COVID-19 break your
workout?

During these exceptional times, it can be hard to focus on your fitness goals and maintain that hard-earned condition. We talked to three PUMA employees, all of them either practicing or former top athletes, to get some creative ideas on how you can manage to stay fit, through COVID-19 and beyond.

Track and field

Track and field athlete Patrick Schneider shared his perspective with us: “Due to the postponement of the Olympics 2020, my short term goal has become a long term goal,” explains Patrick, who´s currently focusing on the 400m sprint discipline, “My new motivation is the German and the European Champs later this year, and I am especially motivated to handle this situation in the best possible way.” Patrick´s shares three “musts” for peak physical and mental fitness. First, make sure you have a daily routine – that’s essential. Don´t lose sight of balanced nutrition, including Vitamin D to protect the immune system. And lastly, try to go out for a walk at least 30 mins a day to get your circulation going.

When It comes to effective training, running is always a good idea! This improves your cardiovascular fitness and strengthens muscles. If it´s getting boring, do intervals. That could look like this: 8×2 minutes of increased speed and in between rest 1 minute doing an easy jog or just walk.

The Junior Manager of Purchasing for PUMA’s DACH region also proposes bodyweight exercises with TRX slings attached on the door, rather than going to the gym. Finally, why not take the remaining time to do yoga or stretching exercises paired with stabilization training for the feet?

Golf

In order to stay motivated, golf professional Matthias Knoblauch has implemented alternate training days in everyday life. He expects the routine to maintain his fitness level and help foster a positive mindset. Once implemented, it looks like this: Create a plan for at least 5 days per week, alternating between bodyweight exercises at home (e.g. via PUMATRAC) and HIIT trainings supported with dumbbells (check out Tabata Songs). This will boost your indoor training and make the most out of the current situation. The golfer recommends integrated sprint sessions and one day of longer-distance running if possible. You should also include short stretching exercises every second day, which are forgotten sometimes, but crucial.

Running, Biking and Swimming

It´s a challenging situation now, especially for athletes with pre-planned seasons. They were suddenly forced to change their plans on extremely short notice. “However, this is a great opportunity to prove how resilient we can be when things get tough. I have some strategies that allow me to keep training despite not competing soon,” comments the triathlon runner Jorge Michel.

First of all, learn to run/bike/hike alone and while doing so, you can listen to music, podcasts, concerts, or simply enjoy the nature. Jorge personally listens to The Rich Roll Podcast during long runs. 

Jorge recommends doing a lot of zone 2 training these days: long low-intensity sessions are perfect for burning fat and it builds in your aerobic and endurance performance. Plus, you get stronger, and the injury risk is lower compared to speed interval training. Long distance runners tend to leave this training out, because it can be boring, given that you have to run 10-20k at a very slow pace. But since there are no competitions soon, now’s the time.

It´s also a good moment to buy new sport gear, a lot of equipment is on sale right now, e.g. Sport Watches. You should definitely start tracking your progress! By measuring your times, fatigue and stress level, you can compare your performance between the training sessions and see if you´re actually improving. 

Exceptional times call for exceptional strategies, which – if we make them work for us – will help lead to exceptional results. We’re stronger together. Let’s use the upcoming days and weeks to get into peak condition for the next season!