Going out to play after a long time

For most young people, the only form of exercise usually comes from going out to play with friends as they often fail to save time for physical workout due to the nature of their hectic schedules. Thanks to the pandemic though, even that opportunity had been lost.

However, with the restrictions slowly easing up, many of us have started to go out and play more.

As I joyfully return to the field to play football after months, I was taken aback by how much I was struggling to keep playing.

As soon as I stepped on the pitch, I felt unprepared. I could feel a tight feeling of breathlessness in my chest after just one sprint. I still carried on.

Soon, my heart started beating rapidly, barely keeping up with the body's demands. My stamina soon started to run out and fatigue set in. Muscles began to ache, and any kind of movement became painful. Ultimately, I had to give up.

Much to my surprise, the effects didn't end there. The pain and the tiredness remained for days. I even lost the physical and mental energy to go about my daily activities. The question that immediately crossed my mind, and maybe many others like me was, "How do I change this?"

An effective but often ignored way to deal with this is to do warm-up exercises before one starts playing. While going out to play with friends, we almost never think about this, whereas, professionals always warm up before training or playing to get their bodies ready for the game, and avoid potential injuries.

One of the more obvious things we could do is play more. The change in one's fitness level is not going to happen overnight. Many of us get out to play once and then forget about playing again for a while. Thus, we never build up the stamina that is required to play. As a result, we keep struggling whenever we return to the field.

To reduce long term discomfort caused from playing, it's very effective to take a short nap after a game as your body releases growth hormones to repair your muscles and reduces overall fatigue.

A lesser-known yet important step for a quick recovery process is to jump into a cold shower after returning home after a game. Cold showers help remove the lactic acid that gets stored up in the muscles and cause pain, and may also reduce inflammation of the muscles.

With the new variants on the rise, we may have to resort to staying inside more. However, we can hope to return to the field regularly once things are better, and we shouldn't be discouraged by the struggle we face while playing. Instead, we could maybe put in a little more effort and planning into playing for the sake of better health and good times.

Tamjidul Hoque loves talking about football and watching anime. You can find him on twitter at twitter.com/TamjidulH24