Would you rather come out of the pandemic feeling depressed and sick or you’d rather come out strong to be able to do that victory dance?
Well…I want to come out strong with a sound mind for the future as I plan to take on bigger adventures after the pandemic.
What about you? Day in day out, we hear clashes of civilians with security personnel on the radio, a sense of commotion expressed by media presenters with daily increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally and how we’re trying to control this with emphasis on the safety precautions to adhere to, so that the battle to devour this pandemic is won.
As the warriors of this battle set out to protect us from this pandemic, we’re asked to stay home to keep safe. How do we battle with stress, anxiety and depression?
Also boosting our immune system is also relevant in order to embrace the world stronger after all the pandemic is over. One of the best ways to jump out of our sluggishness is to stay active and eat healthily.
Effects of Sedentary lifestyle And Positive Impact of Exercises
A sedentary lifestyle has negative impacts on our mental and physical health.
Quarantine and self-isolation during this period mean great reduction in physical activities with gyms closed down and incidental workouts falling out.
This poses a challenge for remaining active. What can we do to ensure we make the most of this situation and keep ourselves fit and healthy?
During social isolation exercise becomes more important to deal with stressors, boost your immune system and reduce the chances of chronic disease in the future.
It also helps avert some of the psychological impact associated with being cooped up for an extended period.
As one exercises, stress hormones such as cortisol are lowered and endorphins (feel good) hormones are released. How best can we achieve this under lockdown?
Improvise with what you have at home to meet your exercise needs
Staying at home doesn’t mean you can’t continue your exercise routine. If you’re stuck at home, there are ways you can stay active and continue your workout routine.
Depending on your exercise goals you may or may not need equipment for your exercise routine. If you have exercise equipment, then you will already be accustomed to working out in your house to keep fit, otherwise I’ll walk you through some improvised exercises.
If the goal is to work on your cardiovascular endurance, depending on your health status, you could brisk walk, skip, jog or run in your neighborhood that is if you can.
You could use a treadmill or cycle if available to you at home. If you are not a runner, start small and build. 100m jog and 100m walk for 10 minutes is a good way to start!
Make sure you have a day in between runs to let your body adapt. You could add some aerobic dancing sessions as well for cardiovascular endurance.
For strengthening exercises, you could do push-ups (could be against the wall, kitchen counter or the ground), sit ups from a sturdy object, bridges, squats, lunges, and single leg step ups.
When progressing with your exercise for strengthening, you need resistance (especially for athletes and body builders). Depending on the weight you aim at achieving, you could use a resistive band or bottle filled with sand or water.
If you have dumbbells at home, that could be useful. You could also make use of your house hold items like your bag of rice, flour, books or tie canned foods in a carrier bag as a good substitute for dumbbell.
You could use your own body weight (calisthenics exercises) by pulling or pushing against a substance. If you want more heavy loads you could use your children at home. Let’s make good use of them with caution of course.
Change positions regularly (especially if you’re working from home)
It is recommended that you change positions every 45 minutes – 1 hour to help maintain energy levels throughout the day and avoid postural injuries.
Do a lot of stretches or yoga to counter the effects of a poor posture on the body and avoid postural injuries but as much as possible try to adhere to proper postural mechanisms. If you’re working from home, having multiple workstations is helpful.
If you need some guidance about the kind of exercises to do at home safely, you could contact your physiotherapist to help you select the exercises for your health gains and goals.
Throughout this time of uncertainty, one thing we can take control of is our health and wellbeing. So, whatever your situation, try to keep active, eat healthily and stay hydrated whiles adhering to the WHO guidelines to keeping safe.
By Gabriella Naa Adukwei Acquaye
