The denial of a properly outfitted strength gym for our members has created an obvious dilemma for many – both mental and physical. This email is an attempt to provide a real solution to this problem.
We understand that if you are a member at our gym or any proper strength facility for that matter, it is very likely that you take your personal strength and performance seriously. It is also likely that you are very committed, motivated and at a higher level of experience with strength training than the average person.
As such, online aerobics or calisthenics classes are NOT going to create the stimulation you require to keep your levels of strength and fitness, let alone improve them. They would essentially act only as “exercise” for you and there are an infinite number of more interesting, fun and creative ways for you to simply “move your body” aka “exercise”, even during this difficult time.
It has now been well over 2 weeks since we closed and if you have done nothing, that’s okay. Generally your strength levels will not begin to wane until 3 weeks or more have passed. As such, it is definitely time to do “something” effective. The question becomes then, what plan will work with no equipment?
First, we may need to bridge or address the leap of faith required to convince you that you do not need a rack, Olympic plates and bar, and/or a set of dumbbells to build strength, muscular size, speed or explosiveness. Quite the contrary, this lack of the same equipment you have been using for perhaps years is actually a great opportunity.
Many are unaware that elementally, what we are doing at the gym is putting into practice Canadian scientist, Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5915631/
Summarizing this with respect to resistance training, an optimal dose of stimulation/stress (the type, volume, and intensity of training in a given workout) will create an optimal or maximal adaptation (ex. Strength and muscle size) after a given period of recovery time. Yet, we naturally adapt to the stimulation over time and this decreases the desired adaptation. Therefore changing the types of stimulation along with the dose (intensities and volumes over time) becomes vital for continued and especially maximal progress.
The intelligent application of general adaptation syndrome is why our members and other strength training practitioners generally thrive and make progress at the gym. This also explains why other poor souls plod around typical commercial gyms and get nowhere or close to nowhere. If you are training thoughtfully like a successful athlete (strength or otherwise) and following a proven program then you can thank Hans Selye, at least in part for your positive results.
So, the stark change from the simple plan presented here and your typical gym workout will, in itself represents an opportunity. The sudden change in stimulations will cause fantastic new adaptations.
Furthermore, training differently for 3 to 6 weeks and then returning to the gym and all of our equipment will then cause even more of a disparate or juxtaposed stimulation. This will result in an even greater adaptation or “rebound” effect when you return. In addition, the type and nature of the training suggested here will condition and prepare your body for the heavy resistance work to come when you return. In other words, you will be setting yourself up for optimal results and success as soon as you get back to your racks, barbells, dumbbells and other gym equipment.
Further, the differences and novelty of what you will be doing will also be relatively stress-free and likely more enjoyable because these things are new and there are no previous # of reps or amounts of weight to “beat”. Finally, this break or rest from your normal workouts will serve to prepare your body and nervous system for a more robust return to barbells and plates.
The framework here will be one or possibly two – three week, undulating (waving) “waves”, depending on the length of time you will be absent from the gym.
Please warm up
The means and methods here will likely be new. If you don’t respect them you will have horrible delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) or worse, a strain or injury. That could prevent you from working out entirely for a while.
- Move your body until you have broken a sweat
- Warm up every joint of the body (like a high school gym class warm-up)
- Do some light but progressively more intense repetitions of the exercise you will be doing before the your actual “work” set(s)
You will need a pen, notebook and stopwatch – your smart phone should be fine.
Here are the two primary exercises:
Chair/riser pushups
Get 3 chairs or 2 chairs for your hands and something of similar height for your feet. Space them so your feet are on one and hands on the other two, so you can do a stable, safe pushup whereby your chest drops just below the level of the chairs. You can also use any firm, stable objects on which to place your hands and feet to act as risers that will allow you to do the same thing. Just make sure they are firm and stable to avoid a “face plant”.
Really emphasize the stretch reflex here and feel your back muscles contract and your chest muscles stretch as you get lower and “bounce” from the eccentric (lowering) into the concentric (upward) portion of the movement. This will help you to understand “induction” and effectively condition your back and chest muscles to enhance your myotatic stretch reflex when you transition from lowering to raising a barbell off your chest. When you get a bar back in your hands you will likely be improved at using the controlled descent of the bar to then help drive it back up as though it hit a “springboard”. This effect will be there, even with a short pause.
Think of a gymnast running and jumping off of a spring board and the heights they can reach. Now think of how much lower they would jump without the springboard. The eccentric portion of your bench press (in this case, your push-up) is your “springboard” to then power the bar up. In this way, your ability (strength) to yield the bar and reverse it will “induce” a stronger and more powerful concentric or “lifting” of the bar.
Yes, the load will be low (your body weight compared to a loaded barbell) but a push-up clearly approximates, and therefore closely matches the efficiency of a bench press for working most of the upper body muscles. Further, gravity, at 9.8 m/s squared and your use of it will increase the force of your reversal considerably.
Regarding specificity, you will be emphasizing and attacking the hardest part of a bench press – the bottom of each repetition. Moreover, the relative intensity of your 10 minutes of work will be extremely high. When done correctly and trying to beat your previous number, you should be barely able to complete 2 or 3 push-ups in the final seconds of your 10 minutes. When you do, you will have empirically increased your power output (power = work/time) in this basic movement. Make no mistake; your work here has purpose.
Mark your start time and do as many pushups as you can in 10 minutes. You will likely start with 20 to 50 or more push-ups before your first rest and go down to just a few reps as the time finishes. Rest as little as possible; go for the greatest # of pushups possible within that 10 minute time. Do the actual reps as quickly as you can and again and emphasize a violent, explosive reversal. You will get a crazy pump and will be sore for the next few days, especially because this will likely be so different from what you were doing at the gym. You can change a number of things here – your hand positions, distance between the chairs/risers, height of your feet and combine changes on all 3.
Sprints
Figure out an approximate distance of 40 or so meters. This distance does not need to be exact. This could be a road, or grassy area. Next, find the same approximate distance but on a slight grade or hill. Sprinting down the hill will increase your speed and emphasize the anterior (quads) muscles of the legs. Up-hill will put more emphasis on the posterior chain muscles including the glutes and hamstrings, calves and lower back.
Warming up adequately is vital here. It can be easy to tear your Achilles tendon doing sprints when they are a relatively new exercise. This is especially true running on flat ground and more so sprinting downhill. To help you warm up, run up your stairs 8-10 times before you go out to do your initial, light practice runs. Take it easy on the first day and don’t run your absolute fastest quite yet. This way you will be able to do it again, hopefully a few days later and turn up the intensity/speed.
On the second day, time each sprint and the time you rested between them. Try and beat your times on each of the following days you complete your sprints. Make sure you catch your breath fully between each run/set. There is no need to throw-up and that will defeat the purpose of this work. Treat these sprints like sets of heavy squats, rest adequately between each one.
Start with 5 or 6 sprints after a few easy runs at the end of your warm-up. Beat your previous times and add a sprint or two until you work up to 8 or 10 if you like. Generally, it’s a good time to stop if you start to slow down considerably.
You could start with 5 or 6 sprints on flat either flat ground or uphill exclusively. Alternatively you could do 3 flat and 3 uphill for the first 3 weeks. If you do another 3 week wave, change it up or choose a steeper hill. Please start with flat and uphill sprints only during the first 3 weeks. Downhill sprints are far more conducive to your possible injury, especially Achilles tendon tears. If you try the downhill sprints in your second 3 week period, make the downhill grade very gentle.
Please add a few sets of one abdominals exercise at the end of every pushup or sprint workout – sit ups, crunches, leg raises, whatever you like. Beat your repetitions each workout and change them up after 3 workouts. Work a few reps into the “burn” and stop. Don’t kill yourself.
Try for 2 workouts each of the push-ups and the sprints per week.
Walk, jog or bike on your off days or after your workouts. Please do this with the latest social distancing recommendations in mind. Any low intensity steady state cardio will help with any muscle soreness and to heal you up for your next workout.
If you complete a second 3 week wave of workouts, change something elemental to each exercise – for example, raise your feet higher or lower on the push-ups and change the grade of hill considerably on the sprints (uphill only)
Don’t believe these two simple exercises will work? You can argue with NFL All-star and pro MMA fighter, Herschel Walker and read his story:
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-herschel-walker-workout/
Further, the leg strength and muscularity of a typical high level sprinter is undeniable. Consider track and field athletes who incorporate primarily this dynamic form of training – essentially their athletic event:
Some other viable training options:
Bands
If you want to expand your workouts to an almost endless number of possibilities, including a multitude of isolating exercises, a set or two of resistance bands are a great option. You can order a set online and get them in a few days. Try to order a set that is just like the ones we have at the gym, from the thin red ones all the way up to the thickest orange ones (colors may vary depending on the brand).
If you are really strong you may need two sets or at least doubles on the wider bands. This is a small investment. They will be yours forever and you can work your entire body, take them along when you travel, use them at the gym, etc.
Why bands?
- They are light and take up little space
- Inexpensive
- Strong, practical amounts of challenging resistance
- Exponential resistance
- Accommodated resistance – bands make the entire repetition very challenging
- Scalable resistance – by using multiple bands
- Extremely versatile – you can replicate almost any exercise for any body part – squats, good mornings, arm curls, triceps extensions, pulls, leg extensions and curls, calf extensions, etc.
- Provide exceptional “time under tension” for an extremely taxing and efficient workout
- Excellent way to build and strengthen your myotatic stretch reflex
- Create a “contrast” effect – from the beginning to the end of each repetition – excellent to build speed and acceleration strength and explosiveness
The last point here is important when thinking about returning to the static weights at the gym that we all love. If you have a sticking point, the contrast created by the decreasing and then increasing band tension will train your nervous system to explode out of the bottom of each repetition as a necessity. This will help you to break through “sticking points” you may be experiencing in any barbell exercises by emphasizing and building explosiveness at the beginning of the concentric portion of each repetition. The exponential increase in the resistance caused by the bands will also ensure that you explode throughout the entire repetition (building acceleration strength) since each rep will be increasingly difficult towards the end.
You can “choke” a band around any unmovable object by looping one end through the other. You can also stand on the bands for exercises like squats or good mornings. Make sure there is still tension in the band at the bottom of each repetition when you complete any exercise.
There are multiple online resources to demonstrate the exercises that are possible with the use of bands. Here is just one example from EliteFTS. You can also do a specific search for any exercise you have in mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEdcaD0bkqQ
You could add 1 full body band workout per week (perhaps 12 – 24 sets depending on your ability to fully recover, intensity, etc.) to your existing 4 pushup and sprint workouts. Alternatively you could take the pushups and sprints down to once per week each and do 2 of the full body band workouts. Alternatively, you could also split upper and lower body, and do the push-ups and sprints first before the band exercises for your lower and upper body.
Everyone’s ability to recover, motivation and energy will be different. If you are not increasing reps or resistance or work/time pretty much every workout, you are doing too much. Same thing if you are too sore to workout. Scale the volume back until you are making measureable progress.
Here are a few examples of where you can order a set of bands. Order the longer “monster” style bands and NOT the shorter “mini” versions (Note: we cannot warrant any of these sites or products, they are simply examples):
https://www.roguecanada.ca/rogue-monster-bands
https://www.elitefts.com/band-pack-1.html
https://www.amazon.ca/Resistance-Bands-Exercise-Stretching-Powerlifting/dp/B01M0LYK8X/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1VJKI4XZCTJX6&dchild=1&keywords=strength+bands&qid=1586219511&sprefix=strengh+bands%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-6
https://www.treadmillfactory.ca/catalogsearch/result/?f=bands+monster&q=bands
TRX
Another simple piece of equipment that will provide a ton of exercises that are actually challenging to people who are already strong is the TRX or a similar apparatus. These are very novel, useful devices and create challenging resistance using your body weight and gravity. Essentially they act as a more versatile set of gymnastic rings.
https://www.amazon.ca/TRX-Training-Suspension-Complete-Workouts/dp/B002YRB35I
https://www.trxtraining.com/
So, we have exercises and methods that are likely to be completely different that what you were doing at the gym – push-ups and sprints. There also new and different forms of resistance – body weight and band resistance + bodyweight. There are also proven methods at work here – dynamic and repetition, with an emphasis on increasing power (work/time). All of these changes to your typical workout will equal massive new adaptations. You will feel this in the muscle soreness that you will no doubt welcome if you have been sedentary for the last few weeks.
Remember, if you dive into any of this stuff; please respect these new exercises and forms of training. Ease in on your first day to minimize your delayed onset muscle soreness and so you can do your next workout sooner, then adjust your intensity and volume responsibly over your first few workouts.
The plan and exercises presented here are simply what we deem as cogent, specific suggestions to effectively get you through this crisis. That is all. We know they work and that they will be challenging, even for really strong, fit people. There are certainly other things you can do and they may work just as well. Back to adaptation theory – the key here is a different set of stimulations but which are also effective and challenging. Therein lays the opportunity of getting away from your racks, barbells and dumbbells for the next 3-6 weeks.
There are all kinds of other effective exercises you can incorporate into your workout. Examples include triceps bench (or chair) dips, single leg (pistol) squats, and the hand stand shoulder press. You can find instruction on them and many more on the internet. If you can somehow rig up a safe chin-up bar or handles then this exercise is arguably as valuable as the push-ups. The plan presented here is simply meant to get you exercising in a meaningful way and starting with two of the most useful, proven upper and lower body exercises.
Additional methods that will work with little to no equipment include isometric or quasi isometric work. This could be done with/against fixed objects or with band tension that is too great for you to complete a single full rep. Simple jumps, leaps and bounds, and Plyometrics (for the advanced) are also exceptional training options. Ballistic work, such as throws of objects upward, outward or into the ground is also a great option.
“Gerry rigged” Strongman training is a whole other topic – filling bags with dirt or sand with which to carry or throw, pushing or pulling your car in a parking lot, etc. These are all possibilities with which you can train your entire body with things you would otherwise not think of as “equipment”. Information on these ideas is readily available online if you wish to find it. It is simply beyond the scope of this email.
I promise if you do the pushups and sprints as described you will see some crazy results – new muscle and empirical gains. Your new muscle soreness will communicate this clearly. If you order bands or a TRX and get more creative you will find that effective exercise possibilities are almost endless. Again, this email is simply meant to get you training in a meaningful way, until this awful time has passed.
The lessons you learn from trying this stuff will be yours to use in the future whenever you find yourself without access to a gym.
If there is anything else we can do for you please let us know. We will be happy to try and provide some additions resources and references if you need them, until we can get you back into your gym.
Regardless as to what you may hear, this terrible time will pass soon enough.
Please stay safe, healthy and positive until we see you again.
Know that we miss you.
Thank you!
Fortis Fitness Management