When most people think of working out, they think about bench pressing, deadlifts or squats.

ROMS football cornerback Stellen D’Angelo is one of the athletes participating in offseason conditioning. There’s much more to the offseason workout.

“We do deadlift, bench, squat, incline, and mat drills,” D’Angelo said.

Many students don’t know the danger of having bad form, or using too much weight. You can and most likely will sustain serious injuries if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Form, or the way you sit, stand or bend while exercising, is important to any workout. We are always trying to improve our form for each workout. We all look out for each other to make sure we stay safe and don’t get hurt. While our physical condition matters, who we are as people is even more important.

In the weight room, football positions don’t matter. Only our teammates matter. We all try to support each other. Getting to class on time. Keeping our grades up.

Eighth grader Cameron Pineda recently transferred back from Life School. He believes the “little things” and being late are some of the most commonly made mistakes athletes make. When you’re late to the fieldhouse, you don’t get as much time to workout. You still have to dress out and you have to do about 50 up-downs before you can get to the actual work out.

ROMS coaches always say that it’s the little things that matter. It’s the little things that could cost you the game – or cause a major injury in the offseason.  

Another thing the coaches talk about is “going through the motions.”  Most of the athletes asked about that phrase seemed to misunderstand the saying. Finally, Coach Brian Talley gave an amazing answer.

“Going through the motions is doing something without a purpose,” Talley explained. That phrase was said every single day of off season. It made sense now. It’s when people just don’t try as hard as they could. It’s going to affect them when football season comes around.

And that’s the point. Even though football games are played from August to October, athletes should always have their heads in the game and their bodies in shape.

That’s what goes on in that field house. People helping each other out. Preventing injuries, and helping people grow.