The Iso: Shaquem & Shaquill Griffin

The Players’ Tribune is introducing a new series called The Iso. With so many of us keeping our distance from each other in a variety of ways, we decided to ask some of our favorite athletes to share how they’ve been dealing with life in the Covid-19 world, and how they’re spending their time away from their sport.

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Shaquill Griffin
We trying to get into this TikTok world.

Shaquem Griffin
Definitely.

Shaquill
With everything that’s going on with the outbreak, and definitely understanding the sensitivity of everybody right now, we been trying to brainstorm how to bring something light to the world.

We just created a TikTok page, maybe a couple of days ago. Still trying to figure out how to use it, of course. We made one video, which I think was pretty decent. The video took us twooo hours to make. It took us a very long time, like two hours for a 15-second video. Trying to get the dance moves right. Trying to get the timing right. Then trying to get the edits right. 

Shaquem
We kept having to start over. Cousins laughing at us the whole time. It’s definitely been the funnest thing we’ve done since being in quarantine.

Shaquill
I want to put out a challenge … to see if there’s a better TikTok duo out there than me and you.

Who out there can out-TikTok me and my brother?

Shaquem
I definitely want to challenge people to that. Maybe they can get a lil surprise or something. There should definitely be something in it for them.

Shaquill
If they win, of course.

Shaquem
Challenge accepted? Y’all in?

Shaquill
I hope they are.

We just trying to shine some light and bring some type of enjoyment to others who may be having a hard time with their mental health while being stuck inside.

Me and my brother used to get feedback that our stuff made people’s day, and we just love seeing people happy. We just trying to stay inside and, you know, just trying to stay safe. I feel like that’s the best thing to do right now, ’til everything’s figured out.

We had just got to Miami from a trip to Mexico when we heard about the outbreak. Then we started trying to get more information. I think that was our first time actually hearing about it.

Fast-forward to now, in Arizona. We kind of do most of our things in-home, at the house. We have our chef and stuff here with us, which helps with meals. And then we come up with our own, in-house workouts and stuff.

We just trying to stay inside and, you know, just trying to stay safe. I feel like that’s the best thing to do right now, ’til everything’s figured out.

Shaquem
We still want to try to get some type of work in and not just sit around. We want to get things done, but we’re trying to do them the correct way — the safe way.

We don’t have no squat rack, but we have a pool, so we use that for some of our workouts. We also have fields and parks by the house that we run on to get some type of cardio in.

As far as equipment goes, we have dumbbells, and we try to find ways to come up with our own exercises, whether it’s just abs or just reppin’ out curls, anything, until we can’t go anymore.

It’s basically little things we grew up doing that helped us when we was just doing workouts in the house, or at a house, when we didn’t have money to be at a gym or anything. So, just kind of got some old-school remedies going from what we used to do that we’ve just continued to do now.

I would say that nothing really changes for us ’cause we just doing exactly the same thing as what we always been doing. We always work out with each other. We always have made the best with what we have, and I just feel like we started off with the at-home workouts growing up, but we didn’t stop doing them when we got to the league.

I prefer us working out with each other. Even during the off-season last year — that was my first off-season — we separated ourselves from everybody and kind of just did our own thing together. We were kind of isolated and it was just me and my brother. I prefer it that way, to be honest.

Shaquill
I totally agree. Nothing much has changed when it comes to that. Definitely used to it and definitely prefer it that way. We have a better understanding of each other than anyone I could ever work out with, so we’ve tried to continue that same relationship we’ve been relying on since we was young. He’s that person for me that’s gon’ make sure I do things in the right way, and it goes both ways. That’s the best thing about it. It’s really easy to do stuff together when you always got your best friend next to you.

Shaquem
Yeah, so if you locked up with your best friend right now, jump on TikTok and join the #GriffinTwinsChallenge

Shaquill
Bet! We also got a YouTube channel coming. (That’s probably where we’ll announce the winner of the challenge.) 

We had this idea (before the outbreak) to create something that was going to give our fans a look at our lives behind the scenes, and started filming stuff earlier this year. Now, with everything going on, we are definitely going to get the first episode to y’all ASAP.

We basically just want to reach out to our fans more during this really sad time and give people something to smile about. 

So, stay tuned….