Constantly being at home makes it a struggle to stay fit. It makes it almost impossible to exercise like you used to as gyms are closed and exercising outdoors may not be your preferred choice at the moment. However, it’s actually critical for everyone to stay fit, especially during current times. Regular activity brings many benefits to not only your body but mind, reducing your blood pressure and even managing your weight. Not only that, exercise also improves your mental well-being by reducing the risk of depression, cognitive decline and delaying the onset of dementia.
Here are 5 easy exercises at home you could do to keep yourself healthy!
#1 Dancing
Dancing is not only a fun activity, it is also good for your cardiovascular health. It involves brain activity when you have to remember to move, while engaging your whole body. Dancing improves your agility, movement coordination and flexibility due to the constant movement. A 30-minute dance class can burn up to 130 and 250 calories, which is similar to jogging. You can optimise this exercise by joining a class or watching tutorials on the Internet. However, if you’re already dancing to the beat a freestyle dance itself is already beneficial.
#2 Skipping Rope
This High-intensity interval training exercise burns your calories and strengthens your whole body. According to research, moderately paced rope jumping is roughly equivalent to running the eight-minute-mile. A 30 minutes of jumping rope HIIT workout can burn somewhere up to 300 to 450 calories and maybe more depending on your weight. However during rope skipping, there is a lot of stress put on your knees and feet. Which is why this exercise is not recommended if you have old problems or injury in your knees or feet.
#3 Yoga
Research says that yoga can be just as good as an aerobic exercise in improving health. As a low impact exercise, yoga is a safe way to increase muscle strength and most importantly, flexibility and balance. Even if yoga doesn’t burn as many calories as other HIIT or aerobic exercises, yoga brings many benefits. It can help to manage stress, help you to relax, improve sleep, strengthen core muscles and improve your heart health.
#4 Pilates
As a low impact exercise, pilates benefit the body by toning up muscles, improving posture, and toning the core. It is also known to help recovery from back pain or any injuries by strengthening the affected area. Pilates can be done with or without equipment. The exercise involves slow, precise movements and breath control targeting the core. At home, you can. try to join virtual classes through websites or applications, another free option is to find tutorials on Youtube.
#5 Strength Training
Also called weight training or resistance training, strength training is important as it helps to increase muscle mass which makes you stronger. Increasing muscle mass will increase metabolism and prevent the body from gaining weight easily. Despite often being correlated with weights, weight training can be done even without any equipment. Resistance band and body weight can help you to achieve resistance training. Workouts such as hip extension, push ups and lunges are a few examples of strength training you can do at home.
Be active during these Covid-19 breakouts to maintain your health. Any activity is better than none, even just stretching is better than sitting in front of your laptop all day long. However, it is recommended that adults above 18 years old need to do a minimum of 30 minutes of exercises in a day to be healthy. In total, all healthy adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week. If you have an existing health condition, do speak to your physician about your ideal exercise routine.
