Covid-19 is holding the world in quarantine for a long time. People are trying to stay at home in self-isolation to avoid this serious virus. All public events are shut down for this period, and HMB tournaments are no exception. The HMB community worldwide is staying home but athletes keep training. HMBIA News asked our fighters from different countries to tell us about their training during the quarantine.

Arturo Gutiérrez, the captain of the ACM Mexico team, prefers to stay at home for the quarantine. He told us that the Covid-19 situation in Mexico is variegated but in spite of the quarantine he keeps training:“Many people here in Mexico continue to live their usual lives, others stay at home. We have some opportunities to train, but only at home. Many teams, like ACM Mexico, decided to close activities since last week. As for me, I do some callisthenics, some weights and cardio at home and webcam training. I don’t recommend doing exercise outside”.

We thank Arturo and the rest of the Mexican HMB community representatives for their responsibility and care for those around them and move to Argentina, where we talked with the marshals couple. 

Roxana E. Ruiz de Miauro and her husband Edoardo are Argentinian marshals. During the quarantine they do not lose time in vain. This couple work together in order not to lose their marshal skills – Roxana and Eduardo watch videos from HMB events, repeat the HMBIA rules and regulations, answer queries and Roxana is knitting a marshal shawl too:

“I believe that the most important thing is to give support to others and I tell what we live to give encouragement. We must not be paralyzed by fear, we must act, do, pray and love

Yes, we live in risk every day”.

Roxana`s daughter Cynthia works taking care of the sick and those suspected of having the virus. They use all protective precautions. Eduardo Miauro told HMBIA News that all family pray every day that Cynthia does not contract the virus. It’s proving to be very stressful for all family members.

Eduardo Miauro:
“We are in God’s hands now because where she works there are 12 patients with this virus and several more are suspected of having it”.

Let’s hope together that Roxana E. Ruiz de Miauro and all her family will be ok and soon we will meet her near the lists in her new black and yellow shawl.

Pawel Kurzak from the UK also has to stay in quarantine. According to him, in the UK everything is on lockdown. People can only go food shopping. Some can go to work if they have to, but lots of places are shut down. Government promises to pay the wages but we will see for how long. Even in such a tough situation, he doesn’t plan to stop his job of fitness instructor – he is training people online via FaceTime or Zoom and preparing new training programs for when this is over. Some HMB tournaments are postponed till September or October and every HMB fighter has an opportunity to train independently.

“No team training at the moment. You can go to the park, but all outdoor gyms are closed since Monday as well. I have some equipment for myself and luckily a big garden”, – said Pawel.
We are sure that this HMB athlete will be bigger, stronger and angrier after the quarantine, so we just have to wait for the first HMB tournament of the post quarantine period.

So, we have 2 more countries to speak about the HMB in this period. Jan Burgerstein, the captain of the Prague Trolls team, told us about the situation in his country:

“We are quarantined. All actions are prohibited. Next week we’ll see what happens next. As for the HMB sport, we train at home. I’m running as I live by the woods, strengthening with my weight. Of course no armor training. I go to work so I only have time for training in the evening”, – said Jan.
His girlfriend Klára Vintnerová, the famous captain of the Prague Vixens team, is at home with their five-month baby girl.

Jan Burgerstein keeps in touch with his team mates via Facebook and admitted that he is looking forward to the first tournament to enter the lists in steel armor after the long break.

Now we have an opportunity to talk to Eric Cortis, an HMB fighter from Australia. He reported that in his country the situation is changing fast. Australia is not in lock down, but some of the state borders are closing.

A lot of events are shut down, and the HMB tournament last week in Melbourne was canceled. But still Eric is planning to keep himself in good shape. He provides fitness training and mountain bike riding 3 times a week to keep fit.

As we can see all our respondents are interested in maintaining good HMB shape to show high results in the lists when the situation with the virus normalizes, but they still take care of themselves, stay at home and take all possible measures to protect themselves and their loved ones from the virus.

HMBIA News asks all representatives of the HMB community to observe security measures and we hope that soon our lives will return to normal.