As states begin to lockdown again, most people are looking towards at-home fitness. Unless you were lucky, or diligent enough to wait for new equipment to be released for sale, you’re probably stuck with whatever you have in your immediate vicinity if anything at all. That doesn’t mean you’re limited to those exercises related to that equipment.
Let’s assume you have nothing, here’s some core principles that you can apply to build an at-home S&C program:
There is a minimal level of exertion required to keep your body from breaking down tissue. Each week you must generate enough basic demand on your muscles for you to be able to maintain mass in that tissue. It varies from person to person but 2-5 sets per muscle group per week is a good rule of thumb.
Maximal recruitment is a reaction: Muscle spindles, GTOs and your CNS work in synchronous to create a maximal expression of force, that’s why through out a powerlifting or athletic development program you will see the body adapt to increasing demand put on them.
Part of this process is exposing the nerves in your muscle tissue to increasingly difficult stimulus based on your sport. Exerting maximal force without a bar can be difficult, but it is manageable. Sprints, for example, require an intense amount of power to generate force in the quads and posterior chain. Isometrics are also phenomenal for stimulating tissue maximally, basically just try to push something heavy like a wall or a tree and while you may not succeed, it’s going to feel like you put a lot of work in.
Isometric contractions also help in maintaining brace: Depending on how long the following lockdown is, your deep core stabilizers will start to loosen up. Even if you’re not regularly pulling them into contraction by lifting; planks, single leg RDLs, heavy carries, anything that forces you to stabilize and maintain a brace will allow you to activate that stabilizing tissue, so when you do get back into the gym you don’t have to rebuild that as well.
Mobility sucks: So work on it, make it a skill, or a challenge, during commercial breaks or when your least favorite character shows up on whatever your watching, do a 90/90 Shin Box, or ankle mobility, whatever is tight, try to open it up.
Finally, get creative, even if it’s finding the biggest rock you can find and trying to flip it, that will contribute to maintaining the tissue you’ve spent the last five months rebuilding. Most importantly, stay safe, reach out to friends, and stay strong.
