Conditioning is important because it helps improve students with their sports and overall performances like physical health, strength, endurance, flexibility, and much more. Conditioning also helps reduce risk of injuries. Students at CHS are conditioning out of season to get ready for their sport and improve their skills.
The advantages of conditioning out of season is healing your body and strengthening your weaknesses. Mackenzie Van Bogart is a junior at CHS and she said, “Conditioning is so crucial to athletic performances. You cannot expect peak performance in the season if you are not taking the off season to rebuild your body. This is a great opportunity for athletes to get ahead where other athletes may be slacking.”
Mackenzie is an all season athlete, and her off season is summer. She works on building strength during summer, which benefits her for volleyball and track. During her off season, she tries strength training 4-6 days a week.
Mackenzie created her own off season training plan. “I wrote up a plan with equipment I could use at planet fitness and exercises I felt comfortable doing on my own without a spotter. Safety and good form are critical for gains.”
She balances rest and training during the off-season. “I always have at least one full recovery day because your body physically cannot rebuild itself unless you allow it time to repair and recover.”
Conditioning can have so much impact on students because conditioning builds strength.It also helps improve an athlete in so many ways like athletic performances and simple activities like walking around or playing their sport.
Michael Pyeatt is a freshman at CHS. Michael conditions for cross country during the summer and he also conditions for basketball and track. He said, “Off season conditioning keeps me in shape for my sports which are cross country, basketball, and track.”
What keeps Michael motivated to condition in between seasons is working hard to become faster and stronger so he can run as fast or even faster as his older brother. He said, “I want to be faster than my brother William who runs in college.”
Michael enjoys conditioning so he can get better for the next season, but he doesn’t like how exhausting it is. Michael said, “My favorite part of off season conditioning is improving my skills, my least favorite is the exhaustion.”
