacity 

For track and field athletes, hypertrophy should always be purpose driven. The goal is not simply adding size but building tissue that supports future strength and power development. 

However, building muscle requires more than just lifting weights. 

The body needs: 

• sufficient energy availability 

• adequate protein intake 

• consistent recovery 

This is where the work of the dietitian becomes extremely important, as nutrition directly influences whether the body can build new tissue. Check out the nutrition part of our newsletter. 

Maximal Strength - Raising the Force Ceiling 

Strength is one of the most important transferable qualities in sport. 

At a physiological level, maximal strength improvements occur through adaptations in the neuromuscular system, including improved motor unit recruitment, higher firing frequencies and better coordination between muscle groups. 

These neural changes allow the body to produce higher levels of force against the ground. 

In athletics this often contributes to improvements in: 

• acceleration ability 

• projection in jumps and throws 

• braking resistance 

• force application during sprinting 

Strength development also improves the resilience of tendons, ligaments and connective tissue, helping athletes tolerate higher training loads later in the year. 

Importantly, these adaptations require consistent exposure to progressive loading. They cannot be built effectively when competition schedules are constantly interrupting training. 

The off-season provides the space to gradually rebuild strength foundations. 

Body Composition - Supporting the Power-to-Weight Ratio 

Body composition plays an important role in many athletics events. 

Performance often depends on the relationship between force production and body mass. Athletes who can produce high force relative to their body weight often have an advantage in sprinting, jumping and acceleration tasks. 

Improving body composition is not about chasing a number on the scale. 

It is about supporting performance through: 

• increased lean tissue 

• appropriate energy availability 

• balanced body mass for the event demands 

These changes occur through the combination of training stimulus and nutrition strategy. 

Without adequate energy intake, the body struggles to adapt to training and may instead break down tissue rather than build it. 

The upcoming dietitian newsletter will explore how nutrition supports these processes and why fuelling appropriately is essential for long-term development. 

Capacity - Building the Engine That Supports Training 

Another common off-season focus is building general work capacity. 

Capacity refers to the body’s ability to tolerate training loads and recover between sessions. 

During the competition season, training volume is often reduced to maintain freshness for racing. Over time this can reduce the athlete’s ability to handle larger workloads. 

Off-season training can rebuild this foundation through controlled increases in volume and general conditioning. 

Physiological adaptations may include: 

• enhanced recovery between efforts 

• increased mitochondrial density 

• improved metabolic efficiency 

• stronger connective tissue tolerance 

A well-developed capacity base allows athletes to handle higher quality speed and power training later in the year without breaking down. 

Speed - Protecting the Most Valuable Quality 

Speed remains one of the most valuable and sensitive qualities in athletics. 

Because competition places high stress on the nervous system, many athletes unintentionally reduce true speed development during the season. 

The off-season provides an opportunity to reintroduce controlled speed exposure. 

This may include: 

• more opportunities to expose the body to true high-speed running without the fatigue of racing every weekend 

• dedicated time to refine sprint mechanics, posture and coordination without the pressure of competition performance 
   

Speed training primarily targets the nervous system, improving motor unit firing rates, coordination and elastic energy transfer through tendons. These adaptations require high quality execution and adequate recovery, which is why speed work must be structured and planned rather than randomly inserted into training. 

Movement Skill - Refining How Force Is Applied 

Physical qualities are only useful if they can be applied efficiently. 

Another major opportunity during the off-season is refining movement quality and coordination. 

Motor learning research consistently shows that skill development is most effective when athletes can practice movements without the pressure of maximal performance outcomes. 

Small improvements in how force is applied can often lead to meaningful performance improvements later in the year. 

Connecting Training with Nutrition 

Training creates the stimulus for adaptation. 

Nutrition determines whether the body can respond to that stimulus. 

To build muscle, improve strength, recover from training and optimise body composition, athletes must ensure that their fuelling strategies support their physical goals. 

This is where our dietitian presentation will provide further guidance around: 

• energy availability 

• protein intake 

• recovery nutrition 

• fuelling for training adaptations 

The most effective development occurs when training and nutrition strategies work together. 

The Big Picture 

The off-season is not simply time away from competition. 

It is a development window. 

Athletes who approach this phase with structure often return to the next season: 

• Stronger 

• Faster 

• more resilient 

• technically cleaner 

However, these outcomes rarely occur through unstructured training. 

Building hypertrophy, strength, speed or capacity requires planned progression and informed decision making. 

For this reason, athletes are encouraged to work with a qualified performance professional when planning their off-season program. 

Most importantly, any physical development plan should always be discussed with your personal coach. 

Your coach understands the technical and event-specific demands of your discipline, and physical preparation should support that process rather than operate independently.