Staying fit can help you manage your mental health while also strengthening your immune system. Exercising will help us get over these difficult times and be cheerful.
While certain equipment, such as dumbbells and resistance bands, might be beneficial, here are some of my favourite bodyweight exercises you can perform at home to keep fit and diet. With a few optional additions and changes.
Keep it regular with renewal
Make it part of your daily routine. Since your normal routine is at risk, creating a new routine at home will help you stay sane. Try to set an alarm for the same time every day, exercise (mix up your routine so you don’t get bored) and follow up with showers and a healthy breakfast. Not only will it help you stay fit and nourished, but that feeling of routine can benefit your mental health tremendously.
Use household items for the moves you’ll be doing at the gym. Everyone stocked up on groceries during this time anyway, so you should have plenty of items of different weights to experiment with. Try some pasta bags with a milk jug or jar, for example. It’s all about creativity. Cans, any bottles filled with liquid, and rice bags can be used as well.
Pilates and yoga
Learn about yoga or pilates. These are the movements that stretch you and improve your posture as you strengthen. This is especially important because many of us work from home. Yoga and Pilates will combat stiff joints and enhance flexibility. Working from home, especially on a laptop, can give us what health professionals call a “neck,” but these exercises can help work against these effects. There are plenty of free videos for both on Youtube.
body mass movements
Master the range of bodyweight exercises you can do. Perfect your shape in push-ups, planks, sit-ups and squats. Use props in your home to help you out – for example, doing push-ups on the couch.
Here are some essential body mass movements:
Weighted Russian twists: Sit on the floor with a bottle of milk or juice and legs bent in front of you like a sitting position. Lie on your back, keeping your back straight and your core engaged. Slowly roll your torso from side to side, aiming to touch the floor with the bottle each time. If you want to modify to make it more difficult, lift the feet off the ground.
Wall Sitting: Do this against a wall in the living room, or wherever you have room for your back to lean comfortably. Form a 90-degree angle with your legs and sit against the wall as you would on a chair. Wait, it doesn’t sound like much, but this step will start to really burn.
Bulgarian Couch: Try to push your body up by doing this: Put one leg in a forward lunge position so that your knee is aligned with your heel and not past your toes. Then place the other leg on the couch so that the front of your leg rests on the pillow, volumizing your front leg. You can bend forward to make it more difficult. Also, tricep dips from behind a sturdy chair are a back way to burn those arms off.
Training department: Consider doing a circuit training routine, which allows you to get a full-body routine and combine both strength and cardio training if you choose. This involves many movements rather than becoming monotonous with the same thing over and over. You can do this versatile style of exercise with or without weights, but the goal is to work out constantly rather than taking breaks. Burpees and high knees are a perfect example of cardio.
Stretch, stretch, stretch The HIIT exercises and the more comprehensive workouts we’ve mentioned are important for routine, but also attention to circulation, rotation and bending of body parts like the ankles and lower leg. Otherwise, painful stiffness can occur, and you cannot fully walk in the current position. Try to stretch at least twice daily.
Facetime jogging
While it might not be the worst idea to go for a short walk outside, if you live in a crowded area, consider face-timing your friends while walking right away. It might not feel like going for a jog with friends, but it will keep your mind and body active, letting you catch up with a loved one while pumping those endorphins.
dance
feel free to dance from your home as our friends in Italy do. Dancing can help keep your spirits up, and it won’t make exercise seem like a chore. Plus, it will distract you from all the frenzy of the news cycle.
Staying fit can help you manage your mental health
