It is never too soon to start training. Photo by Todd Bauders/ contrastphotography.com

By Brian Lange

Spring cleaning!

It’s that time of year again.

The snow is gone… finally! The temperature is starting to warm up and inside exercise now turns into outside workouts! It’s time to get a little “green” under you!

When you first read the title of this article, you probably thought, “didn’t he mean to say Spring training? Nope… I meant cleaning.

If you’ve been lucky enough to have access to a nice indoor training facility then maybe you were able to get in some great workouts… if not, you probably did a lot of… well…nothing.

Spring training/condition is right around the corner so it’s time to clean some of those “cobwebs” out of your system.

Many athletes go into spring training and even pre-season with the idea that they are going to “play themselves into shape”. Not the best way to do it so I encourage you to get out there and get a jump on your competition.

Let me give you an example. I was coming home from a training session with a client when I drove by a local park with a turf field. I love to train on turf! No holes, no grassy smell, I can see the yard lines and it is soft on my joints. (I’m an old guy!)

So… not wanting to let a perfectly good turf go to waste, I decided to stop and get a quick

workout in.

Here’s what I did:

1. easy jog for warm up.

2. dynamic stretching

3. 100yd strides

4. 100yd pick-ups

5. 30yd double foot hops

6. 30yd alternate foot bounds

7. stride outs

8. cool down/static stretch

You’re probably thinking: “well that’s not much of a work out”. And you would be correct.

But it wasn’t a typical work out. I was just getting back out there again and getting some “green” under my feet. My goal is to get my body moving… so in a few weeks, when I start my own “spring training” I won’t have play myself into shape!

The idea is to start out slow…get back into the swing of things. It will help motivate you, decrease your chance of injury and put you ahead of the training curve.

Here are some other things you can do.

Bleachers, hills, easy pass patterns, modified intervals on the track or field, sand runs or just toss the ball around.

So… if you haven’t done anything since the game of touch you played on Superbowl Sunday,

then it is time to get yourself moving and ready for a new season.

Press on!

Brian is the manager of the Gym Source in Villanova, PA. He writes on fitness and sports specific training and has been working with athletes of all levels for over 25 yrs.

Email: brianl@gymsource.com or servefit@juno.com