A Ball Player’s Guide to Breaking Out of a Funk

You don’t need to be a ballplayer to realize that life can feel like Ground Hog Day. In professional baseball, you play everyday with an occasional off day every twenty-five or thirty days or so. While it’s a unique job, there’s nothing about your days that are unique. 

The monotony is mind numbing (just like in life). 

Naturally, baseball teams have come up with strategies to get out of a funk. What I’m about to tell you is so universal that you could mention the following three words to any baseball player and they’d know exactly what I mean:

“Show and go.”

A “show and go” is an intervention to disrupt the mundanity of the season. Rather than do the normal pregame routine, teams will intentionally arrive at the stadium abruptly before the game, get dressed, and play without preparing. 

You see, most every day includes a long meticulous preparation for the game. For a 7:00pm game, position players will take a full batting practice around 3:00pm, for example. Pitchers will run and do their arm care routines hours before the game and this whole pop and circumstance happens day in and day out. 

The magic of the “show and go” is that it disrupts the pattern. This is especially important when things are going poorly and morale is low. 

Well, this exact phenomenon happens in the gym, too. When motivation is low and the gym feels mundane and routine, you might need to deploy your secret weapon to mix things up. 

You could try doing your whole workout nasal breathing or substitute a common movement for something more fringe. Or, changing up the rack you use or what time you train can make a world of difference. 

What’s your gym version of a show-and-go look like?