Written Task, Option 2

The lifestyle of a professional athlete, especially in a sport as demanding as ice hockey, requires a strict lifestyle and dedication to training and bodily maintenance. The boom and bust approach to being a complete slug for a few weeks of vacation, and then going hard in the gym in the lead-up to the season start has been popular for decades, and has its own benefits and problems. Maintaining a strict training and diet regiment, with some time allotted for relaxation and lower-intensity training is a more sustainable option, but we will briefly look at some benefits and drawbacks of both of these.

The boom and bust approach has its main benefit in mental health. Time away from the sport and training can be extremely beneficial, and gives time for lingering injuries to recover, as well as for the body and mind to simply relax. However, this approach can make it very difficult to get back into game shape (depending on the length and type of vacation)

Maintaining a training regimen throughout time off, engaging in lower-intensity and lower frequency training sessions while adhering to a plan and schedule has the benefit of ensuring the climb back to peak shape for the hockey season is less steep and more manageable. The main downside of this approach however, can be the mental strain from never feeling like one has time to be 'off.'