Weekend Warriors Unite!
Posted on 24. Aug, 2008 by Keith Scott in Back to Health, Fitness, Motivation
When you reach that time in your life when you are too old to compete as you use to, or when you realize that competitive sports have passed you by, what are you to do?
You still have that burning competitive desire in your blood and you know you are still in decent enough shape to play and play pretty well.
You decide to join a recreation basketball league and reawaken your dominance on defense, or re-establish your 3-point shot that won so many games for you in high school.
Maybe you join a flag football league with like-minded people in hopes that your speed is still good enough to burn anyone downfield that tries to defend you.
If organized leagues aren’t your thing, you might just get the guys you went to high school together once a weekend and play some tackle football, no-foul basketball, or any other sport you can come up with.
Some might just want to compete against themselves at the local gym…trying to put up close to the same amount of weight that you did in your early twenties.
The game, activity or the sport doesn’t really matter. What matters is that your competitive spirit still burns and burns so much that you have to do something. Age isn’t going to get in the way and it shouldn’t.
The problem that many people in this category find out pretty fast is that they can’t jump as high, run as fast, feel as dominant, or worse yet, recover fast enough to play again the following week.
Hamstring pulls, sore lower backs, trouble breathing, or injuries that are more serious occur all of the time with the common weekend warrior. Many give up and give into their age, claiming it just isn’t meant to be anymore.
I don’t agree. I think most people have the right attitude but go about it in the wrong way. Whether you are 27 years old and feeling weaker than you did in middle school, or you are 40 and cant run more than three pass routes without feeling like you are going to pass out, there is hope for all of you.
The common weekend warrior forgets, or chooses not to remember, all of the practice and training that they did when they did compete in high school or even college.
Most athletes didn’t just lace up the cleats or sneakers and have at it, once a week and then go back to doing something else the rest of the time. Athletes train and they get better each week.
Weekend warriors are still athletes and many of those rules still apply. “But I don’t have a coach, or training partner, worse yet, I don’t have the time!” All of these are legitimate answers, but still not good excuses.
What every weekend warrior needs to do is decide at what level he or she wants to still compete and how he or she want to feel each week after they do so.
Do you want to run fast, jump high, dominate with confidence…all while you feel good, stay healthy and come back the following week even better?
Do you want to get stronger than you have ever been, even though you are older?
If so, then you need to prepare, in the same manner that you did when you were competing. This doesn’t mean that you need to practice 2 hours everyday, for 5 days-a-week…what it means is that you need to get your body ready for the demands that you are going to be placing on it when you play or train.
Start by finding a well-balanced strength-training program that you can and will follow a few times a week. Make sure this program is a full body strength program.
Perform mobility work. Your joints will thank you for it. What is mobility work? In simple terms, it is teaching or re-teaching your joints how to move through space and stressing them in a positive way so you wont have problems moving around, running, jumping, or just training hard.
Make sure you plan your recovery each day. Sounds simple, but most people do not have a planned out recovery program. When you get older, it is necessary. Soft-tissue work, such as massage, self-myofascial release (i.e. foam rolling), stretching and active rest are more important than you think.
Finally, get needed rest. If you are going to play and train hard and want to succeed in doing it you need adequate rest.
If you are going to be that weekend warrior, do it right! Take care of your physical needs so you don’t end up hurting, injured or find yourself giving up. Age doesn’t matter if you go about it in the right way.
