By Roxan Mina-Maccan | Physiotherapist & Director
The season finishes and the natural reaction is:
“I’m going to do absolutely nothing for a few weeks.”
Some recovery is sensible. After months of training and competition, your body may genuinely need a reduction in load.
But there is a difference between recovering and detraining.
If you completely stop running, strength training and sport-specific movement for an extended period, you lose some of the physical qualities you spent the season building.
Then pre-season arrives and everything comes back at once.
Running volume increases.
Gym sessions restart.
Sprint work returns.
Training becomes more intense.
That sudden jump is often harder on the body than maintaining a small amount of work throughout the off-season.
So what should you actually maintain?
You do not need to train like you are still in-season.
For most field-sport athletes, aim to preserve three basic qualities.
1. Keep some strength work
Two short strength sessions each week can go a long way.
Prioritise:
- squat or split-squat variation
- hinge movement such as a deadlift
- calf strengthening
- hamstring strengthening
- pushing and pulling
- trunk strength
You do not need endless exercises. Five or six quality movements are enough.
2. Keep running — but reduce the pressure
If you normally run several times per week, do not necessarily stop completely.
Instead, maintain one or two comfortable running sessions.
One could be easy aerobic work.
The other could include some controlled faster efforts once your body has recovered from the season.
The aim is simply to avoid going from 100% to zero, then back to 100%.
3. Fix the thing you taped all year
This is probably the biggest off-season opportunity.
Think back over your season.
What did you repeatedly manage?
An ankle?
A knee?
A hamstring?
Your groin?
Your shoulder?
If you needed to tape, modify training or constantly “manage” the same area, use the off-season to actually rebuild it.
Pain disappearing because sport stopped does not necessarily mean the problem is resolved.
A simple off-season rule
For the first couple of weeks, reduce training and recover.
Then rebuild a manageable routine around:
2 strength sessions + 1–2 conditioning sessions + targeted rehab if required.
You should finish the off-season feeling fresher — but not physically starting again from scratch.
Takeaway
Rest enough to recover, but maintain enough to stay prepared. Your off-season should reduce fatigue without removing your physical foundation.