ALEX Neal-Bullen is renowned as the fittest player on the Melbourne list.
He’s usually the first to cross the finish line in the club’s time trials and his work rate hasn’t dropped off since the 2020 season was put on hold.
The 24-year-old, who spent five weeks with his family in South Australia during lockdown, shared his workout tips on the club’s Inside Melbourne podcast on Tuesday afternoon.
“A big one of mine is getting it done in the morning, so then you get your day in the afternoon,” Neal-Bullen said.
“Also setting out where you’re going to do it and knowing if there’s going to be dogs or anyone at the park.
“We’ve had probably one training session where we rocked up – I didn’t do my homework on the oval – and it was pretty much a dog park.”
As usual, preparation has been key for Neal-Bullen, who has also benefited from having a training partner by his side.
“Having a set-up where you can do a gym with a partner because then you can be a bit competitive and push each other along,” he said.
“There’s no more lonely feeling than doing gym by yourself.”
During his time back home, Neal-Bullen enjoyed the opportunity to hit the track with former Demon Billy Stretch, but says he’s more than ready to return to Casey Fields and see his teammates again.
“Training in pairs at the moment has been good, but you miss the energy that a group can bring to a team,” he said.
“That’s probably the thing I’m going to be looking most forward to getting back to.”
After the Victorian Government approved exercising in groups of 10 people on Monday, the Demons could potentially return to training at some stage next week.
And although it’s difficult to know just how prepared each team will be come Round 2, Neal-Bullen believes his side is very well placed.
“I know we’ve had a massive few weeks of training, and I know from speaking to another few players from other clubs they kind of had a couple of weeks down straight after the season was put on pause,” he said.
“We’ve just been going ever since the season stopped, so I think we’ll be in a great spot to continue training at a high level.”
Watch the full episode of Inside Melbourne below.
