How To Maintain A Top Shape Figure Amidst the Pandemic Outbreak

words Alexa Wang

The Coronavirus pandemic has set everyone to stay at home for safety, but many are looking for ways on how to stay active and have a body that is still in shape despite the gyms, fitness studios, and workout centers being shut down and closed.

With the current situation, everyone is at risk of getting a chronic disease and decreased health immunity. In this article, you will see how you can maintain a good shape, being physically fit and healthy while staying from home:

Do Physical Activities at Home

Set your goals

Before setting a daily routine, know which area you are weak so that you can focus on the points that you want to improve or strengthen. Here are some points to consider when you want to make a priority list:

Flexibility – This refers to the ability of your soft tissues, which includes the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to move or stretch at full capacity through an optimal range of motion. An activity you can do is stretching.
Stability – This is defined as sustaining control of your joint’s movement and position.
Mobility – This is the ability of your joints to move freely without restriction from its surrounding tissues.
Balance and Coordination – Balance is your ability to evenly distribute your body weight. If you can balance yourself well, you can improve your coordination and avoid tipping off or falling. A common exercise for this is doing jumping jacks.
Strength – This is the amount of force exerted by your muscles to resist force from your weight or another object. You can make some push-ups and planks for strength.
Endurance – The ability of your body organs, such as the heart and the lungs to deliver oxygen to your muscles during a workout.

Now, identify which of these areas are your weakest and be able to focus on them first. This does not mean you will not be addressing the others, but you can subtly do activities to address them while you do progress on the weakest.

Split your Body

If you are not an expert on workout exercises, you can divide your activities into three parts, following your body:

The lower part of your body will include your waist, down to your thighs, to your calves and your feet. Here are some exercises that you can do:

High Knees. Stand straight with feet close together. Extend your hands in front with your palms facing down. Start jogging on the spot, while raising your knees higher to tap your palms. Do this in 3 sets with 20 reps each.
Alternating Side Lunge. Stand on your feet wider than a shoulder-width apart. Shift your weight more on to your left side, bending your left knee as you lower yourself to the left. Straighten your position and do the same with the right side. Do this in 3 sets with 10 reps each.
Wall sits. Stand with your upper back, lower back, and hips against a wall. Squat down and follow a sitting position. Put your hands on your thighs and hold in this position for 30 seconds while breathing. Get back up, rest for 30 seconds, and repeat. Do 3 sets of 30 seconds hold

The upper body will include waist up, your core, back muscles, and shoulders. Here are some suggestions:

Pike pressed up. Hold on to your sofa and your hands should be shoulder-width apart on the ground. Start lowering your body until your head touches the floor. Hold for a second and push yourself back to the original position. Do this in 3 sets with 12 reps.
Diamond press up. Get down into a press-up position and place your hands together to form a diamond shape. Lower your chest towards the floor, then push yourself back to the starting position before you touch the floor. Do this in 3 sets of 12 reps.
Tricep dips. Place your hands at the edge of your sofa. Extend your legs out and keep them hip-width apart. Slowly lower your body down until your elbows are at a 45-degree angle. Push your body back to the original position controllably. Do this for 3 sets with 12 reps.

The whole body. This is to make all the body parts move after warm up in the lower and upper body parts. Now here are full-body exercises that you can try out:

Burpees. This combines the benefits of a push-up and a squat. From a standing position, drop down to a squat, then move up into a plank, do a push-up and move back to a standing position. Do this in 2 sets with 10 reps.
Jump Squats. Feet between the shoulder and hip apart. Start from a regular squat position, then jump up, as you land, lower your back and return to the squat position. Do this in 3 sets with 10 reps.
Skier Abs. Starting in a plank position, jump both feet up and draw your knees towards your chest, then return to your starting plank position. Do this in 3 sets with 10 reps.

Equipment

Even though you are at home and you might not have all the equipment that you see in your gym. Here are some creative options to provide your workout with resistance needed to support your exercises:

Your body weight. Your body can create resistance on its own. You can do squats, push-ups, planks, and lunges. These can be your strengthening exercises.
Objects at home. Besides your own body, some external weight can also be useful to increase resistance. You may do the same exercises, but you can add some difficulty depending on your self-improvement pace. Your weight materials can be water-filled jugs, a bag with books, or grocery bags with heavy things inside.
Work out barefoot. Using your feet to push down against the floor or walls can create a better resistance rather than having your shoes, wherein your feet can rely on the soles of your shoes to oppose the resistance as you do your exercises.

Monitor your own body

Be your fitness trainer. Check on your body as you progress with your physical exercises. Take note of your weight, your energy levels, and how your brain functions. Do not rush nor overdo it.

Exercise with another person

Doing a physical activity together with a housemate can add more to your energy. It can improve competitiveness and adaptability. If you are from Las Vegas, fitness trainers from Sin City Training in Las Vegas can come over to your home to personally join and help you with your workout or connect with some of your family members or friends and do a workout together via video call. This way you engage with the activity and you practice that discipline within yourself to do this every day.

If you have kids at home, physical activities are a great way to keep them healthy, too. Make these activities as a family and this will keep the children attentive and happy.

Set daily and weekly goals

Always measure your progress. This way you will know how you are doing. Remember to keep your goals S.M.A.R.T

Specific goals are made this way: 15 minutes of workout daily or jumping jacks at 100reps a day.
Measurable: This refers to your ability to count whatever you are doing, like counting your reps, or using a stopwatch to monitor your time.
Achievable: If you are a starter, make sure that you set goals that have a small range and increase as you progress.
Relevant: Since you are staying fit and in shape, your activities should be relevant to protect yourself from Coronavirus or any disease.
Time: Of course, you should have a dedicated time to follow and execute what you have written down. If you don’t do it for a few minutes then your goals are useless. Make it a habit.

Monitor your Sitting Time

You may have been working from home and you are used to sitting the whole day. If you want to keep yourself active, be mindful of your sitting hours, you can set an alarm to remind yourself to stand and walk around or move.

Get rid of Distractions

Once you start with your physical exercises, turn off your laptop if you are not watching from a fitness activity shown online, keep your mobile phone away and if you can do the activity in a room where you will not be distracted by other people who are not engaged with the activity. If you are using your mobile phone as your timer, you can set it to airplane mode and forget about the social media bad news first.

There you have it, you can now make your physical activity goals and keep your body physically active. Next, aside from being active, another way to remain fit is carefully selecting the food intake that we have since healthy eating also prevents us from having any disease. Here are some ways to stay fit and maintain a good body figure with healthy food choices:

Eat Right

Choose healthy meals in your diet plan during the pandemic outbreak. While everyone is mandated to stay at home, people will burn less fat due to the reduced physical activity that they have while they are on home quarantine. Resist food cravings that can add more calorie intake:

If you want something sweet, eat fruit.
Creamy food can be substituted with plain unsweetened yogurt.
Crunchy can be carrot sticks, celery, or cucumber.
An ounce of nuts can replace your salty food cravings

Healthy options for taking out or food delivery should be in moderation. Consider these options:

Plain sweet potatoes or baked potatoes instead of french fries
Whole grain bread or pasta, but limit your intake
Grilled chicken instead of fried
Salads should be in light oil instead of heavy dressings that have high-calorie content

Avoid processed foods since they can have high sodium, sugar, or saturated fat content that can cause sudden weight gain. Always read nutritional data labels. These are the recommended levels of intake:

Sodium should be less than a teaspoon, that is, approximately less than 2,300 milligrams per day.
Added Sugar should not be more than 35 grams or 6 teaspoons for women and 37 grams or 9 teaspoons for men.
Saturated fat should be substituted with healthy fats.

Avoid Overeating

Before you eat another serving, know why you want to eat, first. You can control yourself from overeating by setting a meal schedule. If you feel like you want to eat, but it is not yet mealtime, give yourself 10-15 minutes before mealtime and see if you still feel hungry. If you also feel hungry between meals, set a time for a short break for healthy snacks. Always stick to your meal schedule.

Mindful Eating

As you eat, give time for yourself to enjoy what you are eating. Try to savor every bite by using your senses. Sit down and remove distractions. Set aside anything that divides your attention while you eat. As you eat, be sure to chew your food slowly, grind the food well before you swallow. This will allow your stomach to recognize the food that you are eating.

Stop stress eating

Asking yourself the reason why you want to eat can help you avoid eating unwanted calorie intake. If you want to eat because you are feeling stressed, bored, worried, or emotional, you can try stress management activities first rather than eating while you are not hungry. Take some breaks to reduce your stress levels.

Hydrate

When you feel hungry but it is not yet mealtime, you can drink water instead and see if you feel better. Avoid sweetened beverages since these can stimulate your hunger. Another option is to take unsweetened warm drinks like tea or coffee. Remember to drink 8-10 glasses of water daily.

Many people are finding ways to keep themselves still in shape despite the home quarantine brought about by the virus pandemic. So while you cannot still go out and head to your gym, you can just take note of these activities so you can still stay in shape and be safe from the virus as well.