Striker Luke Callander has revealed he has been working hard ahead of Chelmsford City's return to pre-season training tomorrow night.
The Clarets striker has – like his team-mates – been given a programme to stick to by fitness and conditioning coach Matt Brinkley ahead of the start of pre-season.
And he admits the desire to avoid Brinkley's punishments had spurred him on to put in the extra miles during the break.
"You don't want to have Matt on your case when you go back to training," he said. "He'll be measuring you with his callipers and running you and god knows what else if you're not in the best shape.
"I think now you have to take the off-season as seriously as you do pre-season.
"I've gone back to pre-seasons before and really struggled and it's been a hard slog so I was determined this year not to do the same and make it easier for myself."
This will be Callander's first full season at Melbourne Park, and the 28-year-old believes the Clarets will have a better campaign under Mark Hawkes and Steve Smith than they did last time out, where they only confirmed their survival with a win in the penultimate game.
He said: "I think we're going to have a good team but I don't think the expectations will be as high as they have been on Chelmsford in previous seasons so I think that's going to give us a little less pressure.
"We go into the season starting afresh, it's Mark and Steve's team that they've created themselves so we'll see how that goes and hopefully we can make a mark on the league and have a good season as a team and I can have a good season personally."
