My lifting buddy quit training last October. The season was over. He’d competed in three powerlifting meets between March and September, hit some PRs, and decided he’d earned a break. Took two months completely off. No gym. “I’ll get back to it after the holidays,” he said.
By January, when he finally came back, his squat had dropped 40 pounds. Bench was down 25. Deadlift held up okay, but his form was sloppy. Took him until April to get back to where he’d been in September. Essentially wasted six months, two months off, four months climbing back.
I kept training through the fall. Nothing crazy, but consistent. When January hit and everyone else was starting fresh, I was already building on what I’d done in the off-season. By spring, I’d added 60 pounds to my total while my buddy was still trying to get back to baseline.
Strength Training All Year Round
That’s when I really understood what year-round training means. It’s not about grinding constantly at maximum intensity. It’s about understanding that the off-season is when you actually build the strength that shows up during competition season.
Here in Colorado Springs, CO, fall is when a lot of athletes take their foot off the gas. Outdoor sports are winding down. The weather’s getting cold. Holidays are coming. Easy to convince yourself you’ve earned time off. And yeah, you probably have earned a break. But there’s a huge difference between backing off in intensity and stopping completely.
What Off-Season Actually Means
Off-season doesn’t mean off training. It means out of competition. Those are completely different things.
Competition season is stressful. You’re peaking for meets, managing weight classes, and dealing with performance pressure. Your training is specific and intense. You’re tapering before events, recovering after them. There’s not much room for experimentation or addressing weak points.
Off-season is when you have time to actually build. No meets coming up means you can focus on getting stronger without worrying about peaking at the right time. You can take risks with programming. Work on technique issues. Address imbalances. Build muscle mass. Do all the boring, necessary work that makes you better long-term.
I use fall for volume work. Higher reps, more sets, building work capacity. It’s not glamorous. I’m not hitting PRs every week. But I’m creating the foundation that lets me hit those PRs when it matters.
Last fall, I spent two months doing squat variations I hate—pause squats, tempo squats, squats with longer rest periods to really focus on form. Boring as hell. But my squat technique got significantly better, and when I tested my max in February, I hit a 35-pound PR without even grinding. The strength was just there because I’d built it properly during the off-season.
Volume and Intensity Cycles
Powerlifting and serious strength training require cycling intensity. You can’t go heavy all the time. Your joints can’t handle it. Your nervous system can’t handle it. You’ll either get injured or burned out.
Fall is the volume season for me. I’m squatting three times a week instead of two. Benching three or four times. Accessories I skip during meet prep—I’m doing them consistently now. Rows, pull-ups, core work, all the stuff that supports the main lifts but doesn’t directly improve them short-term.
My working weights are lower than peak season. Squat sessions that would be 85-90% of my max during meet prep are 70-75% now. But I’m doing way more total reps. Instead of heavy triples, I’m doing sets of 8 or 10. It’s exhausting in a different way.
This builds muscle, improves technique, and increases work capacity. When I transition back to heavier weights in late winter, I’m stronger because I have more muscle and better movement patterns. The heavy weights feel easier because I’ve built the base to support them.
Colorado’s altitude adds another layer to this. Training here is harder, less oxygen, longer recovery times. But the athletes who train consistently through the fall at altitude come back ridiculously strong. Your body adapts. When you compete at a lower elevation, it’s like a superpower unlocked.
Addressing Weak Points
Competition season isn’t when you fix problems. You work around them and hope they don’t cost you a lift. Off-season is when you actually address weak points.
My lockout on the bench press was terrible last year. Cost me attempts at two different meets. During the season, I worked around it—added board presses, focused on speed off my chest. Band-aid fixes.
This fall, I spent 12 weeks specifically destroying my triceps. Close-grip bench, floor press, heavy dips, skull crushers, overhead extensions. My triceps hurt constantly. But my lockout got significantly stronger. Next competition season, that weak point won’t be a liability anymore.
You can’t do this kind of focused weakness work during meet prep. There’s not enough time, and you need to prioritize the competition lifts themselves. Off-season gives you months to methodically address what’s holding you back.
The Boring Stuff That Matters
Off-season is also when I do all the mobility and prehab work I neglect during busy season. Stretching hip flexors. Working on ankle mobility. Strengthening my rotator cuffs. Using lacrosse balls on tight spots.
None of this is exciting. It doesn’t show up on Instagram. But it keeps me healthy and able to train consistently, which matters way more than any single training session.
I spent a month this fall working on thoracic mobility because my upper back was rounding on heavy squats. Just 15 minutes before every session, do specific mobility drills. My squat position improved noticeably. That’s off-season work paying off.
Year-Round Training Beats Sporadic Intensity
The biggest mistake I see people make is treating strength training like something you do intensely for a few months, then take extended breaks from. That’s not how you build real strength.
Year-round training doesn’t mean killing yourself 12 months straight. It means consistent, smart training that varies in intensity and focus based on where you are in your annual cycle.
Fall through winter is volume and base building for me. Spring is when intensity ramps up, leading into summer competition season. After meets, I take a week or two easy, then get back into off-season work. The cycle repeats, and every year I’m stronger than the year before because I never stop progressing.
My buddy who took two months off last fall? He’s doing the same thing again this year. Already talking about taking time off after his last meet. I don’t get it. He wonders why he’s not getting stronger. The answer is right there; he’s not training enough of the year to actually build anything lasting.
Building Champions Takes Boring Consistency
Nobody gets excited about off-season training. It’s not sexy. You’re not hitting PRs. You’re doing higher reps at moderate weights and focusing on technique and weak points. Social media doesn’t care about your set of 10 pause squats at 70%.
But this is where championships get built. The athletes dominating in competition season are the ones who put in consistent work during the off-season when nobody’s watching.
I see this constantly in Colorado Springs. We’ve got Olympic training facilities here, high-level athletes everywhere. The ones who succeed long-term aren’t necessarily the most talented. They’re the most consistent. They understand that fall training matters just as much as spring training, maybe more.
So if you finished your competition season and you’re thinking about taking extended time off, reconsider. Take a break if you need one, a week or two to mentally and physically recover. Then get back to work. Different work than competition season, but work nonetheless.
Because next spring, when everyone else is scrambling to get back in shape, you’ll already be there. And you’ll be stronger than you were last year because you actually built something during the months when it doesn’t feel like it matters.
That’s how you become a champion. Not by training hard when it’s exciting. By training smart when it’s boring.
