Maintaining Progress during Lockdown
Lockdown and training, something that started off as a two-week strict restriction to fight COVID-19 has turned into a year-long fight with no real progress - I mean that in the sense that we have had lockdown after lockdown with no real end in sight.
But, that's COVID, a situation you don't have direct control over. But there's no reason why you can't make progress in terms of your fitness journey, something you DO have direct control over.
If you follow us on social media, you will know that we are all about focusing on the things you do have control over when you find yourself in an overwhelming position. COVID has been a real struggle for most emotionally, financially, health and general well being... it's hard not to feel attacked.
But remember what you do have - more time with family, more access to home cooking, less travel time in and out of work and believe it or not, you still have control over your fitness too.
Gyms have been forced to close, and for many, that's a big bump in the road in terms of motivation to get a workout in, many feel like progress will be lost because they don't have access to weights. Too often we see it get in the way of people taking action and owning their fitness regardless of being able to access a gym or not.
Let's break down a couple of things here and hopefully give you a push in the right direction to take action:
1: You are at home. You have access to your kitchen - USE IT.
We hear this a lot when people sign up (well, pre COVID anyway) " Food options on the go are not great, it's so hard to eat healthily". Yet here you are with full access to your own home kitchen, full access to your own cooker. Do you see where we are going here?
Two of the best investments we have made to help us keep on track on busy days and make sure we are cooking healthy meals are
1: A slow Cooker - not very expensive and so so so good! Pop your meat ( and even the entire meal ) into the slow cooker, pop it on low and let it cook over your entire workday!! Not to mention the flavour...to die for!
2: A dutch oven (*which we found hilarious when we found out the name...if you know, you know*). This has been amazing for us too! We can make a full roast chicken dinner in this in literally 1.5 hours prep to plate!
Food is always the thing people struggle with the most when they start on their fitness journey. Use this time to your advantage to build habits of making your food for each meal, so that when we eventually do come out the other end of this pandemic, you have those behaviours in place to make it easier on yourself.
2: You have more time with your family ( inside your bubble, of course). Spending time with loved ones is huge for relaxation.
Have those conversations, play the board games and take a load off. This helps with parasympathetic tone of the nervous system, which directly innervates the digestive organs. In plain English, taking time out like this can help with digestion of foods which means you will have better uptake of nutrients from food and overall be healthier, sleep better and have more energy.
3: Training - Please do not think progress is halted because you can't access the gym!
Understand this; your body only understands stress. It feels a stress, and if exposed to this stress enough for it to warrant adaptation well, then it will adapt.
Creating this stress to favour muscle growth and fat loss is definitely easier with access to gym machines etc., but they are only a tool.
How many times have you used the head of a knife because you can't find a screwdriver?
The screwdriver is just a tool to get a job done, but there are multiple ways to do the same job, you just have to think differently.
Same thing with fitness. You can manipulate your bodyweight to create stress in the muscles to still get a stimulus to grow/ maintain.
Adding things like:
Tempos, pauses, 1/4 and 1/2 reps into sets.
Increase the number of reps done.
Playing around with intensities - things like EMOMs and AMRAPs.
Focusing on increasing your step count daily
There are so many ways to continue to make progress; you just have to change up the way you approach the situation.
This is also just taking into consideration the workout side of fitness. You could use this time to work on some much-needed mobility. Maybe you had a niggle that was holding you back when you went to workout.
The gym is just a building with equipment inside that benefits your goal. It has changed your situation and approach, but your goal remains the same.
Take ownership of your fitness. Don't let a speed bump in the road stop you. #THEBODYCONTENT
