Abstract
The ongoing global pandemic brought about by Coronavirus II (SARS-Cov-2 or COVID-19) has caused an ongoing cessation of sporting competitions and training facility closures. This is a fundamental challenge for amateur and elite sporting professionals. Although recommendations have been provided for team-sport athletes to maintain general and sport-specific conditioning, these methods are often not optimal for strength athletes (i.e., powerlifting (PL) and weightlifting (WL)) due to the unique and narrow set of performance requirements posed by these sports. The purpose of this review is to provide evidence-based information and recommendations and highlight potential strategies and approaches that may be used by strength (PL and WL) athletes during the current global crisis. Collectively, we provide evidence from resistance training literature regarding the loss of muscle strength, power and mass, minimum training frequencies required to attenuate such losses and training re-adaptation. Additionally, we suggest that time off training and competition caused by ongoing restrictions may be used for other purposes, such as overcoming injury and improving movement quality and/or mobility, goal setting, psychological development and emphasizing strength sports for health. These suggestions are intended to be useful for coaches, strength athletes and organizations where existing training strategies and recommendations are not suitable or no longer feasible.
Highlights
The recent and ongoing pandemic caused by the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome known as Coronavirus II (SARS-Cov-2 or COVID-19) in late 2019 has caused a major shift in the global way of life
Effort towards effective goal setting for individual athletes has been well documented elsewhere and so we present a brief overview of information and applicability to strength athletes
The current global pandemic presents many challenges, including those faced by sporting organizations, professionals and athletes
Summary
The recent and ongoing pandemic caused by the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome known as Coronavirus II (SARS-Cov-2 or COVID-19) in late 2019 has caused a major shift in the global way of life. Maximal strength and muscle cross sectional area have been shown to be substantially reduced following 8–12 weeks of training cessation in well-trained adult males [29,30], which may be more akin to the training status of PL athletes compared to moderate or recreationally trained individuals. Sakugawa et al [31] suggest that elderly men and women maintain strength above baseline levels following 16 weeks of detraining This may not directly reflect PL and WL athletes per se, we do acknowledge growing participation in each sport by Masters’ and/or elderly athletes.
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