Fitness Classes are Back at Girl Fit!

Off Season Strengthening & Fitness
As the school year comes to an end, so do many sports seasons. This means many young athletes take a well deserved break from their sport for the summer and will start up again in the fall. Whether you are a dancer, skater, swimmer, gymnast, cheerleader, or participate in a different sport, summer is usually a time to take an important break from training. However, a big break from training your muscles and maintaining your fitness can have unintended consequences!
1. Losing strength gains from this season
You have likely gotten much stronger and improved your skills throughout the season as you work on movements in your sport to perfect them. A long break in training the muscles you use for those movements can mean you will lose some of the hard work you have put in over the school year.
2. Increasing injury risk for start of next season
When next season starts up again, you will likely jump straight into a full training schedule to get ready for your first competition. This quick change from low activity to high training frequency can put you at higher risk of injury! A better strategy is to keep some physical activity and strengthening in your routine during the off season, then slowly ramp up your training schedule to prep for the start of the season.

Maintain your Strength & fitness at Girl Fit
So what can you do at Girl Fit to maintain your strength gains from this season, decrease your risk of injury next season, and make sure you are ready for a healthy stat to next season?
- The first thing you can do is schedule a wellness visit where one of our qualified physical therapists can assess your individualized needs and goals, and give you a plan to help reach them!
- Another option is to gather a few of your friends or teammates together to set up a Girl Fit Injury Prevention class! Girl Fit classes work on strengthening the most important muscles for injury prevention in female athletes: the gluteus medius, the gluteus maximus, and the obliques (1). We also work on ankle, knee, hip, back, and shoulder strengthening and can make it specific for your sport!
The most important thing is to stay active and keep working on your strength even in the off season!

Book a Wellness Visit or Small Group Fitness Class Today
To book a wellness visit or a private group fitness class, you can contact us at office@girlfitpt.com or at 617-618-9290.
Michaela Main, PT, DPT
Reference: 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595911/pdf/ijspt-10-573.pdf

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