Injury prevention isn’t about “bulletproofing” an athlete; it’s about gradually preparing the body for the
demands it is about to experience.

The first few weeks of a fall sports season can be exciting—but they can also be physically demanding. After a summer of inconsistent training, an athlete may suddenly find themselves running, cutting, jumping, throwing, lifting, and practicing several days a week.

For some athletes, this transition is relatively easy. They may have spent the summer consistently training and participating in sport-specific activities. For others, the start of a new season may represent a significant increase in physical activity. This raises an important question: Is the athlete’s body prepared for the demands being placed upon it?

Being “ready” for a sport involves more than simply being in good cardiovascular shape or having a strong weight-room program. An athlete needs the strength, mobility, coordination, conditioning, and recovery habits necessary to tolerate the specific demands of their sport.

The goal isn’t to eliminate every possible injury—because no training program can guarantee that. Instead, effective preseason preparation gives athletes the physical capacity and knowledge to better handle their sport while helping them recognize when something isn’t going well.

What Actually Makes Someone “Ready” for Their Sport?

Readiness is highly individual. Two athletes participating in the same sport may enter the season with very different levels of preparation. An athlete who has consistently trained throughout the summer may already have a foundation of strength, cardiovascular fitness, movement skills, and sport-specific conditioning. Another athlete may have spent much of the summer away from structured training.

Neither athlete is necessarily “good” or “bad” at preparing for a season. Their bodies simply have different levels of recent exposure to physical demands. This concept is important because fitness is not one single quality. An athlete may have excellent cardiovascular conditioning but lack the strength or coordination needed for repeated jumping and landing. Another athlete may be very strong in the weight room but have little recent experience with sprinting, cutting, or rapid changes of direction. Sport-specific readiness can involve several components:

• Strength: The ability to produce and control force.
• Mobility: Having enough usable range of motion to perform the movements required by the sport.
• Coordination: Being able to control movement efficiently and respond to changing situations.
• Conditioning: Being able to repeatedly perform the demands of practice and competition.
• Recovery: Having adequate sleep, nutrition, hydration, and rest to adapt to training.
• Previous training exposure: Having gradually experienced similar physical demands before competition
• begins.

This is why preseason preparation shouldn’t simply mean “get stronger.” It should mean prepare the body for what it is actually going to be asked to do.

Preparing for the Season: Build Before You Need It

One of the most important principles of athletic preparation is gradual progression. Consider an athlete who spent much of July participating in casual activities but begins formal practice in August. Their weekly workload could suddenly change from relatively low levels of activity to multiple practices, conditioning sessions, strength workouts, and competitions.

The body can adapt to increased demands, but adaptation takes time. Training load doesn’t simply mean how much weight an athlete lifts. It can include the amount of running, jumping, sprinting, throwing, cutting, contact, practice time, and competition exposure an athlete experiences.

Research examining training load and injury has found an overall relationship between workload and musculoskeletal injury, although the relationship is complex and depends on the type and timeframe of load being measured. Research specifically involving youth athletes has also produced mixed results, reinforcing the idea that there is no single workload number that can predict whether an athlete will become injured. This is why preseason preparation shouldn’t simply mean “get stronger.” It should mean prepare the body for what it is actually going to be asked to do.

The practical takeaway is simpler: Avoid going from very little activity to a full training schedule overnight whenever possible.

Instead, athletes can gradually increase their exposure to the activities their sport requires. For a soccer player, that may mean progressively increasing running, acceleration, deceleration, and cutting. For a volleyball player, it may mean gradually increasing jumping and landing volume. For a football player, preparation may involve building strength and conditioning while gradually exposing the athlete to the demands of practice and contact. For a cross-country runner, gradually increasing running volume may be more important than suddenly trying to match the mileage they completed during the previous season.

The goal is not to avoid hard training. The goal is to build the capacity to handle hard training.

Strength Training: More Than Just Getting Stronger

Strength training can be an important component of athletic preparation, particularly when it is appropriately designed for the athlete’s age, experience, sport, and goals. A well-designed resistance training program can develop strength, power, coordination, and the ability to produce and control force. Youth resistance training literature supports appropriately supervised resistance exercise as a valuable component of physical development when programs are properly designed and progressed. Strength training also doesn’t have to mean spending hours in a weight room. Depending on the athlete, training may include:

• Squats and squat variations
• Lunges and split squats
• Hip-hinge movements
• Pushes and pulls
• Core exercises
• Jumping and landing drills
• Balance and single-leg exercises

The goal is not necessarily to make an athlete as strong as possible in every exercise.

Instead, strength training should help an athlete develop the physical qualities they need to perform their sport. For example, a soccer player needs to produce and absorb force while accelerating, decelerating, and changing direction. A volleyball player needs to repeatedly jump and land. A baseball player needs to produce and control rotational forces through the hips, trunk, and upper extremity. The best strength program is one that supports the demands of the sport rather than simply chasing numbers in the gym.

Mobility: More Isn’t Always Better

Mobility and flexibility are often discussed interchangeably, but they aren’t exactly the same. Flexibility generally refers to the amount of passive range of motion available at a joint or through a muscle group. Mobility is a broader concept that includes the ability to actively control movement through a usable range of motion.

For athletes, the goal isn’t necessarily to become as flexible as possible. Instead, athletes should have enough mobility to perform the movements their sport requires while maintaining control and stability. For example, an athlete may benefit from adequate ankle mobility for squatting, jumping, and landing. A volleyball or baseball player may have different shoulder and thoracic mobility demands than a cross-country runner. This is another reason why there is no universal “best” stretching routine for every athlete. Mobility should be considered in the context of the individual and the sport.

Don’t Forget the Warm-Up

A good warm-up should prepare an athlete for the activity they are about to perform. Rather than simply holding a series of static stretches, an effective warm-up can gradually increase body temperature, movement, coordination, and sport-specific intensity. A general progression might look like:

General movement → Dynamic movement → Sport-specific movement → Higher-intensity activity

For example, a soccer player might progress from walking and jogging to dynamic movements, acceleration and deceleration drills, changes of direction, and eventually higher-speed sprinting. The goal isn’t to exhaust the athlete before practice begins. It is to help them transition from a relatively rested state into the physical demands of training.

Research on neuromuscular training programs—which can include components such as strength, balance, agility, jumping, and landing exercises—has demonstrated meaningful reductions in lower-extremity injury rates among youth athletes. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found that neuromuscular training reduced lower-extremity injury risk in adolescent and young athletes, while earlier research has similarly demonstrated benefits across youth sports. That makes a structured warm-up more than simply a way to “get loose.” It can be an opportunity to consistently practice the movement qualities an athlete needs.

Recovery Is Part of Training

One of the most overlooked components of athletic preparation is recovery. Training provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the body to adapt to that stimulus. An athlete can have an excellent strength program and a well-designed practice schedule, but if they consistently fail to recover, their ability to perform and adapt may suffer. Recovery includes several factors:

Sleep

Sleep is particularly important for adolescent athletes. Research has found an association between chronic lack of sleep and increased sports and musculoskeletal injury risk among adolescents. One systematic review and meta-analysis found that adolescents with chronic sleep problems were more likely to experience sports or musculoskeletal injuries.

Nutrition

Athletes need enough energy and nutrients to support both normal growth and the additional demands of training. This is particularly important for adolescent athletes, who are simultaneously supporting physical development and athletic performance.

Hydration

Hydration becomes especially important during hot practices and competitions, particularly during the early portion of the fall when temperatures can remain high.

Rest

Rest days are not wasted days. Recovery can include complete rest as well as lower-intensity activities depending on the athlete’s schedule and needs. The important point is that more training is not automatically better training.

Sustaining Preparation Throughout the Season

Preseason preparation is only the beginning. Once the season starts, athletes need to maintain their physical qualities while balancing practices, games, school, and other responsibilities. This means training may need to change throughout the season.

An athlete might perform more strength and conditioning work during the offseason but reduce training volume during a particularly demanding competition period. Similarly, a week with multiple games may require a different recovery strategy than a week with only one competition.

The goal is to find an appropriate balance between training, competition, and recovery. Athletes, parents, coaches, and healthcare professionals can all play a role in monitoring this balance. Changes in performance, persistent fatigue, declining motivation, sleep disturbances, or recurring soreness may be signs that an athlete needs to reassess their overall workload and recovery.

Understanding Pain: When Should an Athlete Pay Attention?

Even with appropriate preparation, injuries can still happen. No exercise program can completely eliminate the possibility of injury.

This is why athletes should learn the difference between normal responses to training and symptoms that deserve additional attention. Some soreness following a new or unusually challenging workout can be expected. Delayed-onset muscle soreness, for example, can occur after unfamiliar or higher-intensity exercise. However, athletes should pay closer attention to symptoms such as:

• Sharp or worsening pain
• Pain that consistently returns during activity
• Pain that changes the way an athlete runs, jumps, lifts, or throws
• Significant swelling
• Persistent joint pain
• Numbness or tingling
• Weakness
• Pain that interferes with sleep or daily activities
• Symptoms that continue despite reducing or modifying activity

The message shouldn’t be that athletes need to stop participating every time they experience discomfort.
The goal is to find an appropriate balance between training, competition, and recovery. Athletes, parents,

Ignoring a problem does not necessarily make it go away, and early evaluation can sometimes help identify
contributing factors before a relatively manageable issue becomes a larger obstacle to participation.

The Return-to-Sport Evaluation Process at IHS

For athletes dealing with pain or injury—or those looking for guidance before beginning or returning to a season—an evaluation can be a useful first step. At Integrated Health Solutions, our approach begins with a thorough evaluation rather than assuming that every athlete or injury requires the same treatment. We consider the athlete’s symptoms, history, current activity level, sport-specific demands, movement patterns, strength, mobility, and goals.

From there, treatment and rehabilitation can be individualized based on what the athlete needs. Depending on the situation, care may include a combination of manual therapy, chiropractic treatment, soft-tissue techniques, dry needling, and rehabilitative exercise. The goal is not simply to reduce symptoms but to help address the factors contributing to the athlete’s limitations and progressively restore their ability to participate in the activities that matter to them.

For athletes returning from an injury, the process should also involve gradually rebuilding tolerance to the movements and demands of their sport rather than assuming that being pain-free automatically means being ready for full competition. When appropriate, communication with the athlete’s parents, coaches, athletic trainers, physicians, physical therapists, or other members of their healthcare team can also help ensure that everyone is working toward the same goal.

Closing Thoughts

The goal of preseason preparation isn’t to create an athlete who is “bulletproof.” That doesn’t exist. The goal is to give athletes the physical capacity, knowledge, and habits necessary to handle the demands of their sport— and to recognize when something isn’t going well. A strong fall sports preparation plan doesn’t have to be complicated. Athletes can focus on a few fundamental principles:

Build gradually.

Train the qualities your sport requires.

Develop strength and movement control.

Recover adequately.

Pay attention to meaningful changes in symptoms or performance.

Most importantly, preparation shouldn’t end when the season begins. The demands of sport change throughout the year, and an athlete’s training and recovery strategies should change with them. Whether you’re a parent preparing your child for their first season, a high school athlete looking to perform at your best, or a recreational athlete returning to a favorite fall activity, understanding how to prepare for and respond to training demands is one of the most valuable tools you can develop. The objective isn’t to avoid every ache, setback, or injury. It’s to build an athlete who is better prepared to meet the demands of their sport, understands how to care for their body, and knows when to ask for help.

Content Written & Provided By: Dr. Josh Monzel