Tips To Stay Productive During Lockdown - cairodock

 Tips To Stay Productive During Lockdown

The new year is sure to bring more “lockdown” situations, whether they be caused by a natural disaster or some other unplanned event (school closure, for example). No matter what the situation may be, it’s important to stay healthy and active while you are stuck indoors.

 

Here are a few ways to help you burn calories and stay productive during a lockdown:

 

• Explore the inside of your house.
• Play games such as air hockey or cards.
• Do yoga poses in between watching TV shows.
• Take walks around your neighborhood with family members and friends who live nearby.

We’ve all been there. It’s 2PM on a Friday afternoon and the office is in lockdown. The only things you can see are your animals, walls, and coworkers sitting in their cubicles with their heads down... Dozens of hours of tedious boredom stretched out before you. And then it hits you… If you add up all the hours of work and all the calories are eaten, you’re essentially losing weight every day and gaining muscle! Why didn’t I think of this before? Time to make my life a little more efficient. Hey, why not just continue working while I burn calories?

 

I have compiled a list of exercises and activities that can be done during lockdown that can be useful in terms of burning calories and making your time productive.
 

1. Running for the elevator/escalator: This is one of the more basic methods of burning calories that can be effective depending on how fast you run. Basically, find a staircase or elevator nearby and race it. If you win, you get a point. The faster the better. If you lose, well, it’s not that bad really. On the other hand, if you don’t care about your time and just want to limit your calorie intake... You can run to the elevator and go down a floor so that when the elevator gets there, it goes down another floor and then goes back up so that it’s not resting in between floors.

 

2. Jumping Rope: This is a fairly simple but an effective way to burn calories during lockdown that can be done anywhere. Just whip out your jump rope and start jumping, period. Be sure to do this near an entrance/exit so that way you can jump and then quickly run out when the lockdown is over. It’s also good if you do it near a bathroom so that way when you’re done jumping rope, you can wash up quickly while everyone else is waiting in line to use the bathroom.

 

3. Aerobic exercises: If no one’s around and you want to do something but also burn some calories, there are a few aerobic exercises that you can do by yourself or with other people. You can do jumping jacks, jump squats, and push-ups. Be sure to pace yourself so that you don’t hurt yourself and burn calories. Also, if you just want to cut down on your calorie intake, you may want to learn a few different aerobic exercises like walking, running, swimming or biking.

 

4. Push-ups: This is one of the simplest but most effective exercises you can do when no one is around. While it’s easy enough to go through the motions of a pushup by yourself, its effectiveness really comes in when other people are around and you are doing it as a team. When you’re doing pushups or any physical activity, it’s good to do them together because then you can encourage one another and get a little friendly competition going. If there are a lot of people in your group, you might want to split them up into teams and race against each other. This way everyone gets a chance to win!

 

5. Sit-ups: This is a simple exercise that most people can do once they are sick of doing push-ups. All you need is a hard surface or a chair to do these on. It’s just as effective as a pushup if not even more so because it exercises the abs and the upper back.

 

6. Low-impact cardiovascular exercises: A lot of people like to do these during lockdown because they are easy and a little hard. A few of these that you can do include swimming, biking, dancing, or running outside. Obviously, it’s best to do this outside where there is no one else around so you can run without getting in anyone’s way or bumping into them... It’s also best to do these if there is a lot of traffic around you so you can keep an eye out for cars and not hit them. While I recommend running through a park or outside where there aren’t many people around, make sure to be safe. If it’s a nice day, wear sunscreen, wear some reflective material and always take breaks because it can be exhausting, and doing things like biking or running outside can cause muscle pains.

 

Yoga: This is one of my favorites exercises and I will probably be blogging about this soon enough... Not only is it good for the body but it is also a very relaxing activity. You can do yoga very fast during lockdown by yourself or with other people. If you are going to do this on your own, you can either do it in quick succession or just stick to one category of yoga at a time by choosing from:

 

1) Relaxing Yoga: These are things like meditation, free-form breathing, and basic relaxation techniques.

 

2) Primary series: This is simply all the postures that are done in sequence. A typical sequence might include seated forward bends, bridge, reclining bow, arm balances followed by standing forward bends and backbends. The sequence is changed according to the ability of the participant.

 

3) Intermediate series: This is a more advanced level series that include tough poses like twists and difficult balancing positions.

 

4) Advanced series: The advanced series is very difficult and it actually requires a lot of strength to do the postures. These are as difficult as inversions, arm balances, lower backbends, or balance on one leg with the other leg in the air (the wheel pose). There are several others in this series but I won’t get into them because they are advanced poses! If you want to know exactly which ones they are, you can check out Yoga for Dummies by Georg Feuerstein.

 

8. Strength training: This is one of the best ways to stay fit during your lockdown. Some people like to use exercise machines while others like to use free weights and the like. Usually, people do them on their own but you can always get a friend or two to help you if you really don’t want to do them alone. While there are many free strength programs out there, you can start with anyone that you want and see how much of a difference it makes in your body and health.