Corona Cardio and Exercising in Exodus

During quarantine, it’s easy to eat out of boredom or anxiety.  It’s important to keep physically active, but it’s harder to exercise indoors and all the gyms are closed for everyone’s safety.  Some people live in houses and are fortunate to have backyards.  Some people live in apartments, and are limited to their floorplans and walls.

Here are some ideas to keep fit.  Before going further, here are some safety tips and a disclaimer.

Basic Safety Guidelines:
-Always stretch before workouts.
-Please stay hydrated.
-If you are tired or out of breath, take breaks. 

DISCLAIMER:  I am NOT a fitness professional, just a lay person who wants to help during the pandemic.  Don’t try anything that may cause you injury.  This short guide is written for adults and intended to help give ideas for simple workouts.  Use this guide at your own discretion.  Exercise common sense!

Now with that out of the way, let’s continue.

After your stretching, here are fun, physical activities to break up the boredom and burn some calories.  Most of these exercises are easy!  You probably thought of some examples already, but maybe you will find something you didn’t think of yet.

Television and YouTube
The television and internet can be excellent resources for fitness materials.  Look through your old videos and DVDs.  Also, check out Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc for exercise videos.  Here are some topics you can look up.

-Aerobics
-Yoga
-Pilates
-Dancing lessons – Jazz dance, Hip Hop, Zumba, Salsa, Belly Dancing, Hula Dancing.

More Dance

-Dance to upbeat music.  Turn on your stereo, and dance!  Good genres for a good workout include Rock, Pop, Metal, Industrial, Techno, and Electronica.

-Do the Macarena or the Electric Slide.  Just look up the songs online.

Strength Training Basics

-Pushups
-Crunches
-Do pushups and crunches during commercials.  See how many you can do.
-Lift weights (Be careful!  Wear shoes.)
-Lift your baby.  Carry the baby around your home.  (Common sense:  Always be careful with babies.)

Getting Creative

-Lift a dictionary or another heavy book.  Put books in tote bags and do curls.
-Lift the laundry bag, do curls.
(Always be careful of your back when lifting.)

-If you have a treadmill, exercise bike, or other cardio equipment – exercise while watching movies!  This activity works best if you are watching an action movie, horror film, or anything suspenseful that motivates you to run.  You can increase your speed when the T-1000 shows up, bolt when Pennywise the Clown appears, or run from Jason Vorhees as he chases the protagonists.

-Toss a pillow across the room with a friend.  It’s better than tossing a football, so you’re less likely to break stuff in the room.

-Draw a hopscotch grid in the carpet and play.  (Perfect for the kids too!)

Fun with the Kids – Children keep their parents active without trying.  They can also join in physical activities instead of vegging out in front of the TV or phone.  Just as a precaution, make sure you and your children exercise safely.  Children are less agile, and are prone to falling.  Keep a first aid kit handy.  Most of these examples don’t involve much running.  If you’re outside, avoid games with balls, because the ball may go outside your property and become compromised.

-Play Simon Says.
-Play Hide and Seek.  Every incorrect guess, the adult has to lift a weight or do a pushup.

-Jump rope outside if you have a yard or porch.  There are plenty of rhymes.  My most memorable childhood rhyme was:  “Cinderella dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss her fellow.  By mistake, she kissed a snake.  How many kisses will she make?  1,2,3….”

-Play Duck Duck Goose, if you have a backyard and enough family members.
-Play Musical Chairs.  Play some other game involving music-stopping.

-Play “Red Light-Green Light” in the backyard.  Stand a short distance from your kids. 
Facing them = Red Light, Back turned = Green Light.  Announce the traffic light colors when you change positions.  The children run toward you on the green and have to stop when you face them, saying, “Red Light!”  Whoever reaches you first gets to be the traffic controller for the next round.

-Play “What Time is it, Mr. Fox?”  It’s almost the same as Red Light-Green Light, except the children ask the question.  You answer with “(Number between 1-12) o’clock,” and the kids take between 1-12 steps forward based on the “o’clock” you chose.  (Ex.  “It’s 3 o’clock,” then they take three steps forward.)  When they get close enough, you yell, “Midnight!” and chase after your kids.  (Note:  Mr. Fox can be Mrs. Fox, Ms. Fox, or Mx. Fox too.)

-Have an Easter Egg hunt.  Easter is coming, but since everyone is cooped up, why not have egg hunts more than once?

Tidy Up!

-Clean house.  Vacuuming can be a workout.  (I know it’s boring, but necessary)
-Scrub the kitchen floor.  Wipe in circular motions to work your arm muscles while being careful of your back.
-Make a game for your children in picking up their toys.  Play the “Clean Up” song.  I didn’t like Barney when I was a preteen, but that song deserves an Emmy.

Quarantine and resisting couch potatohood can be hard, especially with limited space to workout.  With a little bit of creativity, calories can be vanquished.  If prison inmates can figure out how to exercise in their extremely restrictive environment, so can anyone self-isolating during this pandemic.