5 Lessons from a Professional Athlete in Hotel Quarantine

In October 2020 I had arrived into the Pullman Adelaide after spending months in Europe competing. I would spend the next 15 days here in hotel quarantine before flying home to Sydney. It was a welcome change to know I could finally unpack my suitcases, get fed every meal and have a warm shower to use - my previous weeks travelling around the Alps couldn’t provide the shelter like this hotel room. 

By the end of the two weeks I had found my rhythm. I discovered a few lessons in this time that helped me a great deal. I would love to share my tips of how I not only survived quarantine, but made it restful, productive and reflective – which prepared me for the season I am in now. 

1. Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial 

The SA Institute of Sport was kind enough to lend me gym equipment for my hotel room since I was not allowed to leave the room at all. Walks and runs were out of the question so I adapted my training program to suit the gym. 

On a regular week I would do 3 gym sessions – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The rule was always to have a day break between the gym sessions. However, what do you think happened when I was sitting in the room with the equipment? I tried to do it everyday. 

By doing something I usually would never do, I tried to adapt to my new circumstances by breaking my old boundaries. 

What happened? 

My body got sore in areas of high injury risk. So in turn, my body got exhausted and I started feeling worse than if I didn’t train at all. Then, I had to have a couple days off of using no gym equipment at all to compensate.

What I learned in this:

Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. I can do my work at a high level in the restricted environment and try and get ahead – yet it leads to burn out. I can attempt to push my own limits/boundaries in order to feel more productive. But in the end that just leaves me in a worse position than I began with. It would have been better resting and doing none of the above until the right environment and time comes. Yet if you don’t have that luxury, then play it safe. 

Takeaway:

Don’t overwork yourself just to feel accomplished, recognise that you are enough even when you are resting. Use the time off to reconsider the habits, the passion and the motives behind your work. So when you return you are not only physically ready, but mentally too. That is the best benefit of all! Don’t worry about falling behind; use that brain space for something else!

2. The right equipment changes everything 

By the third day of quarantine I was not motivated to do anything. There wasn’t any external stimulus, I was eating the same meals and I had no form of human contact apart from an army personnel checking that I was in my room. So I made a decision to take out of the box the new pair of training shoes Puma sent me and use them in quarantine. It became a cue, that when I had put them on I was now an athlete in her training environment. My bedroom had transformed into my field of work. I found I was instantly in the zone when I wore those specific shoes, as I had formed a link in my mind with exercise to equipment. I even had a certain outfit to train in to colour coordinate with the shoes! 

It doesn’t seem much but it gave me an excited edge to finishing everything I had to do that day. And even if the environment stayed constant when I took my shoes off the session ended. It was a great way to turn focus on and off, where the right equipment was the switch!

Application:

If you have a specific piece of equipment that is special to you, a notebook, pen, outfit, shoes – whatever it is, I encourage you to exclusively link it the task at hand which is hard for you to do. It might be writing out notes, doing a hard workout, cleaning the room; you can find new motivation purely from the excitement linked to the nice piece of equipment in order to get the job done. 

3. Detailed Programs work 

My coaches had sent me programs for 4 out of the 6 days I usually train during the week. The other two days I could ‘choose my own adventure’ in training. Take it from me, the last thing I wanted to do was try and figure out my own training programs in my hotel room, all I wanted to do was escape or eat. 

One of my other coaches however, wrote out a really detailed program with a description on what I should be feeling and focussing on whilst completing an exercise. This was a game changer. 
For example, rather than reading 10 x push ups, it would say 10 x push ups – working on keeping the back straight, the shoulders relaxed and focus the timing to slowly press down to it. 

Focussing on which muscles to switch on shifted my focus from the ‘why’ to the ‘how.’ It was completely different. This became the session I most looked forward to in quarantine because I knew I could get it done regardless of how I felt that day. 

Application

When motivation is lacking in work, take a breather, and break up the big task into smaller, more manageable tasks. Focus on the how: filling in the minor details that you would usually ignore, and then put a plan of how it will complete the bigger picture. This helps separate feelings from output, which will make sure you get the job done at a consistently high level.

4. Give yourself grace 

Before I went to bed I had written down a list of my daily activities that would fill the next day. I had written down the expected times lunch would arrive, my goals for the day and the phone calls I scheduled in. I found this helped me so much. In addition to this, I waited six days before I posted on social media I was in quarantine because I knew I needed a routine if I was going to make this a meaningful time. 

I usually take three days to get used to a new location and really thrive in a routine. So what I found worked was before I went to bed I wrote down a list of my daily activities that would fill the next day. This would include expected times of meals to arrive, my goals for the day and the phone calls I scheduled in. 

Give yourself grace; it is a challenging situation when you have to navigate new locations, jobs, and social situations. 

I learned just because you are in quarantine it doesn’t mean you are available for anyone to call at anytime. I planned training 2-5pm during the day and would block that out and turned my phone on silent. It might have seemed silly, yet I found I didn’t need excuses to prioritise the things that helped me reach my goals. If I just let everyone else determine how I would spend my free time I would have been relying on others for motivation - and that is a slippery slope in quarantine. Did I achieve all the goals I set for myself each day? Nope. Did I give myself grace for that and continue trying the next day? Yes. 

I didn’t allow the adjustment period of getting into routine determine how I spent quarantine, I had ample grace for myself. 

Takeaway: Just because you have spare time, don’t disregard the importance of your schedule. Give yourself grace to get into a routine and back yourself for it.

5. Don’t be afraid to be ‘that’ person 

As I arrived at the Quarantine hotel, I made sure that by the time I had reached reception the staff knew I was an athlete. When they found out they offered to have a specific menu tailored to my needs. I said yes straight away. I asked for the same breakfast each day that wasn’t originally on the menu, an increased vegetable serving and to remove the dessert off my menu. I knew if I was stuck in the room I was going to eat whatever they gave me out of boredom, so I eliminated the possibility of that getting in the way of reaching my nutrition goals. Did they forget and occasionally put dessert in my bag? Of course. Was I mad about it? Absolutely not! Rather than expect treats or rely on them, on the odd occasion I enjoyed them.  

I left hotel quarantine in better shape than when I arrived. It took me being ‘that’ person to ask for something specific to my needs, yet it was worth it.

Takeaway

There are rewards at the end of awkward conversations! Don’t be afraid of how you sound or look like to others if it means you are reaching your goals and overall feeling better for it. You are worth valuing over others opinions.