By Neal Prokop, Sport Performance Specialist

The number of body weight workouts and online training programs out there at the moment, is mind boggling. Every gym, personal trainer, strength coach and sport coach are doing their best to keep their members, clients and athletes engaged and training even though they can’t go to the gym to do it.

It has been impressive to see the different ways that coaches are keeping their community engaged and training. Skype, Zoom, Instagram Live, Facebook Live, YouTube or using some form of online programming platform with videos and online tracking, it has been an impressive movement to adapt to the current COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place.

Having said that, there are also a multitude programs and videos on the internet and for those who don’t currently work with a coach it can be a little overwhelming. How many training sessions should you do per week, how intense should they be, can you train a muscle group every day and how much rest should you take between training sessions?

If you are trying to build your own training program right now, here are some tips on how you can optimize your training:

  • 1. As a general rule, total body strength training sessions should have a 48 hour gap between training sessions allow for full recovery. If you are doing split workouts (upper one day/lower the next or pushing exercises one day/pulling exercises the next, etc.) then you can easily train on back to back days as you are working different muscle groups from one day to the next. If you are doing 2-3 total body strength sessions per week, try and follow this simple guide for exercise selection:
    1. Squat Pattern – Squats, Split Squats, Single Leg Squats, etc.
    2. Hinge Pattern – Deadlift, Glute Bridge, etc.
    3. Upper Body Push – Push Ups, Bench pPress, Overhead Press, etc.
    4. Upper Body Pull – Rows, Chin Ups, Pull Ups, etc.
    5. Core/Torso Bracing and Carries – Planks, Side Planks, Loaded Carries, etc.

 

If you have these things in your program, you are doing pretty well.

  • 2. Energy System Development can be done daily, in different forms. It is important to note that each athlete has different energy system requirements based on their sport so, it is hard to give specifics here. From a planning and scheduling standpoint, for the purposes of this post, we are going to plan energy system work on alternating days from our strength training sessions. These sessions will often be longer duration at a lower to moderate intensity level in the 30-60 minute time range. We will also plan shorter, high intensity energy system work at the end of a strength session as a finisher to the training session.

 

  • 3. Plan sport specific technical training as part of your warm-up to make sure you are focused and sharp when doing technical work. This allows you to optimize your training time as well. For example, if you are a soccer player, after your dynamic warm up, perform ball handling, kicking, speed work before doing any strength training or energy system work. By doing this, you are properly warmed up, focused and alert and ready to perform your technical pieces with speed and accuracy.

 

  • 4. Take 1 day off from intense training per week. It is important to move and be active at this time as exercise is not only important for keeping your immune system strong to battle illness but it is also important for your mental health. This day off could be an easy walk or bike ride and a stretching session or a yoga class. It is great to get out and be active if we are keeping our physical distance in the process but keep it light and more of a recovery session if you do something on your day off.

 

Now that you have a pretty good idea of what to look for in an exercise program, we can now put a schedule together so you can plan out your week/month to stay on track. We have developed an at home strength training program for the month of April along with a weekly challenge workout so we are going to use those two programs and add in some Energy System Development work so you can have a visual of what your month would look like.  Click the image below.

 

 

 

Keep in mind that this is a sample of what a month could look like. The Energy System work you do would be very dependent on what sport you play, when your off-season is and when your competitive season is and your training experience. This can also be true of the strength training work you do.

Here are the links to the workouts listed on this calendar:

Strength Workout #1 – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnOHRvd3drPXLgH5WMLBZDaO

Strength Workout #2 – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnMakiOqAV7z8JwklBfRMkX9

Strength Workout #3 –https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnPW1m-WiLhZLZNfyAaZ82B-

Weekly Challenge #1 – Body Weight 400 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnNk1dafwmh7Tpssm0f5Nv20

Weekly Challenge #2 – Quadzilla https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnOMzlPu45fPANV06SG2meTE

Weekly Challenge #3 – Quarantine 15 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92arszCoDnPgo-aNqddeI4a8QzNOAxmj

 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to performance@sportmanitoba.ca with any questions!

Stay healthy!

Sport Manitoba Terms and Conditions