Cristiano Ronaldo was given permission by Juventus to take himself and his family off to Madeira in March so that they could isolate as a unit on the Portuguese island during coronavirus lockdown.
He has since returned to Turin, with Serie A clubs expected to be allowed to resume training sessions in May ahead of a potential restart of football, though the exact date for that remains unclear.
Like most footballers, Ronaldo has not slacked off in his training commitments during lockdown, keeping himself sharp and ready to hit the ground running when the Italian government gives the green light. So what exactly was Ronaldo up to for two months in lockdown on his home island?
Cristiano Ronaldo coronavirus lockdown training
Ronaldo stuck to a dynamic training schedule during lockdown, incorporating a variety of different exercises and routines into his isolation workout plan in order to stay strong.
The Juve star was lucky enough to have access to a home gym and specialist equipment that allowed him to target specific muscle groups. He used, for example, dumbbell weights as part of a free-weight full-body routine and was also able to target his quadriceps with a leg extension machine.
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As well as resistance training, Ronaldo also spent a lot of time on the exercise bike to keep his fitness levels up by doing a mixture of high intensity interval training and endurance training.
In May, Ronaldo shared a video of a typical workout he would do at home, including his self-confessed "favourite" abs exercises. The video, which was used to promote CR7 Fitness by Crunch, features Ronaldo demonstrating seven exercises which can be done without the need for equipment.
Ronaldo's '7 Best Workouts' can be seen below:
- Forward lunges
- Side lunges (with jump)
- Push ups
- Ab crunches
- Glute 'Donkey Kicks'
- Bodyweight squats
- Plank
- Lower back raises
Ronaldo advises anyone who is planning to work out to write down their exercises and refer to them in between sets. For each exercise he advises 10 or 20 reps and to repeat the routine five times or three times if you are a beginner.
While he did plenty of exercise indoors, the Portugal star also trained outside, even receiving a warning from Madeira's regional secretary of health that he do so within the government rules.
Madeira is full of hills and Ronaldo used the enforced lockdown to hike across his home island, bringing his children and girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez along to explore the place where he grew up. In one video he posted on Instagram, Ronaldo can be seen doing hill sprints with Rodriguez, his "beautiful training partner".
He also put in a few hours at Madeira's National Stadium, where he was put through his paces by Nacional de Madeira goalkeeper Filipe Goncalves.
"The training lasted an hour,” Goncalves said in an interview with Tuttosport. “But Cristiano arrived at the field after having already trained at home, and after the shots on goal he did technical exercises and shots.
“Sometimes I tried to run with him, but it is impossible to keep up with him: he is a beast!"
Cristiano Ronaldo coronavirus lockdown diet
As you can imagine, Ronaldo's diet during lockdown remained fairly disciplined - just as his commitment to exercise did. While the man who took his number 7 shirt at Real Madrid, Eden Hazard, admitted to being tempted to "eat a lot of buns", there is no such difficulty for Ronaldo.
The striker sticks to a high protein diet and is known to be a lover of fish and eggs. He incorporates plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables into his diet as well as lean protein foods.
One of the most important components of his diet is water and he is rarely without a bottle of water during his exercise.
"If you train regularly it’s important to keep energy levels high to fuel your body for better performance," Ronaldo said previously. "I sometimes eat up to six smaller meals a day to make sure I have enough energy to perform each session at top level."
What else did Cristiano Ronaldo do on coronavirus lockdown?
While Ronaldo clearly revels in working out and eating well, it was not a case of 'all work and no play' for the Portugal icon while hiding out on Madeira.
Before Covid-19 brought football in Italy and the rest of the world to a grinding halt, Ronaldo had been fashioning a new samurai-style haircut, with a 'man bun' at the top.
With social distancing measures in place there was no chance of a barber being brought in to keep his hair looking sharp, so Georgina Rodriguez had her talents enlisted. A lot of people have simply been shaving their hair off completely, but Ronaldo has kept his new look thanks to the handiwork of Rodriguez with a razor.
As well as tending to his hair, Ronaldo has used the time to study. It's not clear exactly what he is studying, but the Juve star has indicated a desire to undertake educational pursuits when he retires.
“When I quit football I would like to resume my studies," he said in 2019. "I focus a lot on studying, on learning, because unfortunately the studies I have done can’t give answer all the questions I have in mind."
Other than that, the lockdown has seen Ronaldo spend a lot of time with his children, with some of them even popping up in his workout videos.