Coronavirus has changed our lives in the past couple of weeks. With most people working from home and gyms being closed, fitness has become mandatory even if limited. Not only for your actual physical health but mostly for your mental stability, this is the prime time to experiment and do simple (yet effective) exercises for you to keep your morale up. Let’s try and pick the absolute best ones you can do in your spare time during this (hopefully not) long quarantine period.
Free-Weight Exercises
If you’re a fitness fanatic these won’t be hard for you to approach. Also known as “free body exercises” they are (as the name says), exercises you can do with the body being completely free from weights or other items. The plank pose should be your go-to solution, even if relatively painful when first approached. In fact, the plank pose is the most hated weight-free exercises even by professional athletes, mainly due to the high level of resistance which requires. Wearing comfortable fitness clothing is also mandatory when working out at home, therefore I’d highly avoid doing it in your pj’s.
Push-Ups
Practicing your chest is mandatory to quickly burn calories whilst maintaining muscle. Push-ups are a great fit for your home workout because they can easily be done anywhere, really, in your house. On top of that, push-ups put a lot of cardio-related effort into your body, which is quintessential for you during these dark times. Cardio related exercises, in fact, have been studied for long and, given the high pressure they add to the body, have been pointed as the most useful for the brain to release serotonin after the workout itself. Serotonin, also known as the “happy protein”, is something pretty much needed during current times, am I right?
Don’t Exaggerate
To all my fitness freaks out there: gyms are closed. Unless you own a dedicated gym at your place, don’t exaggerate with 20,000 pushups and squats every single day. You will eventually end up destroying yourself over your gains. During these dark times, we’re given time to relax (physically, at least) so you should focus on maintaining your health and physique instead of keeping your muscle grind going. Even if this means inevitable muscle loss, you should tone it down, at least whilst you are in quarantine. Keep yourself up by doing cardio, and save some time for your mental health as well, as it’s inevitable for people who are very active that, at some point, they will face inevitable sadness from being forced to stay in. Try and be positive though, as we’re all doing this for each other out there.
Accompany Your Physical Exercises With Mental Health Ones
It’s important, on top of remaining active, to keep your mind safe. Especially if you live by yourself, you should try and keep contacts with your friends, even digitally with Skype, Google Hangouts, Facetime or simply via text. Being alone and at home can sometimes trigger dark thoughts and depression and once again, for people who are really active, this could become a burden. Keep yourself mentally clean in your exercises and also, where possible avoid alcohol and cigarettes, as they (on top of giving your health-related problems) may lead you to a dark path, which isn’t something you want during these dark times.
Take Some Rest
When working out, it’s important to let your body breathe and rest after a session, even if it’s minimal and done at home with no training items. In fact, being physically stressed, on top of everything which your mind may be going through during these dark times, could add up to a not so great situation when you’re quarantined. It’s important to rest at least once a day and keep yourself up mentally first. Recuperating your energy on your rest days are just as important as the workouts you do and getting the nutrition to help you recover are key, even if you consider alternative nutritional sources such as magnesium supplements to boost your energy. Get back the energy you require to go at it again.
To Conclude
It’s really important to keep yourself together during these dark times. This quarantine may as well last for a couple of months now so taking care of yourself is mandatory for you and for your family’s safety. Keep yourself active if you can whilst staying at home and focus on maintaining good overall mental health. It’s safe to say that everything will pass, but keep in mind that, for now, that’s your duty. That’s our duty.
