Quarantine Routine part 2

In part 1 of this series I laid out several reasons why it’s important to start your quarantine routine with no expectations. Why you should start this new routine immediately, regardless of the uncertainty of your day. With drastic changes in your schedule, that could change again in any minute, the fact that you did something was more important than what you did.

In part 2 I will discuss why you should be training MORE now and how you should proceed with your quarantine routine.

First, what side are you on?We’re now 2-4 weeks into a quarantine and we’ve started to find a new norm.

We’ve all fallen into 1 of 2 camps:

We’ve either increased our time spent training or we’ve decreased it.

Those that are training less I challenge you to do away with your excuses (go back and read part 1 again) and start doing more. If you’re having a hard time coming up with things to do you probably haven’t thought about long enough. You should go on a 30 minute walk/hike/run to figure it out. [see what I did there?]

Those that are training more now than ever before, congratulations! Let’s proceed with a plan...

Something Every Day

We should be doing something everyday. We’ve got the time for it.We’re not training heavy or out physically exhausted ourselves.

We’re limited to bodyweight exercises, kettlebells and lightweight dumbbells. All things that are low-intensity enough to do everyday and not need a day off to recover.So what does a “train everyday” routine look like?

Honestly not much different than any other routine; a little bit of cardio, some strength work and mobility. The cardio and mobility can be done with just bodyweight. Strength work can be done with just BW too but you should have a pull up bar. If you don’t have a pull up bar, learn to build one - here.

If you were smart enough to get yourself a kettlebell you’ve got all the strength training equipment you need. Hopefully it’s at least a moderately heavy press ‘bell.

Practice

Don’t workout.Practice.

The difference is practice is done at low intensity and more frequent than working out.

Think of the professional athlete that spends hours a day playing ball. This athlete isn’t working out or “exercising” with the ball, he or she is practicing. The goal is to improve their ball skills. When their skills start to get worse, they lose accuracy or start missing catches, they stop practicing.

They rest for a water break, maybe come back after lunch for some more practice, and then they’re back at it the next day. Everyday, for hours, for the duration of camp or pre-season (4-8 weeks), they practice.

That’s how we should lift our weights. Practice with your weights. Practice your weight skills.

Pavel has preached this for decades. I never really did it consistently (although I have always credited his “grease the groove” program to my lifetime PR in the pull up, 15). I too often enjoy the adrenaline rush of training with all out intensity.

But I don’t think that’s what a quarantine routine needs right now. Especially with stressed out with concerns over their immune system. Right now...

• Adrenal fatigue is a bad idea.
• Redlining your heart rate is a bad idea.
• Stressing your metabolism is a bad idea.

So here’s what you do...

Pick Three Things

1. upper body push
2. upper body pull
3. lower body

Forget about “muscle confusion”, forget about “leg day”, forget about “beastmode”. There’s no need for that.

There only a need for a few things to be done well, done consistently and done every day.

These are your skills. Now go practice.