Strength and Conditioning During Quarantine

A lot of athletes are home right now and don’t have access to their normal strength and conditioning facilities.  Many athletes don’t have access to a commercial gym, or worse their commercial gyms are closed due to the virus.  Few athletes are going to have their own garage gym to train in.  With that in mind, this article is meant to provide some thoughts about what to do to stay in shape during these uncertain times.

First, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

• Doing something to stay in shape is better than doing nothing.  We’re not going to be able to train optimally under these circumstances, so the best we can do is to stay in shape even if it’s not our ideal workout.
• Sport-specific training isn’t going to happen without access to our facilities, so let that idea go.
• The principles of exercise still apply here.  This means we get what we train for, we have to find ways to make things progressively more difficult, we need to rest and recover (e.g. so we don’t want to do the same thing two days in a row), and we need a balanced program.

Without access to our strength and conditioning facilities, or access to a commercial gym, we’re probably training at home or at a park.  That means we’re not going to have lots of equipment to train with.  As a result, a lot of the training we can do is going to be bodyweight training.  So the workout we’re going to present here is focused around bodyweight exercises.

Day One:

Emphasis: Upper body strength and power

Warm-up:

Jumping rope

Jumping jacks

Arm circles (forwards and backwards)

Mountain climbers

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, repeat this circuit three times.

If you don’t have a jump rope, pretend you do.  In other words, still do the exercise but pretend the jump rope is there!

Workout:

Eccentric push-ups (take as long as possible to descend, really fight on the way down, then push up), 3 sets of 5 reps

Clapping push-ups, 3 sets of max

Find a park bench or chair, perform between bench dips, 3 sets of max

If you have access to a pull-up bar, 3 sets of max

Bear crawls, cover 20 yards as fast as you can, 3 sets

Planks, 3×30 seconds

Day Two:

Emphasis: Lower body strength power

Warm-up:

Leg swings (front/back)

Leg swings (side/side)

Eagles

Stomach eagles

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, repeat this circuit three times.

Workout:

Eccentric squats (take as long as possible to descend, really fight on the way down, then stand up), 3 sets of 5 reps

Alternating split jumps (move into the split position, jump into the air and cycle the legs, land with the other leg in front, repeat until you’ve done 5 reps on each leg), 3 sets

Find stairs, a park bench, or a chair and perform step ups, 3 sets of 10 reps on each leg

One leg hip hinges, 3 sets of 10 reps on each leg

Inchworms, cover 20 yards as fast as you can, 3 sets

Vertical jumps: squat jumps, 10x; counter-movement jumps, 10x

Core: 5-10 minutes, have fun with it!

Day Three:

Emphasis: Speed and agility

Warm-up:

Sprinting technique drills, 3×5-10 yards each

Shuffle, 5 yards each direction

Backpedal, 5 yards

Workout:

Falling starts, 3×5 yards

Standing starts, 3×5 yards

Crouching starts, 3×10-20 yards

Sport-specific start, sprint 5 yards, stop, 3x

Shuffle five yards to the right, stop, change directions, sprint 5 yards; repeat to the left, repeat 3x

Backpedal 5  yards, turn, sprint 5 yards, repeat 3x

Day Four:

Emphasis: Upper body endurance

Warm-up:

Jumping rope

Jumping jacks

Arm circles (forwards and backwards)

Mountain climbers

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, repeat this circuit three times.

If you don’t have a jump rope, pretend you do.  In other words, still do the exercise but pretend the jump rope is there!

Workout:

Push-ups: as many as you can do in 60 seconds, repeat 3x

Close-grip push ups (keep your elbows in against your side): 3 sets, 30 seconds each set

Dips if you have access to them, if not then bench dips as described above, 3 sets of 30 seconds each

Pull-ups if you have access, 3 sets of max

Bear crawls, 3 sets of 60 seconds

Plank: 3 sets of 60 seconds

Day Five:

Emphasis: Lower body endurance

Warm-up:

Leg swings (front/back)

Leg swings (side/side)

Eagles

Stomach eagles

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, repeat this circuit three times.

Workout:

Bodyweight squats: how many can you do in 60 seconds?  3 sets

Lunges: 3 sets, as far as you can go in 60 seconds

Step-ups as we discussed above, 3 sets, 60 seconds each

Hip raises: 3 sets of 20 reps

Inchworms: how far can you go in 60 seconds?  3 sets

Core: have fun, 5-10 minutes

Horizontal plyometrics: Standing long jumps, 10x; Standing triple jump, 5x

There you go, a workout with minimal equipment to help you stay in shape for a few weeks while you can’t access your normal routine!