Submitted photo Youngstown State University strength and conditioning coordinator Terry Grossetti shouts instructions to players during a football practice. Grossetti is helping area athletes stay in shape during Ohio’s stay-at-home order.

WARREN — Doing push-ups and sit-ups can get old really quickly for athletes who aren’t exactly sure how to stay in shape during Ohio’s stay-at-home order.

Breaking up the monotony is possible. In fact, Youngstown State University assistant strength and conditioning coach Terry Grossetti said most of what he teaches the football players under his tutelage can be done without equipment.

“Honestly, as a strength coach, how good you are depends on how good your players do when you’re not around,” Grossetti said. “It’s like that with any coach or any person. I like to think my players have learned quite a bit of what we’re trying to do at Youngstown. … So, a lot of the protocol and training methods that I’ve taught them over the last year, they’re implementing in their personal lives.”

The same can be said for high school athletes across the Mahoning Valley who don’t have access to the weights and exercise machines they normally do.

Grossetti and other strength and conditioning coordinators who have roots in the area provided several tips on how athletes can still excel in exercising, speed training, weight lifting and nutrition during the current pandemic.

In the first story of this series, each coordinator agreed that “dynamic” stretching and mobility movements prior to a workout were better warm-ups than stretching, which removes the elasticity from muscles and can hinder athletic performance. Maybe of more difficulty for athletes is figuring out what workouts can be done without any equipment.

“It’s definitely tough, but you can put together a pretty good program in your living room,” said Grossetti, who owns two training facilities in western Pennsylvania but is working out at home because his businesses are currently closed. “For instance, I do a program every day, and it’s very challenging for me, mentally and physically. It’s keeping the strength and power that I’ve built in the weight room.”

One of the workouts Grossetti has YSU players doing consists of push-ups but in a different form.

Instead of a normal push-up, he has the Penguins clapping as they push themselves upward. This is because he said athletes lose power at a faster rate than they do endurance.

“So, instead of regular push-ups, (they’re doing) a ton of clapping push-ups, a ton of push-ups where you’re actually producing force into the ground and accelerating your body weight,” he said. “You can also do squat jumps in the living room, or split-squat jumps (one leg in front, one leg behind) in the living room, just to activate the Type 2 muscle fiber in your body that’s used a lot when it comes to power-based sports.”

Grossetti’s workouts are aimed toward football players as he is the strength coach for that sport. The focus is on fast and explosive movements instead of endurance-based. The results, he said, would also help those who throw shot put or discuss or swing a baseball or softball bat.

Reuben Green III holds the same position as Grossetti at Morgan State University in Maryland. The YSU grad and former Liberty High School strength coach said players need to get innovative while at home. Much of his focus, especially for high school athletes, is about proper technique, regardless of the exercise. He said it’s important to start slow (moving down slowly on a push-up or squat, for example) and concentrating on the correct motion before picking up the intensity.

As the form improves, he said, weight and speed can be incorporated.

“Once you get up to where you’re doing everything right, strap a bookbag on (with some books in it) and go through the same progression you did with your body weight,” said Green, who added that going down slowly on a push-up or squat can be followed by thrusting upward quickly. “Start going 6 seconds down on a squat or 6 seconds on a push-up with a bookbag on, and the next week you go 5 seconds. You speed up the repetition until you’re cranking out 20, 30, 40 in a set.”

Other workouts he mentioned were walking up and down the stairs, with or without a bookbag, and again focusing on the movement. He recommended “good mornings,” which are similar to a squat, but the knees only bend slightly while bending over and moving the chest downward, parallel to the ground. He said to flex the hamstring muscles while bending. These are normally done with a bar on a person’s back, but a back pack or weight of any kind can be put on or held during this movement.

Squat jumps, where the athlete squats down before leaping as high as possible, were recommended by both Green and Grossetti. They also said squat jumps should be done with less reps and more of a burst. Push-ups and pull-ups are popular, Green said, in part because they incorporate several areas of the body in a single movement. Different versions of push-ups can influence various areas of the body (wide hands, clapping, inclined feet, etc.).

Green said athletes should attempt to do full-body workouts daily instead of focusing on a single muscle group.

“There are five different components,” he said, “your squat movement, you want a hinge of some sort, a pressing movement, a pulling movement and then you want to carry something and do some core. If you’re coming up with a home workout for yourself, and you have those five things in your workout, I think you just came up with a great training day for yourself.”