Ways to stay fit and active in the house during this coronavirus pandemic

The numerous social distancing policies put in place to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 vividly explain most people will have to spend much of their time or at most all of their time in the house. Since this pandemic has brought almost every activity in the world to a halt, people are urged to stay in their houses to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. According to HSE.ie, Self isolation means staying indoors and completely avoiding contacts with other people. Self isolation during this pandemic creates room to be less physically active if you are used to walking or cycling for transportation and doing leisure time sports. But one way or the other, the home environment also offers several opportunity to be active. While self-isolation measures are necessary, our system and minds still need exercise to function well, prevent obesity and any other chronic diseases during this challenging period. Routine body exercise can help keep our immune system very strong, less prone to infections and their most severe consequences and better able to recover from them. In view of this, several ways must be considered to limit the effects of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and its outmost impact of contributing to the long-term chronic disease crisis.

How much physical activity needed?

According to World Health Organization, recommendations for the physical activity are: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75minutes of vigorous exercise per week. As many countries all over the world are already under lockdown, it is very uncertain to determine how long people can go outside for a walk, jogging or even cycling. This bring in the question of how people are going to meet these guidelines whilst restricted to the home environment?

Ways to stay fit and active in the house

1. Prevent continuous sitting

One way to keep you active especially in the house is to take break from long sitting. Take break every 20-30 minutes of sitting and take some walk around your house and get some fresh air either in the garden or balcony. This practice helps to refresh the body and prevent any physical health damage. Taking fresh air outside also helps refresh the body and improve smooth breathing.

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2. Gentle calisthenics

According to Oxford dictionary, calisthenics is a gymnastics exercise to achieve bodily fitness and grace movement. It therefore requires minimal use of equipment. Examples of these exercises are: running, standing , grasping, pushing, aerobic exercise. This indoor body weight exercise is a great resource for all ages. Therefore aim at least 3days of your own body weight exercises every week. These exercises must be in 4 sessions, making room for 2-3 minutes of rests in between.

3.Make stairs exercise your hobby

Using the stairs is a highly time-efficient way to maintain fitness. As little as climbing stairs 4 times daily can improve your fitness in about only six weeks. This clearly shows how beneficiary of daily stairs climbing has on our health and fitness.

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4. Involve yourself in a conversation

Interaction is one of the most effective way of keeping yourself company and becoming less active. Taking time to interact with friends, family etc, especially at this period of self- isolation is an effective tool to relax you and relive you from stress. Engaging them on a one-on-one conversation or even on a telephone conversation helps prevent boredom and makes one very active.

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5. Take enough rest

Resting is just as important as working out because it’s an equal part of the total process required to build strength, endurance and muscle. Therefore taking adequate time to rest during this hard time helps improve our health.

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The end goal during self-isolation is to prevent long-term physical and mental health damage by taking breaks in sitting(sitting less), exercising the body, moving often as possible and aiming to maintain fitness.