Ways To Maintain Your Fitness While Staying At Home

Stay at home is the buzzword nowadays. Governments around the world are advising people to stay at home during this Corona virus crisis. Corona virus or COVID-19 is a disease of the lungs that is causing havoc around the world. Thousands of people have died and more than a million have been affected by this virus. There is no vaccine for this virus and scientists throughout the world are working for a breakthrough. The only way to tackle this virus is to contain its spread. The virus spreads through droplets from the mouth or nose and even though masks can reduce the spread, it is not a solution. The ideal solution that medical experts have suggested is ‘Social Distancing’. Social distancing means staying away from your friends and neighbours and not mingling with them. The virus can stay in a person’s body for more than 14 days without the person feeling ill and he or she can infect others during this period, hence social distancing.

In most countries you can go out once or twice a week to buy essential supplies and the rest of the time you need to be cooped up in your house. In countries like the United Kingdom, you are allowed to run or jog or bike by staying at a safe distance from others, you are allowed to do this activity alone or with family members. If you are in countries like the United Kingdom, you are lucky because you get to lead at least a basic active lifestyle. If you are in countries where you have to stay at home, then you may be feeling the effects of staying sedentary.

A sedentary lifestyle can have a lot of ill effects on the physical and mental well-being of a person. The advantages of staying physically active are many; some of them include lowering your blood pressure, your diabetes symptoms, your cholesterol levels etc. You also run a lesser risk of getting diseases of the heart or a paralytic stroke. Your muscle mass is very important as you age and regular exercise will help doing that as well as maintain your bone density. And the best part is that during this exceedingly difficult time when a disease of the lungs is paralyzing the world economy, your regular exercise can help in removing the germs from your lungs. It also helps your immune system immensely.

Apart from the physical benefits, exercise also has a lot of mental benefits. Most of us know that endorphins are the hormones that make us feel good after a rigorous workout and when a person is inside a home for 24 hours, he or she needs the release of these hormones so that they do not get depressed. Stress can also be high when at home and exercise can keep the stress hormones at bay.

Given below are a few ways to maintain your mental and physical fitness while staying at home:

Running and walking:

This can be easily accomplished at home. You can run around the house or walk and if you have a fitness app or fitness watch you can track the number of steps or the distance that you have covered. In fact, some people have run a full marathon at home during this crisis. I am not asking you to do that, however, if you make up your mind you can easily walk or run inside your home. You can easily do a 5K run or walk. If you do not have a lot of space in your home you can spot walk or spot jog and maintain your fitness. Your normal diet is enough to maintain your fitness, you do not need any additional supplements. You can read reviews of supplements in websites such as SETINC and decide on using them when the lockdown ends.

Yoga:

This is one form of exercise which does not require a lot of space. This exercise regimen has been in existence for centuries and it not only exercises the body, it is great for the mind too. If you are a beginner you should learn from an experienced teacher and you need not go out of your house to learn, you can easily do so by viewing YouTube videos of yoga experts. Step by step training is provided. Do not rush into this, learn the steps and do it slowly, you will get better results. Consistently doing yoga will not only help you physically it will help in removing the stress from your mind.

Dancing:

Who doesn’t like to dance? Dancing is a great stress buster. If you are under stress a few minutes of dancing can bust it totally and when you are cooped inside your home, then it is really the best option. Put on music that you can groove to and dance alone or with your wife or you can dance together as a family with your kids too. It can be a real fun activity and everyone will love it. You can also check out videos on the Internet that teach you how to dance or you can try out a dance workout which will keep you fit. The options are many, if you are inclined to do some dancing.

Tabata:

This is one type of exercise regimen that is easy to follow, you do not need equipment and you can do it from the comfort of your home. You do a set of exercises for 20 seconds with a rest of 10 seconds between each. You need not worry, there are many videos online that will teach you to do Tabata exercises. A good YouTube channel for Tabata is AllBlanc. There are many videos such as Tabata for upper body, Tabata for lower body, Tabata for total body, Tabata for abs and so on. Increase the frequency slowly as these are really high impact exercises. You will be able to see the difference, a toned body, if you do this continuously for 21 days.

Gardening:

Gardening is a great exercise. Many people do not consider gardening as an exercise but weeding plants is really good for your glutes, mowing your lawn is good cardio etc.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/home-fitness-equipment-1840858/