Local Sports

Quarantine fitness, Vol. 1: Jeremy Hartman

April 1, 2020

With most gyms and fitness studios limited or closed altogether due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many people have had their usual fitness routines interrupted in some way.Fortunately, there are still plenty of in-home exercise options out there, and we’re enlisting the help of local trainers and instructors. In the first installment of our Quarantine Fitness series, Jeremy Hartman of Hartman Performance Training runs through some basic exercises that people can do to build strength at home, even if they don’t have a full home gym at their disposal.Hartman has continued training clients during the outbreak, though he has required anyone still wishing to work with him in person to sign an additional waiver. Most of his training is now being done remotely via Skype or private Facebook videos — something he’s become accustomed to over the years through his experience training military personnel stationed overseas.Those clients who don’t have full gym setups at home provide Hartman with a list of the equipment they do have, and he writes up workout programs tailored for that equipment.[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]If you’re in that same boat, here are some moves that Hartman recommends to help keep you building muscle during this quarantine period:Squats"Number one would be any type of squat variation. I love free squats, box squats. They can step on the band and put it over their neck and do banded squats. You can hold dumbbells out in front of you or a small kettlebell, or even a plate right in front of your upper chest area. Any type of squats — body-weight squats are great, but adding resistance."Chest/shoulder presses"My next favorite move would be some type of press. Even if you don’t have a bench press, you can lay down on the floor and you can do what’s called a floor press, where your elbows come down, touch the ground and pause and you press right back up. You can do those with dumbbells for time or reps. You can do those with small weights, too, if you don’t have a bench press."Another press variation would be any type of military press, whether you’re doing dumbbells or kettlebells. You can even stand on the band and press the band from the top of your chest over your head, too. That’s what’s great about the band; there’s such great movements up there."Push-ups"Push-ups, they’re always a great one. With the bands, you can put it around your back and your hands. You can tie knots in it; that way you add more resistance, because it shortens up the band. You can do those for time, you can do those for reps. You can do those for a circuit, where you do 10 seconds on, maybe 30 seconds off, try to repeat."And the best thing about (the bands) … how they hang up from the pull-up bar, you can actually take that and tie a little knot in it up top — actually, you’re pulling one end through the other. For those that can’t do push-ups — this is kind of hard for me to describe, but if you do that and turn around and put the band on your belly … you turn around and do a push-up where it helps you up. It’s called a band-assisted push-up."Abs/core"I see more people that come into the gym with lower back injuries, whether athletes or general fitness. … I see a lot of people that have had aches, pains, disc problems. So what’s called the antagonist muscles, basically the opposite muscles to your abs — think of if your back takes over a lot of the work, and your abs aren’t strong enough, and your back’s working at 70 percent and your abs are only working at 30 percent. Your back is always doing the work, and that’s why it’s always aching."The abs are so critical. We always hear that term ‘core work’ — but people forget core is all the way around, so besides your abs, you’ve got to work your lower back."I think anything with resistance on there, from the old basic sit-up, to any type of crunch with resistance, and anything else. … The abs are like any muscle group. If you want your bench press to go up, you’ve got to add weight to it; you can’t just come in and bench the bar. If you want your abs to get stronger, you have to add banded resistance weight to it. That way it actually helps take pressure off your lower back."[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Contacting Jeremy Hartman" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/HartmanPerformanceTraining/">www.facebook.com/HartmanPerformanceTraining/</a>Instagram: @hartmanperformanceTwitter: @hartman_jeremy[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Starting a home gym" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]You don’t need to have a full array of gym equipment to get a good workout in at home. Here are some basic items you could start with:Resistance bandsThe ideal bands for strength training, Hartman says, are different than the slim ones you might use with a physical therapist. Thick and roughly three feet in length, they can be used as a substitute for weights on a wide variety of moves."They’re so easy and adjustable," he said. "You can you move your hands in closer to adjust and make it 5-10 pounds harder."DumbbellsIf you don’t have room in your house for a full rack of different sized dumbbells, there are plenty of options, including adjustable dumbbell sets that could easily be tucked away in a living room corner."Those Powerblocks, those Bowflex ones are good right now," Hartman said. "They don’t take up a lot of space; they’re easy to adjust."Weight platesEven if you don’t have a weight bench and a ton of bars, you can make use of single weight plates in a number of ways. Even just holding one across your chest can make basic body-weight moves like squats or calf raises a little more challenging.[sc:pullout-text-end]

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