lockdown health and fitness
If you have been following our last two blogs, you would have seen information on the best way to set up your work environment when working from home, and the importance of building the habit to get up and move around at least every 30 minutes. Our third and final blog in this “working from home” series will discuss what exercise you can do from home to keep your body moving and functioning well (let’s all hope we are safely out of this lockdown soon).
Just because we are in lockdown and the gyms are closed, doesn’t mean getting regular exercise isn’t just as important. In fact, with the greatly reduced amount of incidental movement in our lives at the moment, getting regular exercise is more important than ever (and frustratingly, more difficult than ever… thanks for nothing COVID-19).
Keeping a daily health and fitness routine is crucially important right now, and we can’t let being stuck at home stop us from getting these important needs met. Not only will a daily health and fitness routine build up your physical stamina, it also will increase your level of immunity and improve your overall mental health. #winning 
With the Gyms are closed, what exercises can I do to improve my fitness and general wellbeing? Glad you asked! There are many beneficial exercise options you can do from home or out in the street that will give you the health benefits we discussed. And the best part is they are free (or cost very little, think price of a pair of dumbbells or kettlebell).
With the Gyms are closed, what exercises can I do to improve my fitness and general wellbeing? Glad you asked! There are many beneficial exercise options you can do from home or out in the street that will give you the health benefits we discussed. And the best part is they are free (or cost very little, think price of a pair of dumbbells or kettlebell).- Yoga: This ancient practice is thought to be over three thousand years old and is a great daily health and fitness practice to improve your strength, flexibility and your overall mental health and wellbeing. Due to its popularity across the globe, for good reason, you can find a wealth of free information on the internet (such as videos on YouTube) to take you through the basics.
- Walking / running: One of the best ways to clear your head if you feel those walls closing in is to throw on your sneakers and get out there for a walk or run. With so much of our incidental movement being restricted by this lockdown, we recommend you make the most of the two hours a day we get to exercise outside. Ideally you want to get out there and go for a walk for at least 30 minutes for five days a week.
- Body weight exercises: Don’t think you can get a good workout with just using your body weight? Think again. When done properly (and safely), body weight circuit routines can one of the most beneficial workouts to improve your fitness. Similar to Yoga, there is an overload of information on the internet on a wide variety of different body weight routines you can do at home. The important thing is to find a reputable source of information and make sure you start with a low intensity workout and slowly increase the difficulty.
- Home gym equipment: You don’t need an expensive set up at all to get a great workout at home. A pair of dumbbells and / or a kettlebell is more than enough to get a tonne of health and fitness benefits. Similar to body weight exercises, we recommend finding a good free resource on the internet for circuit training with whatever gym equipment you have at home (or can buy online – a pair of dumbbells can be delivered to your door for under $40).
