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In-Home Exercise: How to Workout During the Lockdown
As the lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 is enforced across the world, our habits had to change.
Schools, restaurants, and gyms were closed in order to protect us. If you are one of the people who miss their double bass pedals – using them is similar to doing exercises at the gym, sort of – don’t worry, you can still work out at home and get the best results.
Why is working out important?
There is probably no credible scientific paper out there that doesn’t mention how important working out is for your physical and mental health. This makes exercising even more salient as it will not only stop you from gaining weight but it can also help you stop developing anxiety or panic attacks as the lockdown is under effect.
When you are physically active, you are lowering the levels of cholesterol and blood pressure which, in turn, also reduces the risk of developing certain illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. You’ll also have a better and larger muscle mass and help your bone density so you won’t suffer from sarcopenia or osteoporosis.
It seems that physical activity is also important in helping your immune system work properly because this way you can flush bacteria from your airways, raise the temperature of your body and the number of white blood cells, plus their circulation – all of these things are useful when it comes to fighting an infection.
What exercises can you do?
If you aren’t put in self-isolation so you can go out for a limited time for essentials, then you can jog or cycle around a bit in your area so you are keeping your body active. Be careful not to stray away too much from your home and to keep a distance from everybody you encounter during your exercise.
If you don’t want to risk going out or you can’t, that’s great, you’re doing what the doctors need you to do. But this doesn’t mean you have to become a couch potato or continue to be one. You can start a work from home routine that doesn’t even require that much equipment so you can start doing it anytime.
In case you already own something like a treadmill or an exercise bike, then you already know that you can work out from home easily and keep a fit body and mind. If you don’t have any such device, don’t worry, any exercise that can raise your heart rate is good for your health.
One exercise for which you won’t need any accessories or devices is to simply talk a brisk walk around the house or go up and down a pair of stairs. If you live in an apartment complex, you can do these exercises in the hallway but it’s not really recommended as you don’t know who was there moments before you.
If you want to keep the exercise to a minimum and more enjoyable activity, then the next time you talk on the phone, walk around the house instead of sitting down on the couch or bed. Dancing is one of the simplest ways you can keep fit – just play your favorite music and dance away!
You’ll need to have those dance breaks three times a day for about 15 minutes which is really not a lot (you’ll fit between 3 and 5 songs per workout). You can also try a TikTok dance challenge if you want to really make the best of it, and who knows, you may become the next viral sensation.
If you don’t have neighbors below you that complain about the noise all day, you can jump rope. If your old jump rope is long gone you can improve with some literal rope although you have to be more careful not to trip. Then again in order to make the rope act as a jumping rope, you’ll need to put in more effort so that’s a good thing.
Since there are many people in your situation, plenty of YouTubers have now created simple exercises you can do at home, by yourself, with no extra accessories needed or you can simply download an app and follow those instructions. Keep on pushing it!