Corona Virus Training Advice

Some basic tips on training with the Corona Virus putting large chunks of the world on shutdown.

Still Train

It might be more important than ever to still find a way to train, assuming you are healthy. Your mind needs the break. The break from non-stop bad news. News that you can do very little about other than stay in your home as much as possible while avoiding as much human contact as possible.

Your body also could use the endorphins from exercise for the exact same reasons. Training also helps build your body into a machine. A machine with a resilient immune system. Keep this engine running.

Train Smart

Something that is ALWAYS relevant in your training is to train smart. Especially on how far you push yourself. I am always one to push myself to the edge of my capacity. And I will continue doing this. What you do NOT want to do is completely empty the tank. Way too many people do this and it destroys their Central Nervous System. While you still want to go hard, you must leave a little bit in the tank.

A simple test to find this limit is if at the end of your workout, you are wiped out to the point where if you had to, you couldn’t really do another set. Or jump on the treadmill on an incline and keep a decent pace.

There is a longstanding gym theory that with your training you want to Stimulate the muscles and body, but not Annihilate the body. When you completely destroy yourself you leave yourself very susceptible the getting sick or getting injured. Keep the furnace firing to the point where you could do another workout later in the day if you wanted.

A simple rule to stick with is NEVER train over an hour in one session, esp with the virus threat. If you take the warmup out of the equation, I would recommend NO MORE than 50 minutes of working set exercises.

Again, keep the fire going, don’t let it burn out.

Prioritize Bodyweight Exercises

It is actually fairly difficult to completely burn out your CNS with bodyweight exercises unless you are doing a very intense AMRAP or EDT type workout with Pull Ups/Dips/Pushups/Burpees/etc. Don’t do these type of workouts now. Work in defined rest. Adequate rest. And nothing where you are doing 8-10 minutes of AMRAP pull ups with extremely limited rest. 10 straight minutes of pullups where the first set you can bang out 15-20 reps, but by the end you are struggling to bang out 1 or 2 reps is NOT the programming you want at this time. While I love these types of workouts, they have their time and place. And now is not it.

For the time being, when in doubt, tack on 15-20 extra seconds in between sets to be safe.

Again, keep the fire burning, do not burn it out.

Good Luck, stay safe!