Exercises can keep us Healthy and fit During COVID-19 Pandemic

9 min readJun 12, 2021

Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, preventing aging, developing muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, improving health. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought this fast-moving world to a standstill. Most of us are working and doing various tasks online. Doing regular exercise can help you to gain more immunity power, reduce your stress and anxiety in this pandemic. It will also boost your health and can keep you away from various diseases.

Physical activity is an important part of your overall physical and mental health. Regular physical activity over time produces long-term health benefits and reduces the risk of many diseases. It also keeps you in shape so you can enjoy leisure activities and safely perform work and home chores. Overall, it helps maintain an independent, productive, and social life.

According the recent Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, all Americans should be active even older adults and those who are disabled or managing a chronic illness. All adults gain substantial health benefits from a combination of activities that include aerobic fitness, flexibility, and muscle-strengthening exercises.

Would you like to:

· Decrease your risk of disease?

· Feel better physically and mentally?

· Look better?

· Help avoid injuries?

· Keep doing activities you enjoy throughout your life?

Regular physical activity will help you do these things. Physical activity is essential to prevent and reduce risks of many diseases and improve physical and mental health. It can even help you live longer — research from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine indicates that regular exercise can add up to five years to your life.

Physical activity also keeps you in shape so you can enjoy leisure activities and safely perform work and home chores. It offers great mental and social benefits as well. The Lancet released a series of studies that attribute positive outcomes to physical activity, including “a sense of purpose and value, a better quality of life, improved sleep, and reduced stress, as well as stronger relationships and social connectedness.”

What are the health benefits of exercise?

Regular exercise and physical activity may

Help you control your weight. Along with diet, exercise plays an important role in controlling your weight and preventing obesity. To maintain your weight, the calories you eat and drink must equal the energy you burn. To lose weight, you must use more calories than you eat and drink.
Reduce your risk of heart diseases. Exercise strengthens your heart and improves your circulation. The increased blood flow raises the oxygen levels in your body. This helps lower your risk of heart diseases such as high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, and heart attack. Regular exercise can also lower your blood pressure and triglyceride levels.
Help your body manage blood sugar and insulin levels. Exercise can lower your blood sugar level and help your insulin work better. This can cut down your risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. And if you already have one of those diseases, exercise can help you to manage it.
Help you quit smoking. Exercise may make it easier to quit smoking by reducing your cravings and withdrawal symptoms. It can also help limit the weight you might gain when you stop smoking.
Improve your mental health and mood. During exercise, your body releases chemicals that can improve your mood and make you feel more relaxed. This can help you deal with stress and reduce your risk of depression.
Help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. Exercise stimulates your body to release proteins and other chemicals that improve the structure and function of your brain.
Strengthen your bones and muscles. Regular exercise can help kids and teens build strong bones. Later in life, it can also slow the loss of bone density that comes with age. Doing muscle-strengthening activities can help you increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength.
Reduce your risk of some cancers, including colon, breast , uterine, and lung cancer.
Reduce your risk of falls. For older adults, research shows that doing balance and muscle-strengthening activities in addition to moderate-intensity aerobic activity can help reduce your risk of falling.
Improve your sleep. Exercise can help you to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Improve your sexual health. Regular exercise may lower the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. For those who already have ED, exercise may help improve their sexual function. In women, exercise may increase sexual arousal.
Increase your chances of living longer. Studies show that physical activity can reduce your risk of dying early from the leading causes of death, like heart disease and some cancers.

How can you make exercise a part of your regular routine?

Make everyday activities more active. Even small changes can help. You can take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk down the hall to a coworker’s office instead of sending an email. Wash the car yourself. Park further away from your destination.
Be active with friends and family. Having a workout partner may make you more likely to enjoy exercise. You can also plan social activities that involve exercise. You might also consider joining an exercise group or class, such as a dance class, hiking club, or volleyball team.
Keep track of your progress. Keeping a log of your activity or using a fitness tracker may help you set goals and stay motivated.
Make exercise more fun. Try listening to music or watching TV while you exercise. Also, mix things up a little bit — if you stick with just one type of exercise, you might get bored. Try doing a combination of activities.
Find activities that you can do even when the weather is bad. You can walk in a mall, climb stairs, or work out in a gym even if the weather stops you from exercising outside.

If you’re new to exercise and not sure where to start, here are some ideas to get you moving:

Take your workout online: On YouTube there are endless free exercise videos to try, regardless of your fitness level or the size of your living room. From yoga and strength workouts to Pilates, high intensity interval training (HIIT) and more. Our This Girl Can — Victoria Get Active @ Home’ page has lots of videos you can try, especially if you are sick of seeing ‘FITSPO’ workouts and you want something that focuses on feeling good.
Join a local sports club: Grassroots sports clubs are back up and running now that restrictions on outdoor gatherings have lifted, so now is the perfect time to get back into some organised sport. It doesn’t have to be competitive, there are plenty of social sports programs available for people who want to get active without the pressure of intense competition.
Go freestyle: If a structured routine is not your style, get creative and build your own workout — walking or running on the spot for 30 second intervals, do some star jumps, planks, sit ups, push ups, or even burpees. Anything to get your heart rate up a little either at your home or at a local outdoor area such as a park or oval.
Go solo outside: Walking, cycling and running are great solo activities and now restrictions have eased, this is the ideal time to do them. We suggest going early in the morning or late in the day, to avoid the busy times in popular areas. It’s also a great time to try your hand at bushwalking, with lots of great tracks and trails to explore in Victoria. Remember you need to carry a mask with you so you can wear it if you can’t physically distance from other people. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds when you get home.

WHAT DO EXPERTS RECOMMEND FOR FITNESS?

The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans are designed so people can easily fit physical activity into their daily plan and incorporate activities they enjoy.

These guidelines recommend that each week you do one of the following:

· Two and a half hours of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity (Examples are walking briskly, water aerobics, ballroom dancing, and general gardening)

· One hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity (Includes racewalking, jogging or running, swimming laps, jumping rope, and hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack)

Make sure that you do at least 10 minutes of aerobic activity at a time. In fact, people who engage in short bursts of physical activity for 10 minutes at a time have been shown to be just as healthy as people who do a regular 30-minute workout every day. Check out Fitness to learn ways to incorporate bursts of physical activity naturally into your daily life.

In addition, include muscle strengthening activities, such as weight training, push-ups, sit-ups, carrying heavy loads, or heavy gardening, at least two days a week. Exercise specialists, such as the American College of Sports Medicine, also recommend incorporating stretching and other exercises to increase flexibility and avoid injury, as well as exercises to improve balance and reduce risk of falls.

A word of caution

While exercise is undoubtedly beneficial, it is not true that the more exercise you do or the harder you work the body, the better the results. Too much or too arduous physical activity can lead to injury. It is essential to maintain a balance between working out the muscles without overdoing it. Know that your body gets stronger during rest and recovery.

INCLUDE AEROBIC ACTIVITIES

Aerobic activity improves your cardiovascular health and helps protect against heart disease. It also improves your physical energy and produces endorphins that improve your mood.

What you do and how often and hard you exercise are determined by your goals, present fitness level and health, interest, and convenience. It is important to choose an activity you enjoy and that fits your lifestyle and tailor it to your fitness level. This will help you make exercise a habit. It’s also a good idea to choose more than one type of exercise to give your body a more complete workout and to avoid boredom.

There are two great ways to increase aerobic benefits:

· Add more vigorous activities

· Add more time for aerobic activities

Add more vigorous activity

Instead of doing only moderate-level activities, consider replacing some with vigorous aerobic activities that will make your heart beat even faster. Adding vigorous activities provides benefits in less activity time. In general, 15 minutes of vigorous activity provides the same benefits as 30 minutes of moderate activity.

Have you been walking for 30 minutes five days a week? On two days, try jogging instead of walking for 15 minutes each time. Keep on walking for 30 minutes on the other three days.

Would you like to have stronger muscles? If you have been doing strengthening activities two days a week, try adding an extra day.

Helpful tips to get started

One way to set your goals and monitor your level of physical activity is to know your target heart rate. Make your cardiovascular workouts hard enough to break a sweat and get your heart pumping faster. Learn how hard you should work out.

Walking is one excellent cardio-respiratory exercise that almost everyone can do. Walking 10,000 steps a day can improve health and fitness. (It takes a little more than 2,000 steps to walk one mile.) Many people discover when they begin wearing a pedometer that they only average between 900 and 3,000 steps a day. Learn how to start your own walking program.

There are many choices for cardiovascular exercise. Learn some of the pros and cons of each to help you make choices.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT FITNESS FROM REFERENCE LINKS

References

Aerobics and Fitness Association of America http://www.afaa.com

Activity Bursts Everywhere: http://abeforfitness.com

America on the Move http://aom2.americaonthemove.org

American Lung Association Running Club http://www.alarc.com/

Aquatic Exercise Association http://www.aeawave.com/

Center for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity

National Institute on Aging http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/exercise.htm

National Institute of Health http://health.nih.gov/topic/ExercisePhysicalFitness

Patience Tai Chi Association http://www.patiencetaichi.com

Final Note :

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