Quarantined Mass

A.K.A: Building Muscle and Strength Under Lockdown and Self-Isolation

If you're anything like me (and I have a good feeling that many of you are), you haven't left the house in a couple days.  And I have a good feeling, you may even be reading this blog entry because you're surfing the internet a little more than usual in self-isolation/lockdown/quarantine mode - whichever one better suits your situation - in hopes of finding some ways to continue your gains (or at least not bring them to a grinding halt) while you have no way to make it to the gym.  But if you're also like me (and this where I also have a good feeling that many of you are decidedly not like me), you have a full gym at your disposal in the confines of your garage, replete with squat rack, deadlift and Oly-lifting platform, a bad-ass Forza bench, a good 1,500 lbs of free weights, not to mention various other bands, chains, benches, and other assorted goodies such as sleds and sandbags.  Okay, okay, I didn't mean to rub it in, but it is nice having all of that at your house, especially when your two college sons come home to stay with you because their university shut everything down, and they both act as if they're about to go crazy without access to the campus gym.  And since most of you are probably in a situation where going to the gym is more difficult - or damn near impossible - or you're older and don't want to risk going to the gym anyway even if it is open, then this is the article/post for you.  Here you will find everything you (hopefully) need for minimalistic training while stuck in the confines of your home, even if that home is simply nothing more than a one-bedroom apartment.

Keep It Simple with Back-to-the-Basics Training

This is actually a great time for you to focus on getting back to the basics.  In fact, you may even find that your situation ends up being a "blessing in disguise" when all is said and done.

No matter what it is that you are stuck with (as far as training equipment, weights goes), this is a good time to focus on using just a few exercises, and really working the exercises hard.  It may even be a good time to focus more and more on "performance" over "appearance".  In other words, pick an exercise and really try to get better at it.  Stuck in your home with no equipment?  Okay, that means that its a good time to see if you can work up to being able to do one set of 50 reps on push-ups or one set of 100 reps on bodyweight squats.

Even though most of you reading this don't have the kind of home gym that I have, many of you probably do have a few dumbbells or some bands that you can use in addition to bodyweight exercises.  If that's the case, then I promise that really is all you need to not just keep your gains, but add to them.  What follows here are a few suggestions for training ideas/plans/schemes to make the most of your in-home, minimalistic training:

1. If all you have access to is a pull-up/chin bar, then try this for the duration of your lockdown: 5 days per week, perform 100 push-ups (any variety), 50 pull-ups or chins (any variety of hand positioning), and 100 bodyweight squats.  It doesn't matter how you get your rep total.  You can do 10 sets of 10 on push-ups and bodyweight squats, or you can just count the total number of reps on each set and see how many sets it takes to get your 100 or 50 reps, or you can just do the workout throughout your entire day, keeping track of your numbers on a notebook or on your phone's "notepad" so you don't forget.  The 5 days of training can be spaced out however you want. I personally like a 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off rotation.  And, yes, if you have ever attempted this workout (some of you may remember it or tried it from an article written by Chad Waterbury about a decade ago in T-Nation magazine, where he recommended something very similar) then you know that you may be really sore and tired after two or three days of training and you may find it extremely difficult to grind out all the reps each day, but do it!  Your body does become its function, as the Bulgarians are wont to say.
2. This is a great time to do some ladder training.  Yesterday, for instance, I went out on my bench and did ladders with a pair of 50 pound dumbbells (I have some shoulder problems at the moment which limit the amount of weight I can use).  I started with a set of 3, then 4, then 5, and worked up to a set of 15.  That is a lot of total workload when you calculate it, even if it doesn't look as if it's much on paper.  But I felt awesome when the workout was over, and I'm not sore today, which means that it's time to do some more training this afternoon, even if I already had a session in this morning upon waking.
3. The last sentence above brings up another good point: This is a really good time to do some very high-frequency training.  For years, here on this blog and in other articles elsewhere, I have pushed the sheer muscle-building, strength-inducing efficacy of HFT, but if you still haven't really tried it, then here is your opportunity.  Just make sure when keeping your training frequency high that you keep either your volume or your intensity low.  If you are doing bodyweight training, then your intensity will naturally be low.  (Intensity here refers to the amount of weight being lifted, so "high-intensity" training would be training where you are using weights close to your 1RM.)  And if you do have access to heavy weights during this period, then make sure your volume is low when intensity and frequency are high.
4. Here are two Russian maxims that I almost always try to instill in anyone that I train: "Train as often as possible while being as fresh as possible" and "If you want to squat a lot, then you have to squat a lot."  If you have to ponder over the second one a few times, then do so until its meaning sets in.
5. Another good training plan during this time of isolation would be the "3 to 5 Method".  Pick 3 to 5 exercises, do them for 3 to 5 sets, and train 3 to 5 days per week.  Usually, as I have recommended previously, you would try to keep your reps in the 3 to 5 range, as well, but that won't be possible for most at-home trainees, so your rep range can be whatever you want it to be.
6. Learn some new exercises or perform some exercises that you have always known about but have never tried before.  For instance, even though almost anyone reading this has probably trained their upper bodies at some point with bodyweight exercises, even if the only two exercises you have ever done are push ups and chins, a lot of people have never performed a lot of lower body exercises, and, in fact, many of you may even feel as if you can't get a good workout for your legs with bodyweight exercises, but here is a list of leg exercises that would prove otherwise: bodyweight squats, walking lunges, jumping lunges, jumping squats, sissy squats, Bulgarian split squats, single-leg squats, ski squats, 1 and a 1/2 squats, and that's just to name a few.
7. If you have some kind of weights, and can do more than just bodyweight exercises, then this is also a good time to do some one-exercise-per-bodypart training.  I already mentioned 10 sets of 10 reps as one method above for a single bodypart, but here's an awesome set/rep scheme that I've recommended in the past: 2/3/5/10.  Pick a weight on an exercise where 10 reps is really tough.  Do a set of 2, rest briefly, do a set of 3, rest briefly, do a set of 5 - at this point everything seems pretty easy - and then, finally, end with a set of 10.  Even though the 10 should be really hard, you won't need to rest very long to do a set of 2 and repeat the cycle.  Perform at least 3 "rotations" of 2/3/5/10, but I think 5 is ideal (and gives you a 100 reps total).
8. If you can, incorporate some hill sprints into your program, assuming, of course, that there is a hill close by and you are not putting yourself in close contact with more than 10 people by sprinting on it.  Hill sprints will get you in great shape, plus give your legs one hell of a weight-free workout.  You can do them as a solo workout, utilizing multiple sets of sprints, or you can just do one or two of them at the end of a workout.
9. Try my "Add 1" workout that goes a little something like this: Pick at least 5 exercises, 7 is the most ideal, I think.  Your first exercise will be the one that you need the most work on, and your last exercise will be the one where you need the least amount of work.  So if your arms are easily your best bodypart, then save dumbbell curls or band curls for the end.  Also, don't be afraid to include 2 exercises for your legs or your back in the group if one of them is lagging behind.  For the example here, we are going to use squats, push ups, chins, walking lunges, one-arm dumbbell overhead presses, dumbbell rows, and dumbbell curls as the exercises for my example workout.  Begin with a set of squats, rest a couple of minutes, then do a set of squats and a set of push-ups, rest a couple of minutes and then do a set of squats, push-ups, and chins.  Rest a couple more minutes and then do a set of squats, a set of push-ups, a set of chins, and a set of walking lunges.  And, yes, rest a couple more minutes and its off to circuit of squats, push-ups, chins, walking lunges, and one-arm dumbbell rows.  Repeat until you have performed a circuit utilizing all 7 exercises.  Now you understand why you put your "weak" bodyparts/exercises first and your "good" ones last.  You will end up doing 7 sets of squats and only 1 set of dumbbell curls.  Arrange the other exercises accordingly.

For now, this is it.  Please include as many suggestions or questions in the comments if you want just to help fellow readers (or me).

If this post proves interesting for readers, then I will follow-up with a post on nutrition while quarantined, and then another one on "philosophy" while holed-up—there are actually tremendous spiritual/contemplative benefits to isolation if you will only apply them.

And if there are any other topics you want covered during this time, please let me know.