Being stuck at home can be stressful, especially when you have practically nothing to do but homework, like I do. After all, there’s only so many times I can check Canvas before I start to go a little nuts. One thing I’ve noticed that helps is exercise.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Obviously, we’re supposed to be staying active, but plenty of people are busy enough with their homework or catching up on all the sleep and TV shows they’ve missed. Well, here are a couple of tips to stay active while stuck at home.
I think the most obvious solution is to go on walks. I can’t tell you how many people I see walking past my house everyday, so there’s something to be said about that particular activity. But what if you live in an area where you can’t go on walks? Whether it’s a crowded city or a highway, lots of people don’t have a walking path readily available.
There are so many other options for simple, indoor workouts. You don’t need any fancy equipment to do a quick workout to get your blood flowing. There are just about a million YouTube channels that can walk you through simple exercises with or without equipment. Channels like POPSUGAR fitness offer a wide variety of videos for any level of experience. They provide many different types of workout videos, from the daily ten-minute one to an intensive hour-long version. They even have a whole section for beginners. And these types of channels aren’t limited in types of exercises, with many channels having different focuses.
One channel I particularly like is Yoga with Adriene, which is, as the name implies, a yoga channel. She also has a variety of video lengths and focuses. And, with yoga, the only equipment people recommend is a mat, though even that isn’t totally necessary.
That brings us back to equipment, which is another thing these channels are good for. The vast majority of beginner-labeled videos require absolutely no equipment. This is definitely convenient for all of us in quarantine who can’t go to the store.
Another possibility for everyone who is missing their friends is group exercises. A few of my friends and I have been having “Zoom yoga” sessions. This is where one of us shares her screen with a yoga instructional video up and the rest of us follow along. Personally, this takes a lot of the awkwardness off of me. It can be weird doing exercises in an empty room!
Another thing you can do is make it a challenge, whether that’s between friends or family members. My sister and my mom compete by seeing who has the most steps at the end of the day. Now, they use their fitbits, but this can also be accomplished with an Apple Watch or even just a fitness app on your phone.
If you use these or other resources, that’s great! But it’s also important to remember that this is a stressful time, so don’t blame yourself if you can’t find the time or energy to do a full fitness routine. Just do what you can.
