Cricket
training program
Built on a semi-pro framework: lower-body endurance circuit, plyo-primed speed & strength, then a sprint-running day.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s cricket program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised to the Australian cricket season — pre-season August – September, competition October – March. It trains rotational power for batting and throwing, bowler durability and speed-endurance over a long day in the field, builds the week around your team nights and game day, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Bench press 1RM and Trap-bar deadlift 1RM, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Chasing selection? The cricket pathway in Australia — what each level tests, and what separates the athletes who move up.
Why this program exists
Bowling is the highest-load repetitive action in Australian sport and almost nobody trains for the load, only for the skill. Then the back goes in December.
Fast bowling punishes the lumbar spine laterally, the lead hip, and the bowling shoulder’s internal rotation. So the prehab is a loaded side plank, hip rotation and a sleeper stretch — not a generic mobility flow. Batting and fielding get rotational power, and the conditioning is built around holding your action together for a full spell.
A default cricket week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What cricket is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Rotational power for batting + throwing
- Bowler durability (lumbar + shoulder)
- Speed-endurance over a long day in the field
- Sprint repeatability for run-up and fielding
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endurance Day | Gym | 60–75 min | Lower-body strength base + bowler-spec endurance circuit |
| Speed & Strength | Gym | 55–70 min | Plyo-primed Olympic lift + posterior-chain pull + 12-min AMRAP finisher |
| Run Day | Conditioning | 35–55 min | Sprint mechanics + speed-endurance + repeat-effort |
| Skills + Nets | Skills | — | Sport practice |
The season changes the program
A summer sport, so the build happens through the back half of winter — exactly when most cricketers do nothing.
- Pre-season
- August – September — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- October – March — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- April – July — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The cricket testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what cricket programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| 2km time trial | The aerobic benchmark your program is built around. | mm:ss |
| Bench press 1RM | Upper-body pressing strength: the fend, the tackle, holding a bigger body off. | kg |
| Max pull-ups | Relative pulling strength — the best upper-body number there is for a field athlete. | reps |
| Trap-bar deadlift 1RM | Whole-body pulling strength — the lift that carries over to acceleration. | kg |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
What is actually in a cricket program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbell Back Squat | Endurance Day | Base lower-body strength — bowling drive + batting stance | Quads · Glutes |
| Loaded 90/90 — hold each side | Endurance Day | Internal and external hip rotation held at end range — the range that runs out first in cutting sports | Glutes |
| Romanian Deadlift | Endurance Day | Posterior chain for driving legs | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Sleeper Stretch — loaded shoulder hold | Endurance Day | Internal rotation range in the back shoulder — the range a bowling, throwing or serving arm loses first, and the one that precedes the impingement | Shoulders |
| Weighted Chin-Up | Endurance Day | Contested marking + tackle strength | Back · Biceps |
| Weighted Side Plank — long hold | Endurance Day | Lateral trunk endurance under load — the side that gives way in a fast bowler's side strain and in every one-armed carry | Abs / Core |
| Box Jump | Speed & Strength | Vertical power for marking + ruck taps | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Bulgarian Split Squat | Speed & Strength | Single-leg power + change of direction | Quads · Glutes |
| Cable External Rotation — end-range hold | Speed & Strength | The rotator cuff loaded where it actually fails — at the end of the range, decelerating the arm after the ball has gone | Shoulders |
| Farmer Carry | Speed & Strength | Grip and a braced trunk under a load that is genuinely heavy | Traps · Back · Abs / Core |
| Front Squat | Speed & Strength | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Hang Power Clean | Speed & Strength | Triple extension = sprint acceleration | Quads · Glutes · Hamstrings · Traps |
| Heavy Suitcase Hold | Speed & Strength | The trunk resisting a sideways pull, held — the shape of every one-sided carry, collision and pull in sport | Abs / Core · Traps · Back |
| Pause Squat Jump | Speed & Strength | Concentric-only jump — pure starting strength | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Weighted Couch Stretch | Speed & Strength | The hip flexor and quad at full length, loaded, which is where a long season leaves them shortest | Quads |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the cricket battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Cricket training questions
What does the Train Smart cricket program include?
When is cricket pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the cricket program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Related
Get your cricket program
Pick cricket, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.