Resistance Training During Lockdown
At the time of writing NZ is at the start of a minimum 4 week lockdown period due to the SARS - Cov 2 pandemic. No access to gyms, cancelled competition and imposed restrictions on outdoor activities could easily become catalysts for deconditioning. Conversely with a small amount of initiative and creativity this time could be strategised in order to develop previously neglected strength and power attributes. This blog aims to provide readers with a template for developing a resistance program that requires little or no equipment.
What is resistance training and why do it?
Resistance training is simply a form of exercise in which the body is challenged in its ability to exert force against an external resistance. Resistance training can enhance athletic performance via improvements in strength (the ability to exert force against a resistance), power (the ability to exert force quickly), and endurance (the ability to sustain or repetitively produce a specific level of force). From a general health standpoint regular resistance training has the ability to increase bone density, strengthen connective tissue, improve blood-sugar and blood-lipid profiles, and reduce injury risk during day-to-day tasks.
Movements not muscles
There are approximately 640 muscles in the human body but not a single one of them ever acts in isolation in day-to-day or sporting activities. Rather they work together in a highly complex and coordinated manner in order to achieve various objectives. Attempts to artificially isolate or even emphasise individual muscles will lead to inefficient training that is unlikely to enhance athleticism and may even cause dysfunction and injury.
When designing yourself a program it is better to think in terms of movement patterns as opposed to muscles. Using this approach a small number of exercises can be used to cause functionally relevant adaptations in all of your muscles, joints and connective tissues. There are different ways to categorise movement in order to ensure your training is balanced and all encompassing. One simple and effective way to do this is to organise exercises into the following categories: bend, push, pull, twist.
Exercise categorisation
For variation and thoroughness these can be sub categorised as follows
1. Bending
Knee (e.g. squat) or hip (e.g. deadlift) dominant
Single leg or double leg (e.g. singe leg or double leg squat variations)
2. Pushing
Horizontal (e.g. push up) or vertical (e.g. overhead press)
Single arm or double arm
3. Pulling
Horizontal (e.g. inverted row) or vertical (e.g. pull up)
Single arm or double arm
4. Twist
Most functional and safe movements in this category involve full body rotational movements (e.g. standing plate rotation)
Limitations of this framework to be aware of
Of course not all exercises lend themselves to this framework. Loaded carries and crawls are examples of great full body exercises that don’t fit neatly into the proposed categories. However, based on the muscle activation patterns and joint couplings emphasised in these movement patterns they could be categorised as single leg hip dominant bend (e.g. overhead carry) and horizontal push (e.g. bear crawl) or pull (e.g. crab crawl) exercises respectively.
We could broaden our framework and include categories for lunging, reaching, walking, crawling, jumping etc. However many of these movements will be the emphasis of different training components (energy systems development, plyometric training, movement skill training etc.). It is important to note that resistance training is only one piece of a comprehensive athlete development programme.
It is also important to note that movements patterns can be combined. For example a clean and jerk encompasses both knee dominant and hip dominant bending along with horizontal pulling and vertical pushing. These types of exercises can be invaluable as they teach you how to summate force (use the whole body in a cohesive fashion in order to maximise force production).
Constructing your program
For this section I would recommend keeping a pen and paper close by so that you can begin drafting your program.
Planning a training block
The specific adaptations you decide to target will influence the exercises you select and the way you manipulate exercise variables. For simplicity think of resistance training as a way to induce improvements in one of three qualities: strength (the ability to exert force against a resistance), power (the ability to exert force quickly), or endurance (the ability to sustain or repetitively produce a specific level of force). You can either train one of these qualities during a given training block or work on multiple qualities at once in which case I would focus on one quality per training session and try to cover each over a 6-10 day cycle (see the example program at the bottom of this post).
Selecting and organising exercises
To construct a basic resistance program start by selecting 4- 6 exercises from the above categories. Attempt to keep these as balanced across categories as possible unless you have a good reason to focus on or omit certain movements. Pairing exercises is a practical and time effective strategy for programming. I tend to pair knee dominant bending with pulling, hip dominant bending with pushing, and perform twisting alone or paired with an exercise that is hard to categorise. If training at home and with minimal equipment chose exercises that will challenge you for volumes and tempos you have chosen based on your training objectives.
Manipulating exercise variables
Intensity (difficulty)
In a gym context the most common way to modify difficulty is to increase or decrease the weight of the external resistance which is often a barbell or cable stack. However you could use bottles of water (1 litre= 1 kilogram), buckets of sand, a backpack full of miscellaneous objects, boulders or even one of your children!
Generally the greater the range of motion you utilise during an exercise the more difficult it becomes. For example you may want to increase the range of your deadlift by elevating your feet in order to challenge yourself more with the weight you have available. Conversely you may want to limit the depth of your single leg squat so that you can perform it with good technique for the desired repetitions. I strongly recommend using some sought of depth gauge for this e.g. during a single leg squat have the free leg touch the floor or a a block so that you know you have completed the repetition.
You can also manipulate leverage based on how you set up your base of support relative to your centre of mass. For example a push up can be made easier by placing the hands on a raised surface or harder by raising the feet (see also the two inverted row versions above). Alternatively the width of the hands can be offset to make it more difficult on one arm.
Tempo
The tempo you select should depend on what you are trying to achieve. If working on strength endurance the lowering phase of a lift can be purposefully slow and holds can be factored in so that greater levels of muscular fatigue are induced for a given repetition.
If working on maximal strength, control should still be demonstrated on the lowering phase but during the lifting phase the intended speed should be fast (even if the actual speed is relatively slow due to the difficulty of the exercise variation).
If working on power the load should be decreased enough to allow the actual speed to be fast.
Volume (sets and repetitions)
In addition to a couple of lighter warm up sets, perform 2-3 working (hard)sets of each exercise.
The number of repetitions will have an inverse relationship with intensity. The desired repetitions will also depend on what physiological attributes you are attempting to achieve. As a guide for strength-endurance use 6-12, for maximal strength 1-5 for power 4-8 repetitions.
Rest
Rest duration will influence the adaptations that occur as the result of training. As a guide for strength endurance rest 60-90 seconds, for maximum strength 3-5 minutes and for power 2-4 minutes between sets.
If pairing exercises set them up so that a similar amount of rest occurs between finishing one exercise and starting the same exercise again. Use the rest period to perform breathing, relaxation or mobility exercises or to set up the next exercise.
Frequency
The optimal frequency and duration of resistance sessions will depend on goals, training experience and logistical issues such as time constraints. In many cases resistance training two to three times a week will provide adequate stimulus for improvements. This also allows sessions to occur on non-consecutive days, which is typically enough time to recover between sessions.
If you are deconditioned, unaccustomed to the type of training or if the sessions are particularly strenuous, 72 hours may be needed between sessions.
One session a week to every 10 days may be adequate for maintenance.
Example program
As mentioned above at the time of writing NZ is in lockdown. Below is the program I scribbled for myself and my wife for this period (click to enlarge). There are three resistance training sessions a week, one targeting strength, one power and one strength endurance. The videos of us working out have been used throughout this post, almost all of the exercises in this program can be found above. You will notice we have used kettlebells and water bags for most of the exercises but as detailed above be creative; backpacks and bottles of water work just as well.
Designing a basic resistance program can be relatively simple. Decide on the qualities you want to target. Select a balance of five to six exercises from the bend, squat, push, pull, twist categories. Be creative in in how you modify difficulty. Eat and sleep well between training sessions and reap the benefits.