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Strength and conditioning during a pandemic

By Jacob Knabel on Apr. 28, 2020 in Athletic Announcements

Concordia University Director of Strength and Conditioning Coach Todd Berner admits that he’s sleeping in a bit later lately. He arrives on campus at around 6 a.m. CT most days and descends upon a dark and motionless Walz weight room. The racks, treadmills, ellipticals and stations are neatly arranged in a fashion that Berner and his graduate assistant Ben Berreckman altered in order to maximize the weight room’s usefulness.

In the days of the coronavirus pandemic with weight rooms shut down since the middle of March, Berner has only the music that blares over the speakers to keep him company. He’s thinking about the moments when a flurry of activity will return to both of Concordia’s weight rooms.

Says Berner, “This opportunity has allowed me to arrange things the way I think we need them to be. It’s a different weight room than when they first put it in 10 years ago. It’s ready to go. It’s ready for athletes to see it. I can’t wait to coach in it.”

For now, Berner is coaching from afar. Today’s technology has made this situation a bit easier to tackle. Through a program called TeamBuildr, Berner is closely monitoring workouts and becoming more adept at analyzing what the data is telling him. On Monday (April 27), Concordia student-athletes logged 867 exercise routines into the system. It’s a lot to keep track of and nearly impossible to know if every individual is making gains, but Berner is getting an overall positive vibe across all Bulldog athletic programs.

Berner refers to the workout options available to athletes as an “all-you-can-eat buffet.” If you have access to a weight room that’s great. If not? That’s okay too. Specific workouts have been designed for those with limited or no access to weight equipment. It’s certainly a time for creativity. Those big bags of dog food? Might as well put those to use.

“Everyone can find something to eat,” Berner said in feeding off his buffet analogy. “From body weight training to weight training (if you have access) to all the different sciences from aerobic to anaerobic to hip mobility – anything and everything. It depends on what they have available and what’s applicable to their sport. Every day they have something to do. We want to make sure we can foster that purpose, drive and determination.”

There are many creative means Concordia athletes and teams have come up with in terms of strength and conditioning. Some examples:

·        Track and field thrower Jacob Cornelio has been doing tire flips and hill sprint workouts. He also has tried high-energy dance routines while mimicking videos he’s found online.

·        Football linebacker Kayle Carlson built his own wooden squat rack. Teammate Logan Kreizel regularly posts social media videos of his at-home workouts. As head coach Patrick Daberkow joked, “Do you think Logan Kreizel is going to miss a workout?”

·        The volleyball program has used a group Snapchat to keep each other accountable. The purpose is for members of the team to share photos of themselves after finishing workouts. Senior-to-be Arleigh Costello is fortunate enough to have a weight room in her garage. Said head coach Ben Boldt, “I’m really jealous of that – I wish I had that in my house.”

·        Social media challenges have emphasized physical activity. The men’s basketball team has rolled out #blacktopbulldogs with trick shot and alley-oop dunk videos. The women’s basketball team has introduced #TikTokTuesday, including one installment that featured Mackenzie Koepke competing against her younger brother in the “Toosie Slide.” The women’s soccer team has had its own series of social media engagements with one that challenged players to crawl backwards up staircases.

“That’s really encouraging,” Berner said. “If they can find some resources to overload with weights that’s great. You have to have trust in the process. We gained a lot of strength collectively in the offseason with a lot of those fall sports. The goal is to maintain that until we can get back into the weight room. The numbers are telling me we’re getting work done and doing what we can to stay focused and stay driven.”

Admittedly, these are strange times for strength and conditioning coaches (and for many others, for that matter). Just like the athletes, Berner doesn’t want to break routine too much while knowing that eventually he’ll have athletes bringing the weight room back to life. He does not want to get out of the habit of arriving early to the weight room, but one noticeable change now is having so many evenings free to spend with family.

“I don’t want to change too much of who I am. I’ve done it for so many years,” Berner said. “The big difference is I’ll be home about four in the afternoon and the kids are home. I get a lot more time with my family. Things have slowed down with events and so I’ve caught up on a lot of time with my kiddos. We’re able to go out and play catch and do other things – and the weather’s getting nice.”

The Concordia weight rooms may be ready for use sometime in May (currently closed until at least May 15) as states begin to open public places back up. There are certainly questions in regards to how that will look. How do you operate a weight room if social distancing guidelines are still in place? What other precautions must be met in order to ensure everyone’s safety?

These answers are tricky. Towards the end of a nearly 30-minute interview, Berner chuckles and asks rhetorically, “How would you do that (social distancing) with spotting, you know?” He says he thinks about such conundrums before his head hits the pillow at night. Added Berner, “We’re going to make sure we keep this environment as safe as we can and keep progressively moving forward.”

This pandemic has been something new for everyone. Berner wants Concordia athletes to grow because of it. Meanwhile, he’s trying to do the same thing. He says his interactions with athletes are about positive encouragement at this time. He realizes there’s an adjustment for them with online classes and being away from campus.

Berner’s positivity is infectious. He believes things will come out better on the other side of this. “We’re hammering through it and I think, in the end, we’re going to come out with something better. This is testing the drive and determination of athletes. They have to figure out a plan B. That discomfort of figuring something new out is developing a more purpose and goal-driven athlete. I’m excited to see them when they come back. I’m ready.”