We have all been faced with lots of time at home. This is affected a lot of us in different ways. One of my favourite things to do and the main reason for this site it mountain biking, This became pretty impossible for a few weeks of lockdown. I love fitness and really enjoy reading other amazing peoples fitness journeys. I thought it would be fun to share some of my fellow blogger fitness during lockdown journeys. Well without further ado here are some inspirational people for you to follow and learn about how they are making lockdown a fitness haven.
Meet Isa from shampooandconditionerbars.com
Local hiking and biking
To stay fit and active during COVID-19, we get out and about locally, as a family.
Every week we look for a local hike or cycle trail that isn’t too far away from home and is unlikely to be crowded. Luckily, our family of five is within the ‘maximum crowd’ allowance for public spaces. We have discovered so many new places and are really appreciating our local environment. Forest walks, waterfall views, little lakes, and best of all, the Austrian Alps.
Without the usual tourism, tracks are uncrowded and we often have them to ourselves - easy social distancing. It’s been a great way to stay active and healthy, both physically and mentally. I have also bought a fitbit to give me a little hurry up if I start getting lazy.
I've been getting really into online yoga during the lockdown. It's really helped my mental and physical wellbeing, and calmed me down after all the cycling in Portsmouth I've been doing (my home city). It might sound weird but I kind of feels like Adrienne and Kassandra are my friends now – check out their YouTube channels at Yoga with Kassandra and Yoga with Adrienne. I know their quirks and have my favourite classes.
It's amazing their classes are free, and I doubt I'll renew my gym membership when lockdown is over. I love the convenience of just having them in my living room whenever I like. Also, I enjoy being able to do it myself and not having the added social pressure of a group. I have spent money on knee pads and a cork block, as I've got more into it, but apart from that, it's free!
My work has me constantly on the move, often to remote locations. This meant I had to design a fitness routine that can be built around that, with no equipment. I started to look into something called ‘Calisthenics’ - this is essentially movement-based exercise using the weight of your own body as resistance.
This allowed me to design a regular routine that I would be able to do in any hotel room. All I need is a space large enough for me to lay down, a wall and maybe a chair or two.
This type of exercise has many benefits beyond general fitness. The extra focus on how your body's movements allow you to become more in tune with yourself. You are able to work on flexibility and understand how different muscle groups work. I believe it is a much more connected form of exercise when compared to jumping between different machines in the gym. Think of it as yoga for strength, except with still using sets and repetitions.
Pilates
One of my favourite forms of exercise is pilates. I love it so much that I go at least 2 to 3 times per week. So you can understand how devastated I was when my pilates studio had to close during the lockdown period.
While I grieved for the first few days, I then started looking for something online so I could continue my pilates practice even while stuck at home. There were plenty of different options available but I ended up going with Pilates Anytime, which I found rather good.
The good thing about doing pilates at home was I could get the whole family involved. Both my daughter and husband joined me on the odd occasion.
Nothing will replace my pilates studio though and I am super excited about it reopening again in mid June.
One of the things I've done since the lockdown began was to take advantage of the 90-day Fitbit Premium subscription trial. The first benefit of this program is the guided insights feature. With more in-depth sleep data and heart rate monitoring, I'm now seeing personalized assessments about where I can make adjustments and improvements.
With this data collected, the app will recommend several guided programs. When I first purchased they put me into an intro to healthy habits program the intent of which is to get me to meet a step goal for the day (which Fitbit created based on my past tracking data), log food and sleep (which I already do by wearing the device to bed.)
After a few days, I was encouraged to take part in the Get More Sleep Program. I have specific instructions to help adjust my sleep habits accordingly. Besides personal recommendations, I have access to many workouts, from guided outdoor walks and indoor exercise programs, which include activities as short as 10-minutes to over 30 minutes. These workouts are categorized by fitness level, making it easy to pick a routine right for me.
Finally, Fitbit has added mindfulness programs to offer meditations, body scanning, and other helpful exercises to help ease your mind and guide you to taking a few moments for yourself. So with one subscription to Fitbit, I can get rid of my meditation apps, workout apps and collect all the data and benefits with my tracker in one place.
Like many others, since quarantine started I have been an anxious and depressed mess. This made it really hard to have the energy or desire to do HIIT, intense cardio or Strength Training workouts.
However, since before lockdown I DID exercise a few times a week, I didn’t want to lose my progress. So I decided to create a non-intimidated, all-encompassing routine.
This routine includes yoga (stretching and strengthening), and at-home walking workouts or walking my dogs (cardio). I do this routine in the morning before eating breakfast as it’s an optimal fat burning time, and it sets me on the right foot for the rest of the day.
I first do the yoga, and then continue onto the walking. It usually takes about an hour.
Sometimes we need to kind and gentle to ourselves and our bodies, and this workout does just that for me while still also challenging me and giving me results. I really recommend it for anyone who doesn’t have the motivation or ability to do anything too intense right now!
Meet Manpreet, from HelloManpreet.com
In the build-up to lockdown being introduced, I was starting to feel small amounts of anxiety due to the intensity of the news and the feeling of the unknown. This is when I started turning to Yoga. Initially, starting off on some very simple poses based on images I found online, and slowly moving on to full routines by following routines on YouTube.
I had enjoyed yoga on and off for the past year, but lockdown made me fall in love with it. On some days I will even complete up to 3 sessions, of around 15-20minutes.
I have felt my body get much stronger and the emphasis is placed on core strength building, as opposed to pumping muscles to look bigger.
More than the strength building, it is an amazing time to be mindful and take a moment to focus on the breath so that you feel lighter and less worried by the end of a routine.
One tip! The routines may look easy on TV or in videos, but it will definitely bring out a lot of sweat and make you feel extremely refreshed.
30 Minute Weight Training Routine
In the past I’ve dedicated a workout to one or two muscles or muscle groups. For example, Back and Biceps, Quads and Abs, Shoulders and Calves. Generally, one exercise focused on an upper body muscle or muscle group, and one focused on a lower body muscle or muscle group.
And this strategy is best for building muscle as the muscles need to be overloaded in order to trigger growth. But once you’ve reached a stage you’re happy with, you just need to maintain it.
And during the lockdown I worked out that the best way to do this is to do a full body workout in every session.
This was achieved in a 30 minuted timed workout which included DB Shoulder Press, KB Flyes, KB Tricep Kickbacks, DB Bicep Curls, DB Floor Press, DB Squats or DB Step Ups and finally, DB Calf Raises. Then in between, I added crunches to target abs.
I’d set my timer for 30 minutes, turn up the tunes and get to work. Given that the muscles don’t get a chance to slack off because they were being worked every day I noticed a good improvement in muscle size and tone.
For me, this type of maintenance training is perfect. So a big thanks to the lockdown from me!
Meet Akid from asianboyastray.co.uk
Our generation is pretty fortunate to live in a world where technology access and connecting to other people is at our fingertips. Even if we are stuck at home so many people are able to access a whole host of exercise regimes through YouTube, Instagram and handy apps.
I’m a bit of a technophile and an avid app downloader. There are plenty of apps that will help curate a workout for you; from home workouts to yoga, callisthenics or even running.
During the pandemic, my three favourites which I’ve used through my day are Home Workout: No Equipment, Down Dog and Zombies Run! They all serve a different purpose but all you need is your body your phone and some motivation!
Zombies Run! Is a running story app which encourages you to run whilst distracting you with gripping stories. You play Runner 5 on a mission to save the world from Zombies. It sounds silly but I’ve clocked over 100 km using this app.
Home Workout: No Equipment is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a good alternative to weights at the gym and provides you a full month regime to train different parts of your body.
Down Dog is a yoga class in your phone! I recommend using this just before bed to keep that mental health healthy during this time too.
These three apps have kept me at optimum fitness and motivation through quarantine and I hope they help you too!
I bought a Magic Circle
It might sound more like something involving producing rabbits from hats rather than fitness, but if you want to amp up your Pilate moves, the Magic Circle is the way to do it.
It’s a simple gizmo. A flexible ring of thick plastic/metal with two pads on either side. Put it between your knees and it increases muscle activation making every move a bit harder and more targeted –simple ab curl-ups suddenly leave you gasping; bridges become something that makes you glutes scream.
The Circle can also act like a stretching strap making it easier to hold and extend stretches for longer than you can do alone.
It was the perfect lockdown accessory - cheap, easy to use and small enough to hang on a doorknob when not in use. The Magic Circle plus some home Pilates moves designed to replicate what I was doing on the reformer has seen me come out of lockdown with a much stronger, flatter core than when I went in. Now I just need to lose a couple of extra biscuit-induced pounds covering the muscles!
I am an athlete and a typical gym rat. I just love working out and following a healthy lifestyle. Just like everyone else, I was not prepared for this lockdown and I had no home gym to continue my training. I had the choice to give up on my fitness journey during the lockdown, or to push my limits and find alternatives, and I am glad I chose the second option. I invested in some cheap portable equipment for my home workouts such as core sliders, resistance bands and jump rope. I also decided to start a YouTube Channel and create a series of home workout videos to help people follow a fitness routine during the quarantine. I learned that if you really want something, you will find a way and not an excuse. During stressful times it is even more important to take care of our bodies and minds. Instead of focusing on the uncertainties of this moment, I decided to focus on what I can control.
My “normal” lifestyle revolves heavily around travel and fitness, and due to Covid-19, these practices were forced to change pretty drastically during the mandatory lockdowns.
While travel plans had to be cancelled, one thing I couldn’t skip were my normal workouts. However, as an aerial acrobat and aerial instructor, I could no longer run group classes… or be in the air. I did my best to come up with ground-based exercises that both me and my students could use to target the same muscles we use in aerial (so that once this is over, we’ll be flying high again).
My most-used exercises have been: ground based ab workouts. Fitness bands for arm and leg workouts. Pull up bars. Yoga blocks and yoga straps for stretching. And, a lot of good old fashioned strength moves, targeting our hip flexors (for straddles), triceps, biceps, and quads. You'll also be happy to hear, I used the extra time at home to work on my in-need-of-care mountain bike, which I fixed up and have been using frequently.
Though it's all been very outside of my normal routine, I do feel like these workouts are keeping my muscles strong and my mind healthy during this crazy time.
Living in Montana has allowed us more freedom to be outside during the stay at home orders than in other places. Our governor encouraged us to get onto trails and into wild places to recreate both body and mind. We took full advantage of that (and always do) by making sure we get in at least a couple days of forest bathing each week.
Forest bathing, or shinrin yoku, originated in Japan. It’s simply the act of slowly walking in the forest. By spending time among trees, we absorb the trees’ phytoncides which have been shown to boost the immune system. Forest bathing reduces stress hormones—which we could all use during this pandemic—improves feelings of happiness, and lowers your heart rate and blood pressure.
And we all know that exercise, such as hiking, is good for body and mind. Even if you don’t have access to forests the way we do, you can get many of the same benefits from diffusing essential oils such as hinoki or white cedar. And maybe do at few jumping jacks at the same time to get a little exercise.
Crazy Car Exercises
Staying fit at anytime is a challenge for most people if the global obesity statistics are anything to go by, but during the lockdown some people became more motivated to exercise while others slacked off.
One of the ways I stayed fit during lockdown was to get creative about how to exercise, when to exercise and how long to exercise for.
With no gyms open, I already had some basic home exercise equipment such as dumbbells, kettlebells so I developed a basic daily routine around those.
But variety is the spice of life which is why my friend and I came up with some crazy car exercises to show people that you can exercise just about anywhere, and with just about anything if you want to.
Two in particular were hilarious to come up with, let alone the filming of them which was ten times as funny, which were Seatbelt Rows and Seatbelt Flys.
Listen carefully as the videos start and you can hear me laughing as I’m filming. And Dmitri barely kept it together during his demonstration too!
So there’s always a new way to exercise and stay fit and healthy, and you don’t need a lockdown to make it happen.
I returned home to Canada and needed to quarantine to a bedroom for two weeks to protect my family. I decided to do some easy challenges for work and fitness that didn't require a lot of space.
I started a free Splits in 30 Days app by Leap Fitness because it seemed so frivolous and quickly learned that it wasn't really about doing the splits at all. It was about helping people with tight hips and hamstrings that work sitting down all day.
This was perfect for me as I was in the middle of writing a massive post about Colombian food in the morning and after lunch I would do this app which stretched all the muscles that were so tight.
I noticed I felt better after the first day, and on day four I could stretch much farther than I could when I started. And I didn't even attempt the splits until Day 19.
At the end of the 30 days I couldn't do the splits but I felt so much better and lighter. I've moved onto the intermediate version, not because I want to do the splits but because I want to continue improving my flexibility.
We are lucky enough to be locked down on a 160-acre arable farm in Suffolk, England, although we are here quite by chance. The farm and the area are surrounded by footpaths, so we’ve purchased the Ordnance Survey app and are using their leisure map overlay to navigate our way around the local area. The local roads have also been very quiet during the lockdown, so its easy to add on a few country lanes and make lots of circular routes. We’ve managed to hike parts of the Mid Suffolk Footpath, a long-distance path that runs through the Suffolk countryside. Hiking England’s public footpath network has been a great way to stay fit and see some of the countryside and wildlife – we’ve come across rabbits, hares, pheasants, foxes and deer during our walks. Luckily, the weather during this lockdown period has been superb and so its been a pleasure to spend the time outdoors and isolated.
Meet Elsa from travellingquote.com
My road bike had been installed for about half a year before the lockdown started in the mid of March. And since each one is reminded to keep a healthy body to fight the sickness, I started riding my road bike.
This bike is really intended for me to ride and exercise. Biking was my hobby on my younger days wherein I and my buddies biked on the hilly terrain of Antipolo, as this is the nearest place to do best this adventure bike.
Since there were more busy days before the quarantine period, I seldom ride on this stationary bike. But lockdown made me religiously do it, as in every day.
I started exercising when I am on the heaviest and biggest time of my life. And it made me feel so better.
Being our area quarantined, and I was the only one allowed in the family to buy necessities from a 2-km far market, and going back home under the heat of the sun, walking with 5 kilos each load in one hand, it was great that I do not run of breaths. I would get a bit tired but not gasping.
I want to congratulate myself to achieve such a condition. I may not be lessened by hundred of pounds, but the strength I developed is such a big achievement.
Jogging
One of the things I did to stay fit during lockdown was start jogging again. Prior to lockdown I was playing team sports from time to time and commuting to work on my bike. Due to lock down, team sports were postponed, and working from home became the norm. With no exercise, my fitness level decreased, and I started putting on some lockdown weight. As such, I decided to take up jogging again to improve my fitness. Jogging still allowed social distancing rules to be followed. It was easy to fit in before work, during lunch, or after work. As I hadn’t jogged for a while, it was a little tough the first week, but slowly I felt my jogging fitness level improve. On my jogs, I noticed there were more people out and about on jogs and walks. Jogging is great as minimal equipment is required; just a pair of runners suffices. Easy.
Meet Rachel from coffeewise.com.au
Use the 7 Minutes Workout App
With gyms, yoga and Pilates centres closed during lockdown, and everyone in the household suddenly stuck at home, time and the opportunity to exercise seemed to evaporate.
I am sure many parents can relate to the feeling that juggling work from home, home-schooling kids and maintaining the household made it more difficult to find time for high intensity exercise (and harder to resist more coffee and snacks!)
The best way I found to maintain my fitness was to download the popular 7 minutes workout app and do short bursts of exercise throughout the day.
What I love about this app (apart from it being short and sweet) is that it targets all key areas. The more frequently you do the workout, the easier it is to increase intensity. Plus, there are targeted workouts for abs, legs and arms to extend your workout if you have time.
The short time commitment meant it was more achievable to slot in throughout the day, whatever the weather. With no special equipment required it is the perfect way to exercise and maintain your fitness during lockdown.
Meet Stephanie from Poppin’ Smoke
To stay fit during lockdown, we used the same equipment we always use when we do not have access to a gym: resistance bands.
My husband and I have been travelling and living abroad full-time since 2015, and our set of resistance bands is one of the essential travel items that always has a spot in our small suitcases.
We use the bands in the house or outside, whether wedged in a door frame, looped around a balcony, or hanging from the jungle gym at a playground. We’ve come up with exercises that we can do for all body parts, and combined with basic movements such as pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups, the bands provide a great full-body workout.
Most exercise bands come in several different levels of resistance, and you can use two or more at a time for a higher workload. If you run out of ideas for exercises, YouTube is full of creative workouts using bands.
Once you starting using resistance bands, you might just find that they are cheaper and more convenient way to workout than a gym!
Wow, now that is some very inspiring people right there. I hope they have given you the inspiration to get fit and start your own fitness journey at home.
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