 You're listening to barbell logic brought to you by barbell logic online coaching where each week We take a systematic walk through strength training and the refining power of voluntary hardship You're listening to the barbell logic podcast. This is Matt Reynolds I'm here. I invited my little brother on Chris again And we wanted to talk a little bit today in this principle series about staying healthy during quarantine At this point really most of us are in isolation those of you guys that heard my story on Thursday know that I I Tested positive for COVID-19 actually just a few hours after we recorded that podcast my wife's test came back positive So she's positive as well and oddly enough almost completely asymptomatic Not sick at all and my kiddos seem to be negative. So how are you guys doing in isolation there outside of Boston? Yeah, I mean we've We are doing pretty well. So we we pulled our kids out of school One day before the school is actually shut down As part of that was I was just sort of doing the math couple weeks now figuring somewhere there Right, it's actually been one full week. So it they close the schools on Friday That was the first day the kids wouldn't be going back We pulled our kids out on decided Wednesday night Thursday. They didn't go to school and since then, you know We've just been hunkered down here at the house. We have literally not left house like at all sure Yeah, us either obviously It's kind of interesting because for us We are sort of What what most people's lives look like right now in isolation or quarantine is sort of the way we live life every day The difference that you have is that your kids typically go to school And of course the difference for us is is that uh, i'm home sick with the actual coronavirus. So it's It's been uh, so there's certainly there are some changes for everybody I think if I if I were healthy and I certainly have continued to take a turn for the better the last few days So I feel quite a bit better. Um, then things things would be a little more normal around here They just don't feel normal And some of that is just you know, my kids don't have it. So my kids are now shut up in their room I my wife laughed at me when the health department called and she tested positive She was like you got the biggest smile on your face I was like I get to move back to my bed and I went and gave my wife a hug because I hadn't seen her in like a week And uh, you know, it wasn't good news for her. But um, I have a I have a covid friend now that uh, I can suffer with So, uh, but but we know that almost everybody on some level is uh, and and probably entirely Quarantined at this point and if you're not yet, you will be soon You probably should be uh, whether whether anybody has demanded you to be yet And I think we just wanted to talk a little bit about what life looks like while in quarantine and sort of stuck in Your house and how to be healthy and and and not how to necessarily be healthy and not and avoid the Avoid the the disease which is certainly something I think that's on everybody's mind and forefront But really how to be a Emotionally and mentally healthy um in the midst of the chaos Most families aren't used to being at home all the time together. So what is what are your days looking like right now? Yeah, so we we've done a couple things. I mean we We've done a pretty decent job of planning forward So the first thing that that we noticed or that we knew was probably going to happen was The tendency of every human being right now is to stare at their phones Or tv's and eat junk food Um, like laying on the couch trying to soak up every bit of information on what's happening, right? So it's just kind of freak out mode and That that's harder to do Whenever you have your kids home and you're supposed to be schooling them as best you can Which is new for us and so One thing that we knew we couldn't do Was just sit around stare at our phones and see what was going on try to keep track of the numbers and read all The newest headlines and all that However at the same time not doing that at all Would both feel slightly irresponsible because as the parent of three children We need to know what's going on and make sure that we can sort of stay in the loop So what we've done is we've actually just this is kind of funny. We scheduled time to freak out So every day we give ourselves a little time in the morning a little time in the in the evening after the kids go down And there's a little time in the afternoon after lunch as well that we'll just sort of scan the headlines and read things and Jenny and I will talk back and forth about things we've discovered or found or read or whatever And we call that our worry time. So we just sit there and worry Because it feels like you need to but doing it all day And many of the behaviors that can come along with that worry or to help people cope with the worry Is where you can really get into some trouble with your own health and one thing you really don't need right now anybody Is to be less healthy going into a What is probably going to be the beginning of a p of a start to a large rise in the pandemic You don't want to be less healthy So working on trying to make sure that we're both mentally prepared for that and also that our bodies are in good shape Is a good idea. Yeah, so for for us we um, of course, it's been different with us being sick But so if this is more about how we live life almost on a on a daily basis anyway Is we we live on a schedule? It was similar what you just said and we get up at the same time every day And we do the work we're supposed to do the girls are Um doing web web based classrooms right now. So even though we homeschool They're kind of part of a group that does things like science experiments and public speaking and stuff That's harder to do at home by yourself So they're they're doing that today or the last couple days and that's been um important for them and so and then for us it's just a an issue of um, you know We've stayed away from fast food We've stayed away from the most part from from door dash and and delivery services like that And even though those services are certainly um can be extremely beneficial during this time Like home cooked meals are good for us right now and they they provide some sort of solidarity for the for the family as well And so just being on that schedule and doing the same thing that you guys have done We've got our times to watch Netflix and and veg and we've got our times to like read twitter and read all the read all the New stories and freak out a little bit, but for the most part it's um, it's kind of life is normal for us here And and that makes it feel good to me. I'd say one thing that's that's Uh, we're gonna do actually here in about an hour is we're just going to do family chore time and work through the house And clean the house the house is it gets messy or faster when everybody's home And we've got a housekeeper who actually is sick herself not not actually with kovic They thought that she might and um, but she's she's kind of home ill and of course we're in quarantine So we can't have a housekeeper come over anyway. And so Um, you know making sure that the house is clean and then the other thing is it's it's we're going into spring And so like yesterday we opened up all the windows. We opened up all the our shades are can always up Anyway, we rarely have the window treatments in front of our window and just got fresh air and again It's not really about the old wives tale of does the fresh air actually make you healthier It's more about the mental sort of thing it does to breathe kind of fresh spring air Just feels better and makes you feel like it's healthier and especially when For us we've been in sort of sick quarantine for the last week or so There's something about having the house clean and it smells clean and there's like The windows are open and there's fresh air and like it feels better that way And so we've really focused on those things I know for you as well, you guys have done a bunch of family workouts So you you know, you're a you're a block client. I coach you But lately in your videos as you submit them to me like your kiddos are all in the videos They're they're doing their body weight workouts. Your wife's doing the same thing And what kind of role is that played for you guys? It's been super helpful. I mean, it's always true that if you can exercise That you're gonna feel better. I mean, there's just incredible amounts of data on this You you mentally are better off if you're working out It is difficult to get started. I actually think if you've Missed a few workouts due to the you know the chaos that's that's happening I think part of it is your brain is going Who does voluntary hardship when we're under involuntary hardship? Yeah, sure. Um, and if you can get over that hump Really honestly just once then the rest of it is fairly easy and it'll come more naturally to do But I mean, we've noticed first of all, I mean you got little kids in the house Our kids are our elementary school age all three of them And they have got to get energy out and so Our workouts as long as we just you know, you've got to you got to give a little in terms of you can't do your hardcore workout with the kids Um doing all the things that you're doing But what you can do is have them doing something while you're doing the things you're doing And I'm fortunate that I've got a gym in the basement Some people don't but if you're doing body weight stuff, you know, your kids can do that kind of thing with you You can turn it into a family event. Yeah Yeah, one of the things for us that was very been very important. I mentioned this on the podcast thursday was that Um, you know, we want to be able to provide that that support and value to our clients in general So we we know we have a lot of clients that have been displaced. They can't work They don't have a home gym, but that doesn't mean that they can't exercise And so a lot of times in our sort of niche of the strength conditioning community We kind of we kind of poop on Exercise which it's about like well, if you don't you can't train it's worthless And that's not true at all We've talked about this quite a bit on the podcast before is that there's there's real value in just in exercising when training is unavailable and so exercise All the time for the sake of exercise and never training when you should be training That's that's not okay But when you don't have a gym available to be able to get in and continue with the habit of exercising doing the body weight work It it's amazing how much it will help you certainly mentally and emotionally just the way you feel But also I think it really it will really slow the detraining effect down for people who don't have Access to barbells to be able to go in and still do the air squats and the push-ups and the sit-ups and the And the jump squats and the you know and whatever and if they've got a kettlebell or a dumbbell or some bands Like we can make those things work as best as we can and so um, that seems to be a big help And then I saw that you guys pulled the trigger on a On a trampoline This past week. Yeah, I mean like the thing was we were going to have to do something because We've got you know, we've got a house in a yard I know I was thinking about what this would feel like to people who live in an apartment Or if they're you know in a condo or something and sure they don't have a yard man, that would be tough I I'm like you we keep our windows Um, you know the shade's pulled up on the windows and if it's a nice day We open up the windows and just feels like okay. We're not quite so Contained. Yeah, uh when it feels like that but we went ahead and bought a trampoline so that the kids could Jump around on the trampoline and burn energy that way and I've been getting on the trampoline, which They're fun, man. They're a blast. They are fun. Yeah, and I mean I there's some Joints and ligaments and muscles and stuff that I don't normally use From in the sort of jumping and chaos motions that I've been doing Yeah, um, that's all fun. But yeah, I mean it's it's just it's another example of A way that I'm just trying to stay active and keep my mind off of you know, the chaos that's ensuing out in the outside world Yeah, uh, right and then Rachel and I we we actually went for a walk yesterday for the first really the first physical thing I've done in about two weeks since being sick Is I went for a walk around the neighborhood, you know, I'm not around anybody And if there were actually if there were people coming on the same side of the road We just crossed the road to the other side and walked on the side walk on the other side of the road Um, and that was more for their protection than our protection. Obviously We weren't going to put a sign on her head saying that we were covid positive But we just stayed away and just walked around the the block a couple times and it makes a makes a big difference And so, you know, it's interesting that we are People who need to control have some control in our life and certainly you can swing the pendulum too far That direction and you can you can get to the point where you have problems with like ocd where you have to control everything But we're if you had ocd right now And I know there are people that do out there that it's a bad time to have ocd because there's uh, there's We're sort of in the midst of the chaos and so to have some control in the midst of the chaos I think is is actually calming for us and uh, if we don't take that too far So for us and I think you've said the same for you is that that that requires us to to live on a schedule And to sort of plan our food and meals what we're going to eat every day Um, and not just kind of live by the you know the by the seat of our pants Um and dedicate the times that we we need to dedicate every day to to work or school To eating to rest to exercise and things that make us physically better Um to reading reading for enjoyment and not just not reading for freak out mode But then also to schedule some of those times for the reading for the freak out mode You know, I've I've sort of lived on twitter more than normal Because it's just interesting right now the the you know, it's more cutting edge than anything else or reading the articles and And so rachel I do the same thing and share but I think the big takeaway there is to is to put yourself on a schedule Maintain the same sleep schedule that you have normally maintained We we still do the early to bed early to rise thing And and then get the exercise that you can because you'll feel better do stuff with your family And you know, we've talked about this we talked about this thursday like there are parts of this They're certainly not all bad Getting to spend more time with your family Getting to eat home cooked meals sort of getting back to the basics of what matters. There's something that's been My pastor was texting me the other day and he said how's isolation going? I was like great actually I love it. He's like he got real sick like six months ago with the flu like real bad Where he had to isolate himself for about eight days. He's like, yeah, I didn't miss people at all when I was isolated for eight days I was like, I know it's it's uh for being an extrovert like I am It's actually been surprisingly nice to just uh Just kind of hunker down and get work done and focus on the things that really matter And so I miss I miss the exercise, uh, you know after all that obviously I've been so sick that I can't I mean it will do much and so taking the walker in the neighborhood yesterday was kind of my first step We'll do that again today And then I'm hoping to get back into the gym and doing some really light stuff. Um here in the next few days so yeah, you know, you think about the nutrition side of it it's um It can be a little easier actually in this time one You're not probably not going out to eat much if any sure you're probably not You don't have access to some of those superfluous things The other thing is If you know, we've been a little concerned that we I think everybody's this way that you have enough groceries that you have the right things all those kinds of things I don't know if that's a valid concern or not to be honest, but Measuring out what you eat Can also help calm some of those fears Can also fill that that control void that you're looking to to fill because You know one thing you can control is the food you put in your mouth and so Uh, you're it's a little easier to do that. I think right now But the other thing is like you said it's not not all bad our kids I don't know if anybody else has kids that waste things like milk You know like pour them a big glass of milk and they're like pouring out half of it or all of it because they Didn't drink any we've been telling our kids like guys We don't know if we're going to be able to consistently get milk So You know You're going to drink all your milk. We're going to pour you a little tiny bit and it's funny You know everybody in the family has gotten more into that routine We may all end up behaving very much like our grandparents who live through the depression, but uh, I don't know that's necessarily a bad thing Yeah, it's wild. Have you talked to your kids much about the situation at hand? Oh, yeah, I mean we're you know, we're on the extreme end probably of Where most parents are and in terms of just telling our kids the completely honest truth about everything So when when we pulled them out of school, we told them why we told them what was going on um, I actually make my oldest son Carter read one of my um newspaper articles each day the physical newspaper still Delivered which seems bizarre because by the time it gets to my driveway. It's old news But he reads an article circles words. He doesn't know Of course, all the articles right now are about the same thing. So they know what's going on they understand the concept and We talk about it as a family quite a bit. Yeah, we did the same thing. We've been doing the same thing We had a It's of course, I've because I've been in isolation I haven't got to talk to my kids as much as I wanted to yesterday We we just kind of spread out to the four corners of the uh Of the living room and just kind of talked through everything like what it looks like and what that It kind of kind of thought about like what the next two to four weeks might look like at our house and And talked about that and then I'll tell you another fun thing that we've done That's maybe a Carter could do this your oldest could do this But um, my kids are old enough to do this is we've just been taking some time to do like a deep dive on Whatever they want to do so they tell me the subject that they're interested in They're like, okay Let's because we want to facilitate this hunger of learning right the what we did our very first episode on the That never ending search for knowledge And so if my kids are are interested about whatever topic, okay Tell me the topic and then what you're going to do is you're going to do the deep dive On google and and youtube and and then we're going to come back and talk about it You're going to tell me all the stuff you learned about whatever it is And I don't care what it is right now. Um, and so, um, it's been interesting and we've done the same thing we watched charlotte's web uh last night and uh My kids were like how do spiders make webs and I was like, you know I can't tell you that I understand the entire dynamics of how spiders make webs and so we dove super deep On how spiders make webs. Yeah, and uh, it's a great opportunity to do some really strong deep dive And the great thing is for an educational standpoint for your kids it can cross a lot of um Topical boundaries because you can go over, you know biology and physics and math and all sorts of fascinating things That your kids wouldn't uh, maybe necessarily have the same math that wouldn't have the same perspective with in school So it's uh, it's sure there are some good things that are in here for sure Yeah, absolutely and it uh It teaches that level of learning for for us And so yeah, I one of my favorite things about the way we home school that I that you never think about when you go to public school Is that everything is so broken apart by subject And you don't realize that like all of that wait a minute, you know, uh Newton That you learned about in history has so much to do with math. It's ridiculous, right? And so you can there's like the history of math, but you never learned the history of math in public school You learned math and you learned history And so it's been interesting to do those deep dives on things that are are are quite interesting Are you looking for your history of math book that you got back there? I was actually it's called uh It's called the story of mathematics And it was one of my favorite books because I've always said if you could teach math to kids Through history It would anchor it better for them for most of us, you know The way you're taught math is step one step two step three step four You know and then it gets lost by the time you take your next test But if you if you learn like why did humans need to learn this thing and what drove humans to to need this thing Over the course of the story of history, man, it's very very interesting Yeah, it's great So whether you have kids or not take some time do a deep dive Think about some of those things that are interesting to you and do some research because now you've got the time to do it So, uh, I hope you guys stay healthy out there. Listen make good choices Make smart choices like again remember my wife just tested positive for coronavirus She's had it for god knows how long it is completely asymptomatic And so for those of you out there are like well, I don't feel sick I don't have fever neither does she but she has coronavirus So take care of yourself protect yourself stay away from people as much as possible That's just good smart choices to make you're making a wise decision for you and your family and for other people that you might put in in harm's way because you just don't know and uh, we'll hunker down and And spend good time with your your family your spouse Good time in education and reading doing those deep dives and some and and continue to do your Your training or if you don't have a home gym get that exercise and there's nothing wrong with it at all And uh, I think those are all pretty good words of wisdom Cool. Thanks for being on the show again, man. We'll talk. I'm sure again here in the next week or two And we'll see you all tomorrow on monday. See ya