For a long time, we have been staying at home. Well depending on the state where you are living, it might be a three week or six-week quarantine. Basically, who is keeping track of this?
It would be somewhat safe in disclosing that things will not return to normal as soon as the lockdown ends. However, there is one thing you can control and reclaim by staying at home when it eases, and people start to go outside. What is it? Well, it is your health.
Being Fit for A Long Term
Human beings are creatures of habit. Hence, if they are thrust into some new routine or non-routine, without any kind of warning, then it might zap any kind of pre-existing healthy habits into the drain. You might be struggling with a lack of routine or you might be unhappy with the current exercise habits or diet. Sometimes, you might be feeling frustrated and frazzled. Well, it is all fine, if you follow some serious rules even after the lockdown.
Opt And Continue with Healthy Eating
Many individuals would agree on one thing. Snack time during quarantine or the quarantine snacks are yummy and was one of the best things that you had. Right from the delicious and mouth-watering chocolate to the baked and crispy potatoes, you gorged on it like it was the end of the days.
Do not forget the beloved and nutritious banana bread. Also, the unfettered access to your kitchen that helped in keeping every member of your family sane and fully non-famished during the COVID-19 homestay. Of course, besides being tasty, most of the snacks were healthy too. Gorging on the healthier snack might even lead to a surplus of calories.
Adding some extra pounds during this pandemic is not that bad. You do not have to feel ashamed or guilty of gaining some extra pounds. Frankly, it is all about being safe and healthy, and a small amount of weight gain is not a serious issue.
Well, on the flip side, certain people forget to eat due to anxiety and stress. Whatever might be the reason, if you are looking beyond your body weight, the long-term eating habits of yours does have a huge impact on your health. Most people never realize that their diet plays a great role in the ability to avoid all kinds of sickness (here it is both chronic diseases and short-term infections too). Plus, you have to take into account the quality of sleep you are getting, the energy levels, productivity, and mood.
If you are planning to eat healthy again, you should focus on a single thing at a time. For example, you might have to stop consuming sugar or have it in small quantities. You can even try to make your goal to have more veggies each day. Here all you must focus on is on a single thing. Seriously, you will be surprised to see the huge amount of difference the single change really makes.
Continue with Your Morning Routin
The first few weeks of home quarantine and working from home was great as well as blissful, isn’t it? Just think about it. No obnoxiously early alarms, no commute, etc. It was real life in heaven. You can easily just roll out of the best fifteen minutes before the first schedule of the Zoom meeting for the day. The best part, no pants needed.
Later, the whole lack of structure would really take a toll on your body’s health. Most importantly, your sleep cycle will ebb, and it might even flow, till it will not be a cycle at all. You might even end up skipping meals (or do the opposite of snacking all day), avoid or discontinue the routine of exercising. Sometimes you might forget to do simple aspects like taking your daily medications too.
Now as soon as the stay-at-home procedure or so-called lockdown is lifted or before that, you must really think of re-establishing your morning routines. It is important to start the day like a boss. Get up in the morning at the same time each day, brush your teeth, wash your face, and put on your pants. At least even leggings can be sufficed.
Consume your breakfast, have your favourite morning beverage (not wine or beer) and begin your day with something productive. Here productive can really mean anything. It can be a walk in the park, morning stretches or exercises, reading a few pages of a book or magazine, getting some household work done, etc. Here it is all about getting up in the morning and moving your body.
Creating A Healthy Sleep Schedule
Like the way you have created a healthy morning routine, you need to have a soothing routine for the night too. You really need to realize that a good evening routine will help you to wind down. Plus, you get to fall asleep faster and follow a healthy circadian rhythm supporting the high-quality sleep.
Keep in mind that your night routine will not have to be that extensive. Here you will not have to stuff a 20-minute yoga flow, a face mask, herbal tea, etc. Frankly, these are somewhat a great practice and if you really like them, then go ahead and do it.
Here an effective night routine can be as simple as taking a shower, slipping into your favourite pyjamas, and crawling peacefully into your bed. All you must do is experiment with your evening and see whether it really works out for you.
Maintain or Restart Your Exercise Habit
One of the major silver linings of this coronavirus pandemic is that many people end up picking exercise as a major health habit. What many people never realize is that exercise has quite a lot of benefits in terms of physical as well as emotional. Many health experts and gym experts feel that physical activities can really assist people during these tough times.
Now you might be one of those people that have started to exercise for the first time in this pandemic. In that case, keep it going strong and continue it until the stay-at-home order helps in easing your life until it returns to normal. You might have exercised regularly just before the COVID-19 outbreak and allow that habit to slide, do not worry a lot.
Just keep in mind that each person responds in a different way in tough scenarios. It is totally okay that you have decided to give your body a rest or break. If you check in the overall realm of things, a few months of break is not that much longer. You would be really surprised to know how quickly you can get back your strength and endurance in a snap.
All you must do is ease into the exercise mode by doing three to two workouts each week. Then you can slowly increase it from there if you really want to. Now if you really have the financial ability to do, then you can even think of hiring a personal trainer as soon as the gym and fitness studios open.
Most importantly, you would be helping small business owners that are struggling with the loss of the client. Plus, you would be having peace of mind in knowing that you are exercising in a safe way and getting the required results.
Re-establishing Work-Life Balance
It is common knowledge to know that work from home will bring about some boundary issues. This is more common when you are thrust with the work-from-home situation and that too without any kind of warning. Here do not forget that your setup won’t be ideal if you never thought of or think about working from home.
Experts feel that one must not work from their couch or bed. Also, it is important that you define your work hours. For example, no work-related emails after 6 p.m. It becomes impossible and tough only when your personal phone becomes your work phone and when the personal laptop becomes the work computer.
Sometimes your work-life boundaries can end up being blurred in this coronavirus pandemic. Make sure that you can establish a balance even after the stay-at-home rules lift. Well, there is no harm in starting now. It is all about keeping work at work, which leads to removing stress and overwhelming. Sometimes this might lead to burnout.
Going to Gym After The Lockdown
As soon as the lockdown is over, you might think that the gyms are going to open. Of course, they are and most probably over the summer. One thing that you really need to keep in mind is that the capacity is going to be reduced by half. Well, it is mandatory for people to keep a two-meter distancing. Also, personal trainers even end up giving advice from a safe distance.
Certain gyms might introduce an app that helps the gym members. With such apps, they can know at which timing the gym will be quiet and based on it they can visit accordingly. Also, there are even chances that the attendance at intensity classes like Pilates or yoga will get reduced by half.
Most gym owners and experts feel that high-intensity exercises involving a whole lot of sweat and heavy breathing will be reduced. Seriously, people doing such heavy exercises at the gym will be constrained and reduced to half. The same can be said about the people joining for spinning classes. Their numbers would be reduced to half and even the high-intensity HIIT circuits will be lesser i.e. it will reduce from 36 hours to somewhere around 8-10 hours.
Members in the boxing classes would need to wear under gloves. The punchbags will be more spread out. In addition, each of the equipment will be removed and sterilized after each usage. Ozone filters will be installed for killing bugs overnight.
Home-Based Training and Exercising
Now as many people have begun to learn and adjust to working out at home, they would be happy to stick with it. With the assistance of the home-training apps, they can do all the necessary exercises in their home.
Fitness influencers and the exercising specialist would re-evaluate their content for reflecting the requirement and gaining the attention of their followers in this period of lockdown. Hence, for various personal trainers, it means doing exercises along with celebrities and explaining the importance of simple and effective exercises that can be easily done indoors using minimal equipment.
You do have to realize that for online personal trainers, it is tough work. With extensive competition in the virtual world, they do have to come up with workouts that are simple and effective. For them, it is all about gaining a good amount of ratings and like, and not to forget a good amount of followers.
Emergence of Home Gym
The emergences of the lockdown were the signs for the things to come. It was the rise and prominence of a home gym. This was right from anything from one or two dumbbells to full squat rack. It has become easy for people to know that they can really workout within the confines of their homes.
The brand engagement can increase especially for the ones that provide flexible programming around accountability, progression, and even online support. Rather than replacing the physical gym, a home workout will complement them. Hence, it means that rather than going to the studio class four times a week, people will be doing two classes in the gym and about two or three workouts right at their home.
No doubt, as people begin to get trained digitally for a long time, they will end up getting accustomed to it. The only thing that they need to make sure that the results what they want is what they are getting, and it should only be considered as an emergency training.
Many people are facing financial insecurities and for them, it would be cheaper to opt for online classes rather than the monthly gym memberships.
Final Verdict
As soon as the lockdown is over, one thing you can really count on is that people would be more inclined to physical fitness. These apply for mental health and exercise too.
