Whether you played through high school, college, or professionally, you experience a huge life-changing moment when you finish your athletic career. For many, working out daily, if not twice daily, has been the norm for years or decades, and you may feel like you’ve left a piece of your life behind when you finish your last competition.
BodCraft supports your transition to a new fitness routine by offering the best gym athletic wear made by athletes for athletes. Even though you may not identify with a team, you know you still need to stay in shape, but you may find that restructuring your life to stay fit can be challenging.
For many former athletes, a 20-plus-pound weight gain, lack of motivation, and overall sense of loss define their lives after organized sports. Although the transition can be mentally and physically tough, BodCraft provides the best gym athletic wear that offers consistent quality and performance no matter how your life changes, and this post explains what you can do to find motivation and joy in fitness after your life in organized sports.
Restructure Goals
Athletes understand how to create goals. Athletes don’t make simple, broad goals. They have been trained to make specific, long-term goals and then create smaller, short-term goals that lead to success. If you’ve been creating goals like this throughout your athletic career, making goals in this way doesn’t have to change, just your goals need to.
No longer do your goals need to encompass a sport, but if your sport is all you’ve known for years, you may be questioning how to stay motivated for working out when you’re no longer competing. So consider these ideas to restructure your fitness goals:
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See the opportunity, not the loss. When you stop competing, you may lose your sense of direction, especially after competing at a high level. While this transition may be the close of a chapter in your life, start writing a new book. High-performance athletes train multiple times a day all throughout the year. So most of your choices have been made with your sport as the priority. See the opportunity now to try new things and train in ways that you’ve wanted to but never could because of how it would have affected your performance. Instead of dwelling on how you don’t get to work out with the team anymore, focus on how you get to have fun sampling new ways of working out.
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Figure out your wants and needs. You may still want speed and agility, but you just don’t need them to be a better wide receiver. Maybe you still want strong legs, but you don’t need them to block hits in volleyball anymore. In sports, it’s easier to tie a goal to a specific task, but you can still do that outside of sports. Spend some time considering what you want and need out of fitness. Think of the functional aspect of fitness that applies to your life now. Make goals that benefit your everyday lifestyle so that you see the rewards daily and consistently reap that positive reinforcement.
- Flip the mental switch. Athletics may have been all you’ve known for years and having to make goals outside of your sport may feel daunting. However, as an athlete, you’re used to mental challenges. The mental challenge you face now is defining yourself as more than just a single-sport athlete. Embrace who you are in fitness and competition every day and reevaluate your goals to stay motivated.
No matter what your goals may be, your gym athletic wear can be a game-changer. By using the highest-quality gym clothes, you can boost your performance both mentally and physically regardless of whether you’re competing officially in a sport or looking to stay fit for life.
Enjoy New Challenges and New Workouts
If you’ve been competing at a high level for years, let’s face it: You like to compete, and you like to win. So start finding new ways to compete. If winning gets you up in the morning, find a recreational league or competition you can join. Look both inside and outside your sport—plenty of competitive leagues can be found for a variety of sports. You may even find something new you enjoy.
Not only can you try any workout, but you also already have a leg up on the competition. You already know how to train, how to compete, and how to mentally prepare. You have a natural jump on the hard stuff, so all you need to do is try something new. Consider some different options that require mental toughness and physical fitness but that might be totally different from what you’re used to doing:
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Swimming: A great whole-body sport that appeals to those who like to compete against themselves as well as others, swimming has extensive master’s competitions across the country. Swimming offers a low-impact, high-performance sport that may be easier on your joints but still provides the intense workout you need to maintain your current fitness level. Competitive swimmers couple water workouts with intensive, functional weight training.
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Pilates: Another low-impact but high-intensity workout, Pilates can be done on a mat or on a reformer to add resistance to your training. Many high-performance athletes already incorporate Pilates into their training regimen. If you haven’t before, give this workout a try. While it looks deceptively simple, Pilates offers an intense full-body workout, especially on a reformer. Pilates not only builds mobility and strength but also effectively reduces your risk of injury.
- Golf: Golf can be a great way to refocus your competitive spirit. Requiring strong movement along your entire body, stability, coordination, and endurance, golf can be a great way to expand your fitness horizons. You can find plenty of local and regional golf tournaments to take part in to appease your need for competition, and golf gives you another motivation for working out. Everything you do in the gym can translate to a better golf game.
Regardless of what you choose to try, the definition of staying fit or in shape constantly changes as you transition through life. If you see your transition as an opportunity, you have a great chance of smoothly shifting to each new period in your life no matter what sport or activity you involve yourself in.
With each change and transition, your gym clothes don’t need to. BodCraft offers the best gym clothes for men and women, using high-quality materials and custom design. Whether you need golf attire for men or women’s athletic outfits, you can be confident that no matter how your activities change, the high quality and excellent performance of your BodCraft athletic gear never will.
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