x
With the usual array of exercise options severely limited by the pandemic, what are realistic fitness goals for the next 12 months?
Given the uncertainty over how long the nationwide lockdown will continue, staying focused on your fitness goals poses a bigger than usual challenge, says Lauren Jenai, founder of Manifest, an app that assists in tracking your vitals and health conditions, providing fitness regimens and nutritional guidelines from a personalized wellness coach. Jenai, who's based in Portland, Oregon, is a co-founder of CrossFit Inc.
"Having regularly scheduled classes, training sessions and practices provides structure and the ability to maintain a level of fitness," Jenai says. "They also provide the benefit of social interactions that can help keep us on track."
While fitness facilities, many parks and recreation league games are shut down, it's still important to keep moving, even if you can't participate in your favorite activities, she says.
How you keep moving requires some rethinking in light of the stay-at-home orders, adds Jim Frith, a certified personal trainer based in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He's the author of "End the Yo-Yo: The EAMAYW® System." For example, if you can't play pickup sports for a few hours a week, substitute three to five one-hour workouts on a weekly basis, Frith suggests.
While staying at home is stressful, it can also provide an opening. "The time you have at home is a tremendous opportunity to improve your fitness," Frith says. "You are no longer burdened by a long commute (to work). Even if you are working from home, the stay-at-home order is probably freeing up a significant amount of time for you. How you choose to use that time is up to you."
Here are five realistic fitness goals for the next 12 months:
Create a new workout routine. Since you can't go to a gym, yoga studio or park, your first goal should be to create a new at-home workout regimen, says Jonathan Jordan, a personal trainer based in the San Francisco area.
There are a number of online resources you can use to develop a new workout regime. "If in normal life going to a yoga studio is part of your routine, and your yoga studio is closed, that doesn't mean you have to stop your practice," Jordan says. "Many yoga instructors are teaching the same courses online."
In addition, many personal trainers – including Jordan – are making workout routines available online. There are also a number of exercise apps available. Once you've developed a shelter-in-place workout routine, write it down. "You're more likely to follow a regimen if it's written down," Jordan says.
Be creative when it comes to exercise equipment. Unless you have a home gym or high-end exercise bike, you won't have much, if any, workout equipment available while you're sheltering in place. With a little ingenuity, you can work around that, Jordan says.
For example, if doing strength training is part of your regimen, you can substitute an empty 2-gallon milk jug for free weights, Jordan says. Fill up the jugs with water or rice and beans and conduct strength training with your makeshift weights.
Improve your core. You don't need a lot of room to do exercises that strengthen your core, Frith says. "There are limitless exercises in all planes of motion that can be done with no equipment or with items you have in your home. For example, planks, crunches and bridges can be modified with twisting motions, or they can be done on your side or with countless other variations that strengthen your entire body while staying in a tight space."
These are the planes of motion Frith refers to :
There are plenty of core-strengthening exercises available online.
Manage your weight. Some highly motivated people may be able to achieve weight-loss goals they set before the pandemic struck. But during the coronavirus crisis, managing your weight is a more realistic goal, Jordan says.
"You're moving a lot less and may be eating some comfort food," he says. "It may be unrealistic to think you'll start or continue to lose weight. I'm a personal trainer, I have access to a gym and I've gained about 3 pounds (in the span of a few weeks.)"
Get more and better sleep. Whether your goal is to lose body fat, build muscle or maintain your weight, getting a good night's sleep is important, Jordan says. Bad sleep makes it harder to shed body fat, and also leaves you less mentally sharp.
Without the need to get up early to prepare for a commute to work, you can create better sleeping habits. Stay away from devices that emit LED light at least an hour before bedtime.
That means you should refrain from using these devices before bedtime:
