#1 Thing Most Athletes Don’t Do During Pre-Season

Pre-season is upon us! Summer is winding down and a big change of schedule is coming. School is going to be back in session soon and sports seasons are about to ramp up! That’s a lot of schedule change to handle all at once. So what do you do??? Usually what will happen is you’ll wait until the very last minute and then just wait for the schedule change to smack you in the face! 😂 But what if you prepared in advance and then the schedule change would be a breeze! Not to mention getting back into the swing of school and the grueling sports season would actually be enjoyable! Today we’ll go through one simple habit that you can start building today to be prepared to crush everything coming your way!  

Incremental Preparation

This seems like too simple of a solution but the problem is…nobody does it! Instead of just waiting until everything HAS to change all at once, start to change things little by little so once the big change (that usually sucks) isn’t so big at all. It’ll be super easy because you already adjusted and prepared in advance! Here are few simple habits to start adjusting NOW!

Plan Out Your Daily Schedule

• Write everything you’re going to have to do in a day (school , practice, workout, etc)
• Start to see how everything will fit in with each other
• Don’t forget to plan out healthy habits too – like proper eating, drinking water and sleep schedule

Track Consistency

• Start to add in whatever habits you can now (workouts, eating healthy, sleep habits, water intake, etc)
• Track your progress – what was easy and hard to stick with
• Give yourself a few weeks to start making these habits stick
• This trial period will make it so much easier once the times comes to add everything back in including school and practices

Adjust at a Manageable Rate

• As we said before you can’t add everything all at once, start with just 1-2 things
• Don’t make a drastic switch – if your summer sleep schedule was to wake up at 2pm then adjust back 1-2 hours every week until you get back closer to your normal wake up time for school
• Small little incremental adjustments add up to huge wins in building better habits
• Building a few better habits now will make the switch of schedule a piece of cake to handle once the time comes

  Don’t let the crazy change of schedule intimidate you, this is all easily manageable by creating strong habits, preparing in advance, and staying focused on your development! Any questions feel free to reach out! You can also schedule a complimentary movement/goal assessment to see where your movement baseline is and how to properly set goals for the season! Thanks for reading!

#unleashthepotential

Written by:

Rob Jost – ACE-CPT, NSCA-CPT

Suggested Article: Top 4 Ways to Maximize Your Off-Season Lift Program

Take action… Now!

Voorhees Flyers Training center.

The Hollydell ice arena, in the main building.