I Lose Strength During Rodeo Season

Every year around July, I start having the same conversation.

I jump on a call with an athlete, or they send me a message.

And it usually sounds something like this:

"Doug, I feel weak."

Not injured, sick, or completely broken down…

Just weaker than they were a few months ago.

The crazy thing is most athletes think the problem started that week.

It didn't.

The problem started months earlier.

I remember working with an athlete who came into the season feeling incredible.

Strong, healthy, and feeling confident.

They had been training consistently and felt like everything was moving in the right direction.

Fast forward a few months, and he was frustrated.

His energy was down, he wasn't feeling strong, and his recovery was down.

But he couldn't understand why.

After all, he was rodeoing.

Shouldn't all that competing keep him in shape?

That's one of the biggest misconceptions in rodeo.

Competing is not training.

I'll say that again.

COMPETING IS NOT TRAINING.

For example, a football player doesn't stop training because he's playing games, or a baseball player doesn't stop training because the season started.

Yet every year, I watch rodeo athletes slowly replace training with competing and then wonder why they feel weaker by August.

The body doesn't really care about your intentions.

It responds to what you consistently do.

And during rodeo season, a lot of athletes stop doing the things that built them in the first place.

Training becomes inconsistent.

Sleep gets worse.

Nutrition becomes whatever is available at the gas station.

Recovery gets pushed aside.

And little by little, strength starts disappearing.

Not all at once, just enough that you notice it.

You feel it when you're warming up, getting on a horse, or climbing into the truck after a long weekend.

That moment when movements that used to feel easy suddenly feel harder.

The frustrating part is most athletes immediately assume they need more work.

But usually, the opposite is true.

What they need is better maintenance.

One of the best lessons I ever learned as a coach is that in-season training has a different goal than off-season training.

The goal isn't to set personal records every week.

The goal is to keep as much of what you built as possible.

Think of it like a savings account.

The off-season is when you're making deposits.

Strength.

Muscle.

Power.

Mobility.

Capacity.

Rodeo season is when you're making withdrawals.

Every practice.

Every performance.

Every mile driven.

Every late night.

Every missed meal.

Every stressful weekend.

The question becomes:

Are you still making enough deposits to keep the account full?

Because eventually, if withdrawals exceed deposits, the account runs dry.

Your body works the same way.

That's why I tell athletes all the time, you don't need to train more during rodeo season.

You need to train SMARTER.

Most athletes can maintain far more strength than they realize with surprisingly little work.

A couple quality strength sessions per week.

A focus on recovery.

Enough protein.

Enough sleep.

Some consistency.

And BOOM, the wheels stay on the bus.

The problem is that most athletes abandon the basics when life gets busy.

And life gets really busy during rodeo season.

So if you're sitting here reading this thinking, "Yep, that's me."

Here's what I'd ask:

Have you actually lost strength?

Or have you stopped doing the things that created it?

Because those are two different problems.

One requires rebuilding, and the other requires recommitting.

And more often than not, it's the second one.

The strongest athletes I've worked with weren't the athletes who trained the hardest during rodeo season.

They were the athletes who stayed the most consistent.

They kept showing up.

Even when it wasn't perfect.

When they were tired.

And when they were on the road.

They understood something most athletes eventually learn the hard way:

You don't rise to the level of your motivation, you fall to the level of your habits.

And during rodeo season, your habits matter more than ever.

So if you feel like you're losing strength right now, don't panic.

Don't throw your whole program away.

Don't start adding more and more work.

Take a hard look at the basics.

Are you still training?

Are you still recovering?

Are you still fueling your body?

Are you still prioritizing the things that got you strong in the first place?

Because strength rarely disappears overnight.

Most of the time, it fades because we stopped protecting it.

And if that's the case, the solution is often much simpler than people think.

Get back to the basics.

Stay consistent.

And keep making deposits.

If you're ready to take the next step in your Champion Living Athlete Pathway, let's get you on a call with a coach to see if you're a good fit for our Individualized Coaching.

Use the link below:

https://championlivingfitness.com/sign-up

Your Coach,

Doug Champion