Ah, the off season. A magical time of freedom from your coaches constantly yelling at you to up your game slowly fades away. Your running shoes slowly migrate with the birds, except only to the back of your closet, and you convince yourself that, “resting is training too.” You’ve earned it, right? Just a few weeks of taking a break shouldn’t hurt right? Until suddenly, December 1st comes around and- BAM!—the first day of practice hits harder than a hill repeat (sorry, XC and track kids for reminding you of trauma).
So, here’s a friendly, slightly painful reminder of why you really, really, should have trained off-season.
Because The First Practice Was Not The Time To Relearn How To Move:
Do you remember when your coach said, “We’ll start light” but then you immediately start questioning your life choices halfway through the warm up? Yeah. Turns out that doing no training for weeks doesn’t exactly prepare you for drills, sprints, scrimmages, or… any physical activity really.
Muscle Memory Has Its Limits
You may have been gaslighted to believe that your body will fully “remember” how to play, run, jump, or swing. It will, just right after it “remembers” how to cramp-ache and fail miserably at even basic coordination. Your brain says you got this, and your legs agree… if it were last season.
A Coach’s Sixth Sense For Slackers
Oh, you thought you could blend in. Rest in peace, my friend. You thought nobody would notice that your idea of off season training was hibernating on the couch. But coaches… they can smell off-season laziness. That extra wheeze during warm ups? The suspiciously long water breaks? They know.
That One Teammate
There’s always that one kid. The overachiever who trained off season, showing up like an action figure. The one that casually destroys everyone in drills while you try not to pass out. You’ll try playing it off as you are “pacing” yourself. Pacing straight into regret. (Cough cough the kid makes varsity as a freshman.) Don’t you want to strut out of warm-ups without wheezing and winking at the coach who looks at you a little differently now?
Sleeping Like a Champ
Bet you didn’t know that exercise means better sleep (or maybe you did and you still didn’t train). Exercise increases your blood flow to the brain which means better focus, sharper memory, and fewer “wait what are we doing?” moments during practice. You might even finish your homework before midnight and not doom-scroll (wild concept, I know).
Happiness…
Running releases endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin (no, not drugs though it sure feels like it), and that little trio of neurotransmitters are responsible for mood, motivation, and overall happiness. Training tells your brain, “hey life’s not too bad at the moment.” Consistent movement also lowers your cortisol levels (which cause stress), so you will feel calmer and more in control.
#BasicallyInvincible (Not literally)
Regular training builds stronger bones. It builds stronger joints. It helps your balance. Translation: fewer injuries, faster recoveries, and more time actually playing. Wouldn’t you like to play instead of being with your pal, regret, on the sidelines?
Merciless Group Chats
Some poor souls believe that they have a supportive team when it comes to no off season training. Maybe they are… but did they do any off season training? Us personally, we don’t really like when the chat starts to light up:
“Who died during conditioning?”
“Someone check if [insert your name here] is still breathing.”
No amount of emojis can soften the pain.
Habits That Last
By running off season, you don’t lose that little scheduled break in your day that you kept for practice. It will keep you from having to get used to a routine all over again. Routines help your training from feeling like torture, and running is the easiest to fill time with. Imagine if you had been running, and you ran into your coach while doing that? I guess you wouldn’t know if you didn’t run, but it feels awesome. Feeling awesome as a habit seems amazing to me…
MVP: Your Heart
Sure, training your body is good for your muscles, but that’s not all. It literally reshapes your cardiovascular system. Regular aerobic activity strengthens your left ventricle (the chamber in your heart that pumps blood to the rest of your body). Over time it expands and increases stroke volume, meaning that it pumps more blood per beat. So, more oxygen reaches your muscles, and your body becomes more efficient at moving around. Your endurance could have skyrocketed and you wouldn’t sound like a broken lawn mower halfway through warm ups.
So, if these reasons didn’t convince you, at least do SOME type of physical activity because you do not want to be that one kid who is in terribly poor shape because they were just too lazy. Just go out and run! (if not, just download Strava, an app that basically bullies you into running.) Have fun off-season running (which you better do) next time everyone!
