Indianapolis Colts About to Workout

June 13, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck gets ready to throw a pass during minicamp practice at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

If you’re an Indianapolis Colts fan, I’m sure you’ll try to keep up during the offseason. You’ll hear things like, “training camp,” “mini camp” and “workouts.” You may get excited hearing about the Colts getting back in action.

How much do you really know about what NFL teams actually do in the offseason? All the high flying acrobatic catches, ground pounding runs and laser target tackles come from somewhere. Professional athletes have to stay in shape. They have to practice to keep their careers lasting as long as possible and bring the most money from their contracts.

The Colts offseason workouts begin on April 21. The first thing to know about these workouts is that not everyone has to attend. This is a voluntary workout program. Players can do their own workout program to keep in shape, however players must pass a preseason physical.

The offseason workout that the Colts will begin April 21 consists of three phases. Phase one is primarily physical conditioning. That means a lot of time in the gym lifting weights and hitting the treadmill.

Phase two deals more with the individual players or positions. This is where you would see a lot of drills. No contact is allowed during this phase, or any phase of offseason workouts. In fact you wont even see offense versus defense at this point.

The third and final phase is a little more involved. There is no contact allowed, however they are allowed to have7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills. Some of the practices may seem more like a real practice but its more for conditioning than anything else.

Now you are a more informed fan. When you hear commentators talking an the radio, you’ll at least have an idea of what they’re talking about. Or if you see another tweet like the one from Matt Hasselbeck

@Hasselbeck

"Pretty amazing (& exciting) that we go back to work April 21st."