Rory McIlroy Talks Offseason Prep Ahead Of Players Championship

In a game as challenging as golf, Rory McIlroy makes it look effortless.

As he casually walked through a golf demonstration at the driving range at The PLAYERS STADIUM Course at TPC Sawgrass in January, it's easy to see why he's the betting favorite to win this year's PLAYERS Championship with odds of +750 ($10 bet would net $75) according to FanDuel. McIlroy won the PGA TOUR's flagship event last year and enters this year's tournament as the current world No. 1.

Before he gets set to attempt a repeat on the tour's most challenging course this week (March 12-15 on the GOLF Channel and NBC), we caught up with McIlroy to discuss his offseason preparation and why he does well without having a habitual approach to his craft.

In terms of golf, I finished the week before Thanksgiving and I didn't really hit a golf shot until the beginning of the new year - so about six weeks. I try to take a few weeks off to let the body reset. The only time golfers can really make any sort of fitness gains is in the offseason. Whenever you get back in season, you're just maintaining and on the course for six hours a day. You're just trying to maintain what you might be able to do in those six-to-eight weeks that you've taken off during the offseason.

We travel a lot, so it's nice to just stay in one place and not have to travel over time zones. To be able to stay in one place for a few weeks or a month is really nice. I try to do the right things. I get enough sleep and I've been wearing the Whoop for a year. That obviously helps with recovery and I've learned what habits help me to recover better, get better sleep to feel better the next day. It's really simple stuff. Sometimes, I'll do an infrared sauna.

I try to take a cold shower before bed every night and that's really helped. It helps you get into parasympathetic response in your nervous system, which is the branch in the nervous system that helps you go to sleep. That's really helped and been a big thing for me. It's good because you can record everything on [The Whoop] and say I took a cold shower before bed last night and the next day, you're 90 percent recovered and ready to go. This has been a big thing for me, and I've really enjoyed wearing it and finding out what works for me. I think it's all about trying to do what's right for you.

The week of Thanksgiving and the week after are just chill time and once that next week hits, that's when I'll begin to ramp up my training. It'll be in the gym and I'll look at some stuff from the year before, where I'll say I could've been better in this or use a little more stability in this part of my body, or I need a little bit more speed.

We obviously have the people we work with and you sit down with your team and figure out what was good and what wasn't so good. You sort of make a plan from there and build off of that.

I'm a pretty early riser, so I typically wake up between six or seven every morning. I live in Florida and nothing happens here after nine. I'm usually in bed really early and I'll sleep from 10-6. I'll get up, pour some coffee, have some electrolytes and I'll go do a gym session. Whether that's a warmup before practice and I'm on the golf course at nine, working on stuff and playing.

I don't respond well to a lot of structure. I sort of like to go along as I feel. Sometimes, structure can feel a little too much like work and this isn't work. I play golf because I love it and it's fun. I still need to keep that element. There's no rigidity that some people will have.

I try to be. During the season it's hard because you're just trying to just eat anything for energy. You're out there for five-to-six hours a day and you're burning a lot of calories. There's been times where I've burned over 1500 calories in a day. You're in stressful situations and your heart rate is up. You try to get things that is nutrient dense and whole foods, not eat stuff out of wrappers all the time. For the most part, I try to do the right things.

I wouldn't say I'm keto or paleo, but I can eat all that stuff. I always say everything in moderation. As long as you eat right most of the time, you don't need to worry about much. I'm lucky I don't have any food allergies or restrictions. I can eat gluten, diary and my approach is just everything in moderation.

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