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Stuck at home because of Coronavirus? Us too. Rugby training isn’t happening for a while. And if you’re anything like us, your gym is probably closed as well. So that means you need an at-home workout program that should last the duration of your quarantine. To help you stay fit, try our quarantine workout program. This is the women’s version, the men’s version is available here.Â
COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the rugby calendar. Matches and tournaments have been postponed and canceled, and amateur and professional ruggers are facing lengthy periods away from the game they love.
Rugby training is also off the agenda for most players. After all, COVID-19 is transmitted by coming into direct contact with infected people and surfaces. That means if even just one of your teammates is infected, after one training session, everyone else probably will be too.
Being fit and healthy, most ruggers should be able to bounce back if they are unlucky enough to catch COVID-19. Still, that same thing cannot be said for the other people you come into contact with, such as parents, grandparents, the very young, and those with underlying medical conditions.
Because of this, many of the worldâs governments are putting their populations into lockdown or quarantine. This should delay the spread of the virus, giving the emergency services a better chance of keeping up with treating those affected.
Gyms, which are Petri dishes for disease at the best of times, are either being forced to close or are off-limits because of quarantine. This makes perfect sense because all it takes is an infected person to use a barbell or dumbbell, and everyone else who uses that piece of equipment will be infected too. Smart ruggers should steer well clear of gyms.
So, does all this movement restriction and confinement mean you have to lose your rugby fitness and gain weight? Absolutely not. In fact, there is no reason you canât maintain your fitness and strength so that, when the quarantine is finally lifted, you are ready to get back on the pitch and play your best rugby.
This program is designed for ruggers who are confined to their homes and the areas close to their homes. The workouts donât need a lot of equipment. Still, there is an assumption that you own or can beg, steal, or borrow a few basic items and have access to somewhere you can do pull-ups, such as a tree branch in your garden, a doorframe pull-up bar, or a joist/bean in your garage.
COVID-19 is going to have a lasting effect on a large percentage of the worldâs population, and itâs serious enough that everyone needs to take action to prevent its spread. That said, it is something that we can recover from, and things will eventually go back to normal. Use this time to maintain or even improve your fitness for rugby so that, when the first whistle of the next season finally blows, you are ready to take your place on the field.
Stay healthy!
Ruck Science
A good workout starts with a proper warm-up and ends with a thorough cool-down. Neglecting either of these essential components could make your workout less productive, increase your risk of injury, or delay your recovery. And if you’re quarantined, you have plenty of free time on your hands so why not use it!?
With no rower or treadmill to use, you are going to have to find alternative ways to warm-up and cool-down. The most obvious choices are jumping rope and heading out for a run.
Jumping rope â one of the best quarantine cardio exercises you can do, jumping rope will elevate your heart and breathing rate without having to leave your house. All you need is a $20 PVC rope.
Make sure your rope is the right length by standing in the center and pulling the handles up to your armpits. If the ends of the handles reach your âpits, itâs about the right length. If itâs a little too long, tie knots in your rope to shorten it. If the rope is too short, discard it as youâll just end up tripping more than skipping â making for a very frustrating workout.
Running â in most quarantine situations, you are still allowed to go outside and exercise. The main requirement is that you do not come within two meters/6.5 feet of other people and that you run with no more than one other person, with whom you live.
If you DO choose to go out and run, for your warm-up or for cardio, avoid touching anything and anyone, sanitize your hands as soon as you get home, and before you enter your house, shower immediately and wash your workout clothes too. All of these steps can help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The aim of warming up is to prepare your body for the workout that follows. It will raise your core temperature, increase your heart and breathing rate, increase blood flow to your muscles, and also focus your mind on what you are about to do.
For the workouts in this program, you only need a basic warm-up that consists of:
The pulse raiser is the part of the warm-up that makes you warm. Five to ten minutes of progressive cardio will get the job done. For example, grab your jump rope and skip for 1-2 minutes at a slow pace, 1-2 minutes a little quicker, and then 1-2 minutes at a fast pace. By the end, you should feel slightly out of breath but far from tired.
If the thought of jumping rope for 5-10 minutes straight is daunting or unappealing, you can break it up by skipping for 1-2 minutes, doing 1-2 dynamic mobility flexibility exercises, before doing another 1-2 minutes of skipping. The end result will be the same.
If you have decided to run for your warm-up, just head out and jog at a comfortable pace for 1-2 minutes, and then gradually increase your speed until you feel warm and ready to do your main workout. This will probably entail running a lap of your neighborhood or doing an out and back run.
Dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises are designed to prepare your muscles and joints for what is to come. While muscle flexibility and joint mobility are two different things, the exercises that help develop these fitness components are very similar. Good dynamic flexibility and mobility exercises include:
Work your way up or down your body, making sure you take each major joint through its natural range of motion. 10-15 reps of your chosen exercises should do the job. By the end, you should feel loose and ready for the rest of your workout.
The final part of your warm-up is practice and preparatory exercises. This stage provides you with an opportunity to rehearse the exercises you are about to do. For example, if your workout involves push-ups, you might do a set or two of kneeling push-ups to warm-up your chest, shoulders, and elbows. If you are about to do plyometric squat jumps, a few sets of regular squats will help get you ready. Use this time to do a set or two of the main exercises you are about to do.
While you may be tempted to collapse in a heap once your workout is done, you should not bring your activity to an abrupt halt. Doing so could leave you tight and sore and may even delay recovery. Instead, you need to do a few more minutes of exercise to cool down gradually.
There are two stages to a cool-down:
The pulse lowerer is basically the opposite of the pulse raiser. It is designed to pump freshly oxy- genated blood around your body, flushing away any accumulated lactic acid. This can help ward off delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and speed up recovery.
To gradually bring your pulse back down to normal, start off at a fairly brisk pace and then, over several minutes, gradually reduce your speed until your heart and breathing rate are back or close to normal.
For example:
Run 2-3 minutes -> Jog 2-3 minutes -> Walk 2-3 minutes
5-10 minutes should be all you need. Once your heart and breathing rate are back to where they were before your workout, itâs time to move on to some static stretches.
Static stretches help restore and improve your flexibility. They are also mentally and physically relaxing. Examples of static stretches include:
Simply start at your calves and work up, or your shoulders and work down, stretching all of your major muscles. Hold each stretch for 30-60 seconds before moving on to the next muscle group. You should be able to cover your entire body in 8-10 stretches. Do not bounce or force any of your stretches as this defeats the object of static stretching.
Instead, ease into each stretch and then hold it until you feel your muscles start to relax. Stretch and little deeper and hold it again. Repeat this stretch-relax-stretch cycle for as long as you wish. The tighter your muscles feel, the longer you should stretch them.
Warming up and cooling down doesnât take long, and yet a lot of ruggers are tempted to skip them. Donât do it! Instead, treat them as the bookends that will support your training efforts. If you warm- up properly, you are more likely to have a good workout, and if you have a good workout, youâll need a proper cool-down.
While you could just wing it and make up your quarantine workouts as you go, youâll get much better results if you adopt a more structured approach to your training. For this program, you are going to work out four times per week, using mostly bodyweight exercises.
Your training week looks like this:
Using this split, you never train more than two days in a row, and you never rest more than one day in a row either. This provides the ideal balance between training and recovery and should mean you can attack each workout with 100% intensity.
Canât train on the designated days? No problem; just adjust the days to match your availability, for example:
Stick with the following workouts for the next four weeks. That means you are going to do each of them four times. To make sure you continue to make progress during this time, do your best to work a little harder from one week to the next. Because you are predominately working with your body weight for resistance, this means you need to try and do more reps week by week. Alternatively, you could take shorter rests between sets. Either way, try not to do the exact same workout two weeks in a row. Thatâs the surefire recipe for stagnation.
With no weights available, and no resistance machines either, you are mostly limited to bodyweight exercises during the quarantine. The good news is that, despite this shortcoming, you can still main- tain or even increase strength, power, and endurance. Not convinced? Check out the physiques of most elite male gymnasts to see what we mean!
There are two strength workouts for you to complete, both of which train your whole body. Whole- body training means that, even if you skip one of the workouts, youâll still train all your major mus- cles at least once per week. It also makes the best use of your time and means youâll have plenty of opportunities to fit in the two planned cardio workouts too.
parallel to the floor. Let your arms hang down from your shoulders.
At the time of writing, people under quarantine are still allowed to go outside, providing they keep two meters/6.5 feet away from other people, and avoid crowded spaces. This means you can:
If these options are available to you, it may be worth taking advantage of them while you still can. If the situation worsens, quarantine may be extended to ban all outdoor activities. If this should happen or you just prefer to work out indoors during the current COVID-19 crisis, here are two at-home indoor cardio workouts.
This five-exercise workout only takes 30 minutes but works every muscle in your body as well as your cardiovascular system. Donât let its simplicity fool you â this is a very effective cardio, muscular en- durance, and fat-burning workout.
Do each of the following exercises for five sets of 30 seconds, resting 30 seconds between sets. Do all five sets of the first exercise before moving to number two. Do as many reps as you can on each and every set. Take a one-minute break between sets.
This workout uses a concept called density training. With this method, you try to complete as many reps as possible in the allocated time. In this workout, there are four five-minute blocks, and each one contains three exercises â a lower body exercise, an upper body exercise, and a core exercise.
This means you can maintain a rapid pace to elevate your heart and breathing rate while giving each muscle group a brief rest. The result? A high-intensity cardio workout that is also quite manageable â even if you are having a low-energy day. Do as many laps of each the following mini circuits as you can in five minutes. Rest one minute and then do the next one.
On the days designated as rest and stretch, do precisely that! Enjoy a day of no training but enhance recovery by repeating your cool-down stretches. If youâve got cabin fever and need to get up and move, head out for a 30 to 60-minute brisk walk, remembering to observe all the hygiene and distanc- ing rules discussed back in the warm-up chapter for running.
You canât do the same workout for weeks at a time and expect to make progress. Your body will soon get used to the exercises you are doing, and your fitness and strength will gradually stall. The follow- ing workouts are similar to those you did before but also different enough to present your body with a fresh challenge.
Weeks 5-8 follow the same structure as weeks 1-4, i.e.:
OR:
Re. reps: The reps quoted are guidelines only. Do as many as it takes to get you to within 1-3 reps before failure. Rest for the specified time and repeat. Donât worry if you canât do as many reps on your next set â thatâs only to be expected for some of the exercises.
Here are two more low-tech but high-effect cardio workouts that you can do at home instead of running or cycling outdoors.
What is the best way to eat a plate of frogs? By starting with the biggest one first! That way, everything that comes after is much easier. This workout uses the same approach. The first part is very tough, but it gets easier as you approach the finishing line.
Do 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 reps of each of the following exercises. You can only move onto the next exercise when you have completed all the prescribed reps. While itâs okay to break up the big sets with brief rests, you should try and finish this workout as fast as you can. Treat it as a race!
So, do 50 squat jumps, 50 floor dips, 50 crunches, 50 double unders, and 50 band pulls. Then, repeat the sequence doing 40 reps of each. Keep decreasing the reps until you finish on ten of each.
This timed workout takes 25 minutes. Add in a five-minute warm-up and a ten-minute cool-down, and youâve got the perfect cardio and endurance workout in 40 minutes.
Using a timer, do ten laps of the following, starting each new lap every 2 1â2 minutes.
Remember, on the days designated as rest and stretch, do precisely that! Enjoy a day of no training but enhance recovery by repeating your cool-down stretches. If youâve got cabin fever and need to get up and move, head out for a 30 to 60-minute brisk walk, remembering to observe all the hygiene and distancing rules discussed back in the warm-up chapter for running.
Make quarantine, social distancing, and self-isolating easier with these tried and tested tips!
Having a daily routine will help make quarantine much easier to bear. Get up and go to bed at the same time, have fixed mealtimes, work out at the same time, and do anything else that will give your day structure. Lack of routine can chip away at your willpower and motivation, and you may find yourself putting off your workouts until another time or day, and then missing them altogether. A routine can help prevent this problem.
Quarantine can be stressful, and you may be bored too. That’s the perfect trigger for turning to food for solace. Don’t! Quarantine could last weeks or even months â accept it is your new norm. If you start comfort eating, it won’t be too long until you start gaining weight. Despite exercising when you can, you won’t be burning as many calories on lockdown as usual, and that will compound the problem. Find other ways to distract yourself, such as reading, phoning friends and family members, playing indoor games, or doing puzzles.
Eating healthily will reduce the chances of weight gain and also keep your immune system in tip-top condition. Needless to say, in light of the current COVID-19 outbreak, this latter point is critical.
You might have limited supplies, and some of the foods you usually rely on may not be available, but that doesn’t mean you cannot plan and prepare healthy meals. Use the internet and search for new recipes to try. This, along with cooking, will help keep you mentally engaged.
Quarantine is the perfect opportunity to become a rugby expert. With more time on your hands, you can read up on the technical aspects of the game, learn more about fitness and nutrition, and watch classic matches on YouTube. Why not arrange a watching party with your teammates? Pick a game to watch (in your individual homes) and then discuss via Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts afterward. Better still, find games you have not seen and treat them as live events.
The rugby calendar might be on hold, but that doesn’t mean you can’t maintain your interest and passion for the sport.
Very few people in the West have ever experienced anything like the COVID-19 crisis before. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that is happening, and what we have to do to stay safe. However, even if it takes a year or more, the world will bounce back, and things will eventually return to some semblance of normality. Think of this crisis as a marathon and not a sprint. Stay positive that it will come to an end, but also be ready to tough it out for as long as necessary. Use that rugger mentality to stay mentally strong and positive.
COVID-19 quarantine is nobodyâs idea of fun, and itâs going to have a big impact on many aspects of our lives. While sport and training might seem unimportant to some people, they are actually vital for your mental and physical health. Donât use lockdown as an excuse to get fat or unfit. Instead, see it as an opportunity to build your fitness and strength for when you can play rugby again.Â
The workouts in this book arenât perfect, and they canât be because you donât have access to all the equipment and space you need for optimal rugby training. That said, any workout is better than no workout so donât worry about what you canât do, and focus instead on what you can.
Work hard, keep busy, and stay safe. That way, when that first whistle blows, youâll be ready to play!
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