Ross Harris and Susan DeAlmeida are both friends of the church who are certified personal trainers. We reached out to them to give us some practical advice on staying healthy during COVID-19.

Exercising and Eating Healthy During COVID-19 Confinement

Our lives have changed dramatically the last few weeks. Most of us were busy with work, school, social events, and running errands. Now we’re stuck at home. Some of our normal support systems are altered or unavailable. Unfortunately, this is a perfect time for loneliness, anxiety, and depression to kick in. Or perhaps your daily exercise routine has been erased from your life, so you just feel sluggish.

We may have to work harder at it, but maintaining physical and emotional health is still possible right now. Along with Bible reading, prayer, and spending quality time with family, exercise and healthy eating will go a long way to get us through this strange time. And don’t worry if you don’t have any exercise equipment or feel intimidated by exercise routines.

Ross’s Workout Suggestions

As a NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) Certified Personal Trainer, I’ve learned that there’s so much you can do with little or no exercise equipment. Here are some suggestions for simple, at-home workouts.

Start out with 3-5 minutes of light calisthenics for warm up. Examples include power walking, light jogging (this can be done in place), lunges, lateral shuffle, jump rope or jump squats (if you’re comfortable jumping; if not, don’t worry about it), lateral lunges, or squats. Do a combination of these at an easy pace.
For each exercise, do 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions. If you really want to work your cardio, decrease the amount of rest between sets (it will keep your heart rate up). If any exercise hurts (legitimately hurts, not just hard), skip it. Here is a sample workout for someone who would consider him or herself a “beginner”:

Single leg balance. Balance on one leg for 10 seconds each leg. Place your hand against a wall if you need extra support.
Knee pushups. Place knees on ground and do pushups. Try to keep your body from your knees to your head as straight as possible.
Side lying hip abduction. Lie on your side and raise the top leg as high as manageable (keeping it as straight as you can). Do both sides. This works hip muscles and glutes.
IYTs. Lie on your stomach with your arms straight above your head and thumbs pointing toward the ceiling. Bring your arms straight up a few inches off the ground. Then, move your arms so your body creates a Y and do the same thing. Then, lower your arms to 90 degrees and bring them off the ground. Think about engaging your back muscles to raise your arms, and do 3-4 reps each way.
Glute bride. Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Push up through your heels and bring your hips up until knees, hips, and shoulders are directly in line. This primarily works glutes, but abs are involved too.
Bird dog. Start from quadruped position (hands and knees). Slowly lift one leg behind you until it is parallel with the floor. At the same time, raise the opposite arm until it is parallel with the floor. Bring both back down and do the other arm and leg. This works trunk stability.

For a cool down, do 1-3 stretches. Some good stretches are child’s pose, t-spine twist, quad pulls, and knee hugs.

(By the way- when I google an exercise or another question about workouts, I generally type in “NASM” at the end. Some sites are more reputable than others, and the National Academy of Sports Medicine is one of the best exercise science organizations. They have tons of readable blog posts and videos.)

Susan’s Workout Suggestions

As we are all not able to do what we normally do each day, including going to the gym, we have been struggling with what to do from home to keep active. If we aren’t careful, we can let events like this or other events in our lives derail our fitness goals. These can easily be done inside but getting outside maybe in the backyard to this would be a great way to get some fresh air at the same time. If you do not know what any of these exercises are you can google them, and you will get images or YouTube videos showing you how to do them.

CIRCUIT 1

Push Ups x 7

Crunches x 15

Squats x 8

Burpees x 8

Jumping Jacks x 25

Wall Sit x 1 minute

Push Ups x 7

Crunches x 15

Squats x 8

High Knees x 20

Bicycle Crunches x 15

Rest/Drink Water (1 minute)

Repeat 3 or 4 times

The next one is a little bit longer circuit workout. I suggest completing a full circuit 2 times.

CIRCUIT 2

Jumping Jacks x 40

Squats x 25

Push Ups x 10

Plank for 30 seconds

Supermans x 15

High Knees x 40

Speed Skaters x 20

Rest/Drink Water (1 minute)

Tricep Dips x 20

Sit Ups x 30

Hip Bridges x 15

Mountain Climbers x 30

Rest/Drink Water (1 minute)

Side Lunges x 20

Push Ups x 15

Plank for 30 seconds

Supermans x 15

Burpees x 10

Rest/Drink Water (1 minute)

Lunges x 20 (10 each side)

Arm Circles x 25

Leg Raises x 15

Side Planks for 20 - 30 seconds each side

Rest/Drink Water (2 minutes)

If something like the circuits above do not appeal to you there is always the option of taking a brisk walk. If you have thought about getting into running, this is the perfect time to start- lots of awesome couch to 5K apps that are available. If you want to keep it simple, just get out and start by running for one minute, then walk one minute. Do this for 20 minutes and build on it from there.

Ross’s Notes On Cooking and Eating Healthy

Most of us have more time than usual on our hands. A good use of that time is cooking (if you aren’t already). When we’re super busy, it’s easy to get in a habit of eating frozen dinners and take out. Why not use this time to get in a habit of cooking healthy foods? Most stores still have plenty of fresh produce, since the frozen foods have often been taken. Plus, you may be able to recruit your kids to help (which gives them a healthy use of time and gives them an opportunity to learn this important life skill).

There are countless sites, apps, and books with relatively easy, healthy recipes. I get many of my recipe ideas from Pinterest. Try and branch out during this time- pick up some fruits and vegetables that you don’t normally eat. Get a rainbow of colors of fruits and vegetables. And don’t be intimidated by produce we normally eat pre-cut (like pineapples and mangos). Find a Youtube video on how to cut them. Pineapples and mangos are so much better when you cut them up yourself!

Stay Healthy!

If you haven’t cooked or exercised much, realize that it takes some time to get good at it (like anything). But it’s so rewarding to make your own meals. They can be very creative activities that benefit your physical and mental health for your whole family.

Stay healthy out there- however long we’re confined like this!