Stuck at home with no gym? Are the kids driving you crazy? Finding yourself looking at the fridge every 20 minutes?
With all the new social isolation and quarantine laws around today closing down gyms and bootcamps it can be very difficult to stay active and healthy at home. Regular exercise is essential in these times not only for your physical health but also for your mental health. Staying active helps to protect you against conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and heart attacks. It is also proven to reduce stress and anxiety in individuals. Exercise makes you feel good, more relaxed and helps you to sleep better.
Five Tips:
- Set routine
In times like this when you are required to stay home it is extremely important to maintain a set routine day to day. Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. This will ensure you are getting enough rest and recovery daily to function at your best. Aim for 8 hours of sleep a night. Break your day up into sections e.g. morning, midday, afternoon and night. Have tasks that you need to achieve in each section of the day. This will limit the chance of you procrastinating important tasks and give you a sense of pride once completing the tasks you set for the day.
- Workout of a morning
It is the easiest to complete your workout first thing of a morning. Working out in the morning doesn’t give you time to think about excuses as to why you can’t be active that day. Working out of the morning also helps to wake you up and provides your body with some much-needed endorphins to make you feel good for the rest of the day. After the workout you will feel refreshed awake and ready to tackle anything the day throws at you.
- Set times for meals to avoid snacking
Having planned mealtimes will help put a stop to bored snacking throughout the day. Just as you would at work set out a morning tea and lunch break for the day.
- Aim for 30mins a day at least
When it comes to physical activity it is important to set yourself a goal. To start, aim to have 30 minutes of the day set aside solely for exercise. Exercise can be as simple as going for a walk outside, or you can even come up with a variety of exercises to do with household objects and do a home workout.
- Drink plenty of water
Now you are at home there is no excuse to not keep up with your water intake, the tap is right there. A good amount of water for the day is 2 litres. Keep a water bottle or a glass of water near you and sip on it throughout the day. Drinking water also assists in curbing those late afternoon cravings.
There are a variety of exercises you can do with objects lying around the house. Get creative with your workouts and home objects. If you don’t have any weights at home there are other activities you can do, or you can even use household objects such as washing detergent, milk carton etc. to have some makeshift weights at home. See some of our go to home exercises below.
Disclaimer: Individuals have unique needs and not all of the aforementioned exercises may be appropriate for you. If you experience any pain or discomfort whilst trying to perform the above exercises you should cease the activity and consult your physiotherapist.
Also a friendly reminder at this stage our clinic remains OPEN and we are taking all precautions necessary to keep our patients and staff safe.
- Brooke Sullivan (B.Ex.Sport.M; Master Phyt)
