High school sports provided some of the fondest memories for me and many other current or former players. Along with all the laughs, there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes literally), especially when it came to things like early morning conditioning under the hot August sun. However, even some of the most dedicated high school athletes choose not to play at the collegiate varsity level. Once you make this decision, you are known in college as a NARP, or a Non-Athletic Regular Person. For me, my life up until now had revolved around sports so this was a tough pill to swallow.
Soccer was my main sport during my childhood and through my senior year of high school. After many months without it, I realized that I missed playing and being a part of a team, so I intend to try to play Club Soccer at school this fall. Like many people, during my time without the practice or game every day that came with high school sports, I’ve attempted to keep myself in shape. In order to play in the fall, I need to be as fit as I was when I was playing a year ago. I’ve recently come home for the summer and went to our local field to workout. After an extremely slow and short round of sprints, I laid on the ground and realized that my time as a NARP is going to make getting back in-shape much harder than I thought.
If you think you're in shape, you're so wrong.
We’ve all been there. You’re 7.5 steps into your run and you feel on-top of the world. “I can do this,” you think. But then, that 11th step hits you like a brick wall and you wonder why you ever left your couch, where you sat, just hours ago, eating your second sleeve of sour-cream-and-onion Pringles.
Sprints? Don’t even try.
Even if you were the star of your team in this area, a year, or even one semester, of college will erase any hard work you put in during your seasons on the field. You’ll finish one set of sprints, if you can even categorize your movement as a sprint, because you probably need to be moving faster than a crawling toddler to call it that, and collapse at the finish line. “How did I do this before?” you’ll ask yourself. Not that long ago you were galloping through suicides and now you can’t make it across the field without feeling like you’re going into respiratory arrest.
What is a sit-up/push-up?
If you remember those days where the team did a core workout at the end of practice, you know that even though you complained through every second of the plank, it was worth it once summer came around and it was time for the beach. The most important thing I’ve learned this year is that the Freshman 15 is NOT a myth. Your workout routine may have plateaued and then steadily declined, but your diet definitely didn’t. Believe it or not, all those crunches actually did something. However, a few, or twelve, months off without an ab workout means you’ll be sore after your first one. Try not to be ashamed when it hurts to laugh and you remember that you only made it through 5 sit-ups the previous day.
The day after you work out is going to suck.
Your first hard workout will leave you feeling like you were hit by a freight train the next morning. Even though you didn’t do half of what you would’ve done at a summer conditioning session, your legs feel like they were amputated and then reattached to your body. Just looking at a flight of stairs makes you feel like vomiting, but you probably won’t want to leave your bed that day anyway. It may not seem worth it now, but you'll be back and better than ever sooner than you know.
