Covid-19 has impacted most of the world, some countries, people and families more so than others.  What is clear is that what each of us defines as normalcy is being either slowly chipped away at the least, or nearly completely taken away.  During these times, athletes are largely forced to move the majority of their training indoors.  And, for triathletes and swimmers, no pool time is problematic -- unless you happen to own a flume or can bungee yourself to the wall of a small home pool not fit for lap swimming.

The goal of this post is not to recommend how you adjust your indoor training to deal with the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) and any TBD return to racing.  What this post is meant to do is to offer some effective and simple (not easy) indoor bodyweight strength options so that you can either continue to make strength gains or maintain the strength already gained, rather than watch all your hard work slowly erode because you're not sure what to do.  Also, this is meant for those who do not have home gym equipment.

Each of these examples will take roughly 30 minutes, largely dependent on how much rest you take between exercises and how smoothly you're able to transition from one exercise to the next. The beauty is that as long as you have enough room for, say, a couple yoga mats then you've got plenty of room to do these workouts.

WORKOUT 1
1) 50 Step-Ups (I use a bar stool for height), alternate legs (25 ea leg)
2) Superset:  3 x 10-15reps -- complete a & b, then rest 30-45sec
   a. slow-n-pause squats (lower for 4-6sec, hold at bottom for 2sec, come up)
  b. slow push-ups (lower for 4-6sec, press back up; do on knees or elevate hands on a stair if necessary to complete the reps)
3) Handcuffs:  2-3 x 10-15reps with 45-60sec rest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXzlIQ6Jgq4).  The slower you move, the tougher it is!
4) Superset:  2 sets of 10-12reps -- complete a & b, then rest for 30-45sec
   a. double-pump front lunges (lunge forward, come halfway up, go back down, return to start)
   b. slow chin-ups (under your dining table, grip the edge underhanded and pull your chest up as close to the edge as you can, then lower back down. Keep body a rigid plank as you lift/lower)
5) 100 elevated push-ups for time -- use a sturdy coffee table or the 2nd/3rd step on a staircase.  Complete as many reps as you can between breaks.  Keep breaks and their duration to a minimum.  This one will burn a lot!  On the 100th rep, lower yourself for a count of 10.  Ouch!

WORKOUT 2
1) 100 Step-ups (barstool if you have one)
2) Tiger push-ups:  3 sets to failure, rest 45-60sec between (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mocsmPyHBn8).  If you cannot do these, then regular push-ups are just fine!
3) Superset:  3 sets of 20; complete a & b, then rest 45-60sec
   a. full squats
   b. side lunges (10 to each side, alternating)
4) Superset:  3 sets of 10-15reps, lower for 4sec, come up regular speed; complete a & b, then rest for 45-60sec
   a. chin-ups (under the dining table)
   b. reverse dips (use 2 chairs of equal height.  Put your heels on one and your palms directly behind your hips on the other.  Your back should skim the chair behind you to know the chairs are the right distance apart.  Try to keep the elbows in rather than let them splay out)
5) Superset:  3 sets of 15-20reps; keep moving
   a. standing calf raises; lower for 2-4sec and don't let the heels touch the ground
   b. your favorite abs exercise

WORKOUT 3
1) 3 Rounds of the following for warm-up; 1min rest between rounds:
 - 10 Burpees, including one push-up
 - 10 Push-ups
 - 20 Bodyweight lunges (10 each leg, alternate)
extra 1-2min rest before the next circuit
2) 10 rounds of 20sec on - 10sec off:
 - Push-ups (on knees OK to keep velocity up)
 - Bicycle kick abs, alternating elbow to opposite knee
 - Bodyweight squats
Goal is to complete as many reps as possible in the 20sec, then recover for the 10sec.  One round is completing each exercise sequentially (so, do not do 10 rounds of push-up and then move to the bicycle kicks).  No additional rest; keep it going!

WORKOUT 4
1) 3 Rounds of the following for warm-up; 1min rest between rounds:
 - 10 Push-ups
 - 20 Bodyweight squats
extra 1-2min rest before the next circuit
2) 3 sets:
 - 10 x Burpees w/ 3 Push-ups
 - 10-15 x Bicep Curls (weighted tote bag full of books or filled water bottles, if no dumbbells); slow movement up and down
 - 1min rest
3) 3 sets:
  - 12 x Reverse Dips
  - 30 x Bicycle kicks
 - 20 Weighted Squats + Shoulder Press (use the full tote bags, holding them up at shoulder height by the straps.  Squat down, come up and then press overhead.  Lower.  That's 1 rep)
 - 1min rest
If you need to take a few seconds rest within a set in order to complete the full reps, that's fine!
Keep mini-breaks as short and infrequent as possible.

WORKOUT 5
1) 3 Rounds of the following for warm-up; 1min rest between rounds:
 - 25 Jumping jacks
 - 10 Push-ups
 - 20 Bodyweight lunges (10 each leg, alternate)
extra 1-2min rest before the next circuit
2) 16min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):
 - 10 Burpees w/3 Push-ups 
 - 20 Lunges (10 each leg, alternating) with heavy tote bags
 - 20 Bicep Curls (with heavy tote bags -- either hold one with both hands or one per hand, depending on how much weight you can hold)
 - 20 Situps
Rest only when required and keep it to a minimum; get the HR up and keep it up!

These are just several examples.  You can mix-and-match exercises, get creative with alternatives, and adapt to what you have available in your own home.  The tote bags full of weight are an effective homemade dumbbell/kettlebell as well.  You can certainly wear the tote bag (or backpack) during squats and lunges, and even for push-ups to increase the difficulty.

Here's what is key.  For any type of strength workout -- at home or at the gym -- to be effective, it is important to stress the muscles to near-failure.  Meaning stopping 1-2 reps short of complete failure.  Complete failure is fine some of the time, but if you strive for complete failure every set of every workout, then your body will ultimately not be able to properly recover which can open you up to injury.  As an example, the 100 push-ups for time can be done to near-failure between short breaks, and then complete failure on the 100th rep.  If you're not "feeling the burn" then you're not lifting heavy/hard enough.

A final way to mix things up is to complete one of these, and then jump on the treadmill or bike trainer for another 20-30 minutes.  Rather than use the cardio as the warm-up, by doing it after the strength training, you will get more out of the cardio workout and the body will be forced to further adapt.  You can also add, for example, 10-12 x 30sec hard - 1min easy to add further intensity to the double workout.

In any case, hopefully you will give these a try and will find them an effective stop-gap while we anticipate the ability to return to our previous training and racing regimens.

Until then, stay safe and healthy.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate

There's been a lot said about Alberto Salazar, the Nike Oregon Project (NOP) and Nike lately. We've seen a groundswell of opportunity to affect change. But, will we? While disheartening, it has been encouraging to hear so many athletes speaking out. Yet, we risk apathy overtaking action, that everyone will simply move on.

​A lot of shenanigans in the world of anti-doping have occurred recently, including a big bomb about Alberto Salazar and his precious NOP (Nike Oregon Project). Tune in to hear it all distilled down and to draw your own conclusions.

​Math is a funny thing. 

Math is true.  It is immutable.  2+2=4 and forever will.
 
Math is timeless.  It is identical today as it was in the past; and it will be identical into the future.

Math is testable and repeatable.  And, in this, we find understanding, comprehension and comfort.  Our understanding and comprehension also extends to some of the less rigid aspects of math.  As stated above 2+2=4.  This is rigid.  However, while also true, saying a three-digit number is greater than a 2-digit number is a general statement accepted as true.  We still find comfort here, because we are provided with a nice, neat little package of data.

We accept mathematical terms for what they mean and what they define.  We trust it.

Where we run into problems is when we mistake probability for fact.  Or, more precisely, when we mistake probability for lack of fact.  Take the cliché of a room full of law students and the teacher saying, “Look to your left, look to your right.  One of you won’t be here next year.”  While not a mathematical fact, the probability of this being true is based on historical statistics which render it true.  While the law students may not find comfort in this prediction, they would find it difficult to argue against its accuracy.

The same can be said about cheating in Sport.  We know, for a fact, that cheating occurs.  We also know, for a fact, that the percentage of athletes who cheat is greater than the percentage which gets caught through OOC and IC doping tests.  While we may not find comfort in these facts, we do find enough comfort to not dispute these facts.

Where things start to get murky is at the intersection of science (the testing), culture (the acceptance of doping and athletes who dope by each society), and morality (each athlete’s resistance to the temptation to cheat, or lack thereof).  When we layer nationalism on top of this – “the pesky Russians are cheaters, but athletes from MY country would never cheat” – then we are set up for an emotionally-fueled argument which lacks reason on both ends of the pendulum swing. 

On one end, we have those who say, “All elite athletes cheat.”  On the other end, we have those who say, “Unless an athlete fails an anti-doping test, then he/she is clean.”  While the concept of cheating is necessarily black-and-white – you either cheat or you don’t – neither of these stances is valid and neither holds any water.  Statistically speaking, we know, for a fact, that stating an athlete is clean and should be believed if he/she has not failed a test, is an untenable position to take.  With it being largely accepted that up to two-thirds of all athletes cheat, the pool of clean athletes is indeed very small.  However, we do not know for a fact that all athletes are doping.  The statistics do not support this, either.  If you had to choose one end of the spectrum or the other to embrace, it would unfortunately have to be the “all athletes dope” end.  The reason is because, statistically, the only thing we know for a fact is that all athletes being clean is false. 

I’ve said it many times – patterns are proof.  When we see performances and athletic feats which cause our jaws to drop and our eyebrows to raise, these knee jerk reactions come from deep inside each of us.  Rather than skepticism or cynicism, these reactions are borne out of an innate sense each of us has to discern fact from fiction.  Reality from fairytale.  Yet, there is a population which demands testable and verifiable evidence as the only proof an athlete has transgressed.  Statistics do not support this type of rigid stance.  Because the anti-doping system is fraught with failure points through which we could drive tanks.  So, if you are relying on an indefensible system which cannot provide ironclad proof of innocence or cheating, then you believe the anti-doping system is a mathematical problem like 2+2=4.  But, we know for a fact that it is not.  Not even close.

We know that more athletes cheat than get caught.  And, the margin between those cheating and those getting caught is not a little, but a lot.  The discrepancy is in orders of magnitude.

There is mathematical truth.  There is mathematical accuracy based on statistical evidence – even in the absence of hard evidence (like a failed doping test).  Given what we have historically seen across Sport – the cheating, the corruption, the buried tests, the silent bans, the physical transformations, the warping of facial features, the lies and deceit – there is literally no reason at all to think athletes today are training and competing any more cleanly than they ever have.

Statistically speaking, of course.  Because in knowing the anti-doping system is broken beyond repair, we also know we will never close that monumental gap between the sheer volume of cheaters and the paltry few who are actually caught.
​
Happy Training,
Coach Nate