Built for the Big Game: Why Gym Work is Your Secret Weapon

As the frost starts to settle on the paddocks and the winter sports season kicks off, the excitement in our local community is palpable. Whether you’re lining up for the first bounce in AFL or settling into the goal circle for Netball, your performance on Saturday depends heavily on what you’ve been doing in the gym mid-week. View the gym as a place to build a "bulletproof" body. The goal of your gym program should be pre-hab, training specifically to ensure you finish the season on the podium, not the bench.

1. Strength: Building Your Body’s Armor
Think of strength training as adding layers of armor to your joints. In a private practice setting, we often talk about "load-carrying capacity," essentially how much stress your muscles and tendons can handle before they give way. To survive a full season of running and leaping, your gym routine should prioritise things such as heavy eccentric loading (the lengthening phase of a movement) and single-leg strength. Exercises like Bulgarian split squats or Romanian deadlifts are vital because sport is rarely played on two feet. By strengthening the muscles around the knees, hips, and ankles, you allow your "engine" to absorb the force of a hard tackle or a high mark, taking the destructive pressure off your joints and ligaments.

2. Plyometrics: Teaching the Springs
If strength is the armor, plyometrics are the springs. Success is often measured by your "Rate of Force Development," or how quickly you can explode into a jump or change direction to intercept a pass. Incorporating box jumps and lateral bounds (skaters) into your program teaches your nervous system to handle high-velocity movements. However, the most critical part of plyometric training isn't the jump; it’s the landing. By practicing "sticking" your landings with a stable knee and hip, you are essentially "pre-programming" your brain to protect your body during those high-pressure moments on the court or field when an injury is most likely to occur.

3. Proprioception: Navigating the Mud
We all know that rural pitches aren't always pristine. As the season progresses and the grounds get muddy or uneven, the risk of "rolling" an ankle or twisting a knee skyrockets. This is where proprioception, the communication between your brain and your joints, becomes your best friend. In the clinic, we use perturbation training (like balancing on one leg while resisting a gentle nudge) and reactive agility drills to sharpen these reflexes. Your body needs to be able to react in milliseconds to a slip in the mud; if your nervous system is "switched on," it can stabilise your joints before a minor slip becomes a season-ending tear.

Making the Time
We understand that life in a rural area isn't a 9 to 5 desk job for many of you. Between work, travel, and family, finding time for the gym can be a challenge. However, you don't need hours of bodybuilding splits to see results. A focused, sport-specific strength and conditioning program performed just twice a week can be the difference between a career-best season and a winter spent in the treatment room. Let’s make this season about longevity. Train smart now so you can play hard later.

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