Keeping up with the Pack: How Toronto players are keeping motivated in lockdown

With the UK being urged to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, life has drastically changed for the majority of us over the past few weeks.

The way we exercise, eat and socialise are fundamental aspects of our lives that many of us have had to adjust.

So how do you continue to exercise, eat well and stay motivated during lockdown?

To help people adapt to this new and unprecedented situation, treated.com have teamed up with the Toronto Wolfpack in a new and exclusive series, Keeping up with the Pack, where players and staff give us an insight into their lockdown training and nutrition regimes, and what they’re doing to stay in shape at home.

In the first two episodes, Treated talked to Hakim Miloudi, Bodene Thompson, Gaz O’Brien, Tony Gigot, Gadwin Springer and Wolfpack head of strength and conditioning Jon Kelly about how to train at home with limited or no equipment, and keeping up the motivation to stay fit.

Episode 1 – Fitness

Episode 2 – Fitness

Gareth O’Brien

“‘I’ve not got any equipment so a lot of my training has been bodyweight exercises to maintain my strength, but you can improvise. We’ve just had our kitchen re-tiled, and I had some spare tiles so I’ve been using those. They’re pretty heavy, you can use them as a weight for press ups and stuff like that. You can probably improvise using various pieces of furniture as I’ve been doing.

“It is harder don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna lie to you. You get into a routine of jumping into your car, going to training, being with 20-25 other blokes that can get you through the day. If you’ve had a bad day, your mates get you through it, and it’s good to bounce off each other so you get each other through it.

“Being home, it’s a bit different. You’ve not got that camaraderie around you. But you’ve just got to get it done, there’s no other way around it really. You’ve got to get into a routine at home with specific training days. So you set yourself specific days you’re gonna train, and then have a day off at a certain time. And then try and get yourself into a routine at home. It does help.”

Jon Kelly (head of strength and conditioning)

“We do a lot of 30 second intervals in our training. So I said to Greg Worthington the other day, if you choose eight exercises that you’re familiar with, perform one exercise for 30 seconds and have 30 seconds rest, and then go into the next exercise, then 30 seconds rest, until you’ve done all eight and have two minutes rest. If you do that two or three times, that’s a good session there.”

Gadwin Springer

“I’ve got some dumbbells at home so I use those, or resistance bands. I’ve been doing lots of squats and body weight exercises like push ups and pull ups. I’ve been using small dumbbells trying to do some reps, really. Instead of doing 10 reps I do maybe 30 or 40 reps just to feel the burn and keep my muscle ticking over really.”

Bodene Thompson

“I’ve got a little curb in the backyard, or you can put a weight plate down, just doing full range squats all the way down, heels to the back heel, ankles if you can get it there, and all the way up on a little bit of elevation knees pointed out. Those are really good if you’ve got no weights, just doing those on a little curb or elevation.”

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