Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today we're talking about why cricket plays must do in-season strength training. Now, this is something we see quite a bit. Don't, don't we James, people, people train enthusiastically right up until, uh, right up until the season, and then it just starts to gradually just drop just little by little by little.

And then eventually they're not training at all. But we are here to tell you that it is vitally, uh, important to continue your training in season. Is it not? And why is it important, James? 

James Breese: Well, there's multiple reasons, but you're right. Not just sometimes as we're seeing at the moment, we're having some talks with a lot of, not a lot of athletes but's, some athletes already who for the month of may have not trained at all Yeah.

In the gym or done anything. And they've, they've come to us asking about, Hey, my performance is not, is is dropping, I'm not scoring runs, not taking wickets or, and also I'm, I'm injured. Mm. We see it time, say [00:01:00] we see it time and time again. People train enthusiastically. They're trading the cricket, they're practicing the nets.

They're going to the gym. The season starts, and then it just goes out the window. Like it doesn't become a priority anymore. They just think about playing for Saturday, whether in terms of batting, bowling practice, but also strength training and fitness work. Now it's finding a balance, but what we know is that the best athletes.

Always, always, always train. In season, they make it a priority. They get themselves to the gym. They do it because what we're doing is we're trying to build that resistance to injury first and foremost. We're trying to maintain muscle mass. Right. In terms of like maintaining it throughout the season.

We're trying to maintain that explosiveness, which we don't want to lose at the same time, but it just makes you more game ready and more switched on as well. Like if you stop training properly, it affects match day performance. If you don't go to net and practice and hitting balls. Well, you're not gonna score runs.

You can't just walk up on a Saturday and hope for the best. [00:02:00] You've gotta hit balls. Same, likewise, in terms of training. You have to come up and start doing a, a more focused effort in the gym to stay, to stay training in season, because the best way to get stronger is and don't lose muscle mass and strength from the first place.

That is one of those things. What's, what's Mike Boyle's famous quote? He says, 

Josh Kennedy: yeah, our, uh, our good friend Mike Boyle, he says, uh, the best way to get stronger is to not get weaker. It's as simple as that really. 'cause he talks about, um. Being, when you get back into off season again after your season's finished, it's a waste of time trying to build, regain the strength that you had.

You're just wasting, you know, a couple of two or three weeks building that strength back up when if you maintain it during the season, you've already got that starting point and then you can get stronger. Off season is the time to get stronger in season is the time to maintain the 

James Breese: strength you've gained.

Absolutely. And this now, when we talk about strength training in season, we're not talking about going to failure being. No. Feeling battered and broken is far from it. That's the, that's the worst thing you [00:03:00] can do. Exactly. We take the, we take the volume down, right? Or we, we decrease the intensity or the weight down.

We still wanna keep explosive reps happening. Right. So you may take 70% of your one rep max off something. And we may be doing eight reps of that, where you leaving multiple reps in the tank. We're maintaining this. We're maintaining this explosiveness throughout the time. But it is an important factor. It has an impact on your performance levels.

It has an impact on your ability to resist injury. Yep. And it has an impact in your overhaul, what's the word? Uh, weight as well, like people put on weight. Gonna say 

Josh Kennedy: that. Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna put on weight and that's again, one of the worst things you can do during, during the season. You're gonna get slower, you're gonna get more, have you prone to injury, you know?

And if you are slower, you are inevitably gonna get. Slower between the wickets, which [00:04:00] means you might get out, whereas you might not have got out otherwise. You know, there's the same 

James Breese: with bowling. You puts more stress in the volume and bowling if you, if you're a fast bowler and you're carrying an extra couple of kilos.

In some cases people, I've seen people put on seven to eight kilos over the course of the season. Right? Seven to eight kilos. Yeah. Wow. Because if you, if you think about this now, it's quite funny actually, in terms of the cricket change room, like people bring sweets in, like Cardiff, you see is, is brilliant at the moment.

The selection of food at the moment in, during a course of a game is insane from Jaffa cakes to fucking um. To Fruit Gums, to like, yeah. Danish pastries to like everything. I know everyone's bringing all this stuff in at the middle of the table, like, which is fine. There's 

Josh Kennedy: nothing wrong with a bit of a treat.

Yeah. But you have to do your strength training outside of that to maintain your weight. 'cause if you don't, 

James Breese: you put on weight. Yeah, that's it. And the beer is afterwards and Yeah. You know, you name it, it just carries on. But. It's a priority. You've gotta stay athletic. It's a long season, right? And the more unathletic you become the [00:05:00] lit, the more it impacts your performance.

So you still gotta do your strength training, you still gotta do your jumps, your plys, all this type of stuff. Yeah, not as much. Minimum two times a week ideally. Yeah, that was good. Two times a week is, is 

Josh Kennedy: the best. And it doesn't have to be long either. You know, 30 minutes in out full body workout, couple of sets.

You're 

James Breese: done. That's it. Exactly. That's it. I, you know, for us the biggest bang for our buck is kettlebell swings. You have your kettlebell swings, you know, you get a lot of, that's a dead lifting movement. And it's a power exercises in one, in terms of explosiveness. Yeah. You know, it's a, it's a great thing if you 

Josh Kennedy: can, if you are proficient in Olympic lifts, then Olympic lift a couple of sets on Olympic lift, and then a, a track ball deadlift or a, a single leg squat or, or something like that is, is great.

And then, you know, pushing a pull. There you go 

James Breese: and do a Turkish getup. If you know what Turkish getup is, do a tur. Yeah. Do a Turkish, absolutely. It's a full body exercise. It just keeps it simple and we move on. We don't, we not, it's not, it's not almost that [00:06:00] going stiff. It's about becoming strong, feel powerful, motivated, and to activate in the right muscles and explosiveness that you need to do to perform.

It's as, it's as simple as that. So again, for all the people out there who are not training at the moment, in our, in our, uh, teams that we see, we see, we see the compliance levels. It is really important and it's not time to take the foot off the pedal. Now it's time to put the foot on. 'cause the season has only just got going.

We're only a month into the season. 

Josh Kennedy: Exactly. So there you go guys. Make sure you are maintaining your training during the in season. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe. And if you'd like our free training plan, then go to cricket matters.com/train. And remember, our goal is to make you a better cricketer.