East off season athletes take steps to improve their conditioning for on season performance. Many players must maintain their fitness and skill set while in the off season until the on season begins; this requires the process of off season conditioning to have more challenges for players to undergo in order to be prepped up when the on season hits.

“Off season you can push a little harder because you don’t have to worry about playing a game that week, off season is where you’re going make all your gains so we encourage heavier loads when they lift. We can push them a little harder on the running because we don’t have to worry about them having their legs for a game that week. It’s all about the off season to make gains,” varsity head football coach Nathan Liess said.

An athlete off season conditioning blog by Johnsonfitness.com said that any athlete should plan to make their gains while off season and that many hours in the weight room are necessary because strength is needed for any sport.

“I would recommend all athletes to be in a weights class and in addition to that I would have them do running workouts after school at least a couple of days a week to build upon that,” Liess said.

Student athletes who are currently in the off season compared their current conditioning experiences to when they are on season.

“They’re pretty much the same, off season is like everyday, like Monday through Friday, and then when the season starts we just don’t do as much, [or] go as hard. Like for game day you still lift, but it’s not as much,” senior football player Jacob Larson said.

Another student athlete compares her experiences of off season conditioning in a different sport until she is back on season.

“You really have to save your energy, we don’t do a lot of conditioning during on season because we have to save our muscles, if we have a game on Friday or Thursday we have a pre-game practice where it’s only like half a practice we do like light stuff to rest our bodies, and then during game our coach expects us to go all out,” volleyball player DeAnn Marr said.

Certain conditioning is also changed to meet the physical requirements of that student’s particular sport.

“We do a lot of running/cardio and a lot of lifting off season during the summer,” Marr said.

Resources are readily available for any student athlete looking to improve themselves before their sport is back in season.

“We use the weight room and go outside, so all the facilities are there for us,” Larson said.