What can you do outside of the game? The first thing many former athletes do is rest. They let their bodies catch up and rest up so they can feel like themselves again. After all the the hard work they put in over the years, your body doesn’t truly get a break. So once your career is over, the first thing to naturally do is take some time off and get away from the grind of practice and constant workouts. The “break” doesn’t last as long as you would think though. A former athlete may take 2 weeks up to a month off of workouts before their body starts to feel weird and want to get back to it. Our bodies become used to doing things around the same time every year. Every spring a football players body starts to feel like playing football again because the body knows it’s March and it’s time to put your helmet back on and go to practice.