Every now and again Ill update you with my own schedule, just to give you an idea of how a club player can do it. Hopefully it will give you some context to my tips.

Thanks to my last programme I have now lost 6kg in weight and 4% body fat.

Even though it's off season things are starting to get a little bit more specific for me. My focus has moved onto strength building rather than general fitness.

I'm not too worried about putting on weight but I don't want my body fat to go up if I can help it. That way I know I will be putting on muscle not fat.

I'll be building to a peak using a cricket-specific variation of the Husker fitness model using the 10 Principles. Here is my current week:

Cricket Strength Building Programme

Monday: Power Workout
Tuesday: 5-a-side football
Wednesday: Strength Workout
Thursday: 30m Interval Run
Friday: Base Workout
Saturday: 30m Sprint Sessions
Sunday: Rest

In December I will increase the intensity but keep the same week.

Power Workout

After a full warm up do 3 sets of 5 reps with 80% 1RM. Take 2 minutes rest between sets and the whole workout including cool down and stretch takes about an hour.

Rack Clean
Standing Shoulder Press
Chin Up
Lateral Raise
Bicep Curl

Strength Workout

After a full warm up do 3 sets of 10 reps with 70% 1RM. Take 2 minutes rest between sets and the whole workout including cool down and stretch takes about an hour.

Squat
Romanian Dead Lift
Dumb Bell Bench Press
Upright Row
Tricep Dip
Standing Twist (2 sets of 20 reps)

Base Workout

After a full warm up do 3 sets of 10 reps with 60% 1RM. Take 2 minutes rest between sets and the whole workout including cool down and stretch takes about an hour.

Rack Clean
Pull Up
Bench Press
Single Leg Squat (3 sets of 15)
Standing Twist (2 sets of 20 reps)

Sprint Session

Currently this is made up of 3 sets of 6x40m sprints. I do it by marking out an area 20m long and sprinting back and forth.

Rest is for 30-40s between sprints and 3 minutes between sets.

This is to roughly represent running between the wickets as a batsman. Bowlers may want to vary this by cutting out the turn portion and adding a jump at the end of a straight sprint.

Nutrition

I'm no longer restricting my diet to lose body fat. Instead I'm focussing on getting some good quality protein and eating healthily. I'm still monitoring my intake on fitday though.

Another progress update soon. What training are you doing at this time of the year?