Most Officials have been conditioning, either by doing it how they trained in high school… or the most popular fads in Muscle & Fitness Magazine or… think that they need to train 1-2 body parts per session. WHAT? This all seems a little off the mark.

Every Official wants to “Look The Part”, but... Let’s change this thought process and really hone in to reduce the amount of injuries that we see in the world of officiating AND improve our aesthetics by applying sound training principles!

As an Official, here’s the 2 biggest problems from training like a body builder:

• #1. You’re a specialized athlete, body builders are sculptures of a physique. They aren’t training to move on the court or the field!

• You only have limited time to get into the gym and improve the physical aspect of officiating, body building won’t leave you enough time for mobility movements, injury prevention exercises, & SPECIFIC CONDITIONING to help you in your game!

Instead of using 3+ exercises specifically for your chest (which don’t help you Officiate any better) or 4 similar leg exercises in one session (completely unnecessary to get stronger and prevent injuries and… A waste of your time)...

A more suitable option for an Official (Athlete) would be a total body strength training routine that can be done in (2 - 4 days a week).

The benefits that you get from training like this would be:

• A higher frequency (#of times per week) of work to specific muscle groups.

• You now have the time to address your individual needs and condition your body specifically for your upcoming season.

• You Are Training Like An OFFICIAL!

Caveat: There are aspects of body building that we can take, learn from, and apply to a training program to improve our aesthetic appeal.

Here are some important aspects of building lean muscle mass that we can apply to this style of training like an athlete and improve our physique simultaneously.

1. We need an adequate amount of volume (there has to be enough sets, reps, & tonnage to build muscle).

2. You have to load the exercise appropriately - this means that you must challenge yourself through different rep ranges to accomplish this. (You don’t build lean muscle tissue through light weights & high reps: This is muscular endurance training).

3. Frequency (how often you hit this body part) - You need a consistent stimulus applied to the muscle to break it down, so that it can build itself back up.

4. MAJOR MOVEMENTS - Here’s your cheat code. Use total body exercises such as squats & deadlifts (as they impact more muscles at once) as opposed to isolation exercises. You can kill 2 birds with 1 stone here.

Example: You’re an Official who wants to improve the size of their biceps to look better in your uniform. Here’s 3 days of your training week solely focusing on this one body part.

Day 1: Chin-Ups

Day 2: TRX Row

Day 3: Machine Low Row

You’ve used 3 different exercises that not only address your upper body strength, improve your shoulder stability, your aesthetic look, and also hit the biceps. (During pulling movements the biceps assist you!) 

If you have time, add in some curls at the end of the session for a little EXTRA!

Train like the Athlete you are. Body builders look funny blowing whistles and starting the game!