With the weather getting colder and summer sports coming to an end, both professional and everyday athletes are getting ready for a transition. Whether it’s moving activity indoors or the team winding down after a great season, we all need to know how to maintain our performance and physical health during rest periods.
Here are some helpful tips on how you can maintain your performance during the off-season:
Rest and recover
It is important to take time to rest and recover during your off-season. This is true for everyday athletes, and especially true for professional athletes. If you have been working hard and putting a lot of stress on your body, then the off-season is a good time to focus on recovering. Recovery includes getting rest and a good sleep. While you are training during your sports season, you have a lot of early mornings and all that physical activity is extremely draining on the body. Prioritize getting quality sleep in the colder months when it is harder to get outdoors as part of your off-season routine.
Improve your nutritional habits
Your off-season can be the perfect time to improve and make lasting changes to your diet. Making sure you intake nourishing foods and focus on good nutrition is a great way to prepare for your next season and ensure you are able to continue your usual activities when the weather gets nicer. When you have a nutritious diet, you are also more likely to have a better sleep which will help your body recover from high muscular activity during your on-season.
Continue to move your body
Although rest periods are important, you should still find ways to move your body. You want to maintain the hard work you did during your on-season, so make sure you keep moving. It doesn’t have to be intense workouts that will put a strain on your body; it can be as simple as a short run, walk, yoga or other low-impact activities to help keep your body moving. For professional athletes, this is the time to ensure your workouts are done with quality movements — make sure you are doing your workouts with proper form to avoid injury.
Work with an athletic therapist!
Don’t just rest, improve! Use your off-season to address injuries or pains you played through in the on-season. Athletic therapy is for everyone, and a Certified Athletic Therapist’s goal is to help clients return to their usual activities, whether that means playing competitive sports or walking to the mailbox and back. An athletic therapist’s combination of manual mobilizations and exercise therapy has been proven to affect significant improvement in pain and physical ability and substantially reduce the likelihood of overuse injuries. Working through your overuse injuries will help prevent further injuries in your next on-season. Your off-season is a great time to look into athletic therapy and find out how an athletic therapist can help you get back to your regular routine and the activities you love.
If you are interested in seeing what a CAT(C) can do for you, find one in your neighbourhood on our website. Make sure to stay up to date with CATA by following us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn!