Athletes can be a hard-headed, hard-working bunch who hate to stay still. However, despite our relative health and strength, we need to lead the way in promoting social isolation and distance to flatten the curve in our communities. It’s time to go hard, at home.

Athletic Focused:

If you’re on a team, write indoor workouts for each other specific to your sport and position. For bonus points, complete the work out together on google hangouts.

Work on micro-skills that promote hand eye coordination like juggling or using a reflex ball.

Do some yoga and core exercises in your home. There are so many great youtube videos, apps and other resources for these online!

Use extra down time to work on mental toughness. (This book has been helpful to my rugby team).

If your indoor space allows, practice your headstands / handstands. Great for core and playing like a kid.

Get an accountability buddy for your isolation workouts

Some experts have said hiking and outdoor running is okay right now. Use that advice with extreme caution because the best thing we can do at the moment is stay home and away from others.

Learn some healthy recipes that can fuel your body both now and when your season returns

Keep hydrating! Never lose the habits that help your body be the best it can be.

Mind/mental health focused:

Create a schedule for yourself. Routine will help you manage these days.

Journal! Prompt ideas:

- Make a list of things you love about yourself, athletic and other wise

- Make a list of goals for yourself, athletic and otherwise. How Can isolation be a time to make progress on these goals?

Make a daily gratitude list!

Feel your feelings. Rest. Binge some shows. Fight the capitalistic idea that you have to be productive ALL the time.

Enrich your mind. Take a virtual museum tour or an Ivy League educational course or read that book you’ve been putting off! If you’re caring for a little one (or are just young at heart), virtual field trips could be fun, too!

Stay in contact with your athletic community via social media, phone calls, texts and virtual hang outs. Social distance should not mean complete isolation.

Everything else:

Encourage your fellow athletes to stay at home. We’re a masochistic, hard working bunch who don’t want our previous training to go to waste. But is that more important than the lives of elders, people with diabetes, people with asthma, people battling cancer and other illnesses, etc etc etc who are at risk of dying from this virus?

Practice your other hobbies. Do you bake, play an instrument or want to learn a language? Set time aside each day for that! Check on your elderly and sick friends and neighbors. Run errands for them and definitely do not hoard supplies for yourself. As a healthy, strong individual, I feel a moral responsibility to use my health and strength to to help my community survive.