Hello all! Hope everyone is safe and sound as I am writing this. The year 2020 started as good as any new year and then came Covid 19 turning everything upside down. Unprecedented pandemic that kept all of us locked indoors, destroyed worldwide economy and stole jobs, dear ones and even made hopes for a good future very distant for majority of us.
Whether it be work from home or you lost your job, Covid 19 started limiting the freedom of mobility. Either you are under a government lock down or yo keep yourself safe by staying in doors, avoiding public places to the maximum. This resulted in people sitting down for long duration like never before. Even though sitting down seems to be comforting at the earlier times, it has long term bad effects in ones health. If you ever relate sitting down for longer duration to a cancer causing bad habit, it would be smoking tobacco. As they warn about tobacco, sitting down kills. It causes very bad effects on your long term health. Sitting in the same posture for about 30 minutes will slow down your metabolism and the longer you sit the worse it gets.
We are forced to sit down for longer duration as the situation demands it these days. However, if you choose to use the resources available in your home to keep your body active by routine work out habits, you will live a healthy longer life.
The 30:5 rule of sitting
If you are the one who works from home or the one binge watches shows on Netflix, you are definitely sitting for longer duration these days. Pause whatever you are doing every 30 minutes and stand up from your place to move your body. You may walk to the window and look outside, take a stroll around your hallway before you sit down again. This will help your metabolism to reactivate again as well as its good for your eyes as you are focusing to multiple points compared to staring at a single focal length to an illuminated screen.
Home workout routine that suits everyone.
Step 1: Warm your body
As always let us start with a warm up. Do any of your favorite warm ups. Be it 5 - 10 minutes of cycling, 2 minutes of Jumping jacks or Skipping till your heartbeat is up.
Step 2: Relax your shoulders
Keep your arms straight forward 90 degree to your body, point all fingers forward. slowly rotate both your arms without stressing your body (Try not to bend your arms straight throughout the activity). Do this 10 times each in both forward and reverse rotations.
Step 3: Touch your toes
Once you're done with the above one, stand straight by keeping your legs with foots together, stand straight by relaxing both your arms down. slowly in hale and exhale couple of times. Then, Raise your arms as you inhale slowly. Stop once your arms are on a straight line, fingers pointing the sky, Try to look up as you do this. Then start slowly bending your body to reach your toes, slowly exhale as you touch the big toe when you are completely exhaled. come back to initial position and repeat this 10 times. Keep your legs straight feet together throughout the routine.
Step 4: Squats/ Sit ups
Time to do something for legs. Do a set of Squats or complete sit ups. Watch a Youtube video on how to do squats if you don't know how. Or else You can do sit ups as follows.
Stand straight on your legs by keeping your foot your shoulder length apart. Respective feet parallel to each other inline with your shoulder(palms facing down). Distribute your weight equally on both legs. Then extend your arms forward and keep it that way. Do 10 -15 sit ups in that position. Just sit down and stand up without moving your legs and hands from position.
Step 5: Push Ups
Push up is one of the most ancient exercise known to human being. It is equally beneficial for men and women. Watch a couple of youtube videos on how to do a proper push up in case if you don't know it already. Start with your comfortable set of push ups in the first two weeks and try to do 45 to 50 push ups a day in sets of 15 +15 +10 or 20 +20 +10. Push ups helps keep your arms, upper body, chest, core strong so that you will gain an attractive posture in the long term.
Step 6: Abs Workout
Abs are the most affected part of body when you sit for long time. You may end up gaining a pot belly, lose abs and a bad posture in the long term. Doing a set of crunches, leg raises any two of your favorite ab workout every day after above work outs will keep you in shape with a proper abdomen strength. Do abs workout only when your stomach is empty. Or else you may end up with Gastric issues or hernia in a worst case.
Minor Home workout equipment to cut your monthly gym costs
You know how costly is gym memberships. Above all, it is not safe to go workout in a crowded gym in light of the ongoing pandemic situation. As per bill gates, more epidemics are on its way.
If you invest a negligible amount of money, you can have a minimal set of workout equipment at home for an extended set of exercises for better health. This was you can save a lot of money too. Every penny saved is worth it as coming are the days of recession.
Doorway pull up bar
Chin ups or pull ups are another important exercise like the push up. Back when we were apes, we used to hang on tree branches, we used to rock climb while hunting and gathering both needed superior upper body strength.
A doorway pull up bar can be attached to any doorway/ door frame with the help of minimal screwing(Some bars work with just a grip, no screwing required). A set of proper pull ups can build strong wing muscles, along with total upper body work out. Apart from chin up/ pull up, doorway pull up bar can be used for a set of body stretches. I will write about that in another post soon.
Dumbbells
Primarily used for building biceps and arm related muscles, dumbbells can be used for a whole lot of exercise. I recommend to go for a dumbbell with interchangeable weight so that you can us it for multipurpose work outs. Also the same set of weights can be used with a curl bar or straight bar.
Curl bar or Bar bell with some weights
Depends on your budget and space availability, add a curl bar or a straight bar along with some changeable weight so that you may be able to do dead lift, those famous bicep curls, deltoid workout etc. Even though these are optional, it is easy to find these equipment in second hand market or fresh ones fro reasonable prices from stores like decathlon or online stores.
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