Jeremy Smithson-Beswick finds out how professional athletes, and those closer to home, are keeping motivated and fit. You might be surprised…
T
EN WHOLE WEEKS and still we find ourselves in sporting purgatory nless tennis or golf are your bag, obviously. Which, at the risk of alienating a fair proportion of you, is of no help to me as I’m at that di cult age too young for the latter and too old for the former. o this month we focus on what the rest of us have been doing instead to keep active and happy. At least we’ve had a rare opportunity to feel sorry for (but only a teeny bit and temporarily of course) somebody we more often envy the professional sportsperson. or a change, they’ve had it toughest of all, poor bunnies, losing both their leisure and work occupations simultaneously and, with
the gyms closed as well, they’ve had to resort to finding increasingly novel, not to say eccentric, ways of maintaining their fitness. or example, with typical disregard for those of us less fortunate, many of the privileged and overpaid footballing community treacherously worsened those early lockdown shortages by taking part in a global keepy up challenge on social media with loo rolls instead of balls. Barcelona’s ionel essi and anchester nited’s Aaron Wan Bissaka have particularly impressive tube control but the most amusing, especially if you’re not a iverpool fan, is a spectacularly incompetent amie Carragher. ou’re just a uick internet search away from a modern classic.
eanwhile onny ay, soon to leave Tigers to return to loucester, seems to have completely lost it, taking to Twitter to post uarantine training adaptation – ordic amstrings complete with a video of him doing strange things with elastic bands and a window frame to the tune of ye of the Tiger whilst ew ealand’s cricket captain ane Williamson can be found on Instagram deliberately edging the ball off his bat to give some slip catching practice. To his abrador. olly good at it the dog is too very safe mouth. (It’s a tennis ball, should you be reaching for a phone to call the R PCA). Talking of tennis, our own number one player, ohanna onta, picks up on the canine theme by lifting weights on ouTube
Instagram @johannakonta
Instagram @j0nny_may
36 June 2020 / theactivemag.com
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