Top Tips for Staying Mentally and Physically Fit and Healthy

It is vital to keep active during lockdown for both your physical and mental health. Exercise is a well-known method to boost your mood and seeing as it is mental health awareness week, this blog post couldn’t have come at a better time! The NHS recommends that an individual does at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week which can come in a variety of forms depending on personal preferences.

Personally, exercising is one of the best ways to de-stress which is much needed currently. Before I begin I would like to point out that I am in no way a trained medical or fitness professional and this is just what works for me.

1. Know why you want to exercise

This may be an odd thing to say but currently I feel there is a lot of pressure to exercise during lockdown – I mean you only have to look on the news and see people running marathons on their balconies or go onto Instagram and see ‘influencers’ posting their work out routines. It is essential that you are exercising because you want to do it so you feel better. I just take every day as it comes and if I feel like going for a run, then I do and if I don’t feel like going for a run, then I don’t.

2. Plan your time

It can be very easy to say that you are too busy to exercise but if you allocate even just 20 minutes of your day you are likely to reap the benefits all day long. I always plan my day in the morning and write it out, for me if I have scheduled in some form of exercise then I am more likely to do it!

3. Get outdoors (if possible)

For me, if I don’t get outside during the day then I lose the plot and my family can vouch for this. I like to take a little walk or run in the morning before I settle down to do work as I feel like it sets me up for the day and I feel more motivated with my work.

4. Find what you like

Everyone is different with what form of exercise they like to do and it can take a little while for you to find your favourite. I cannot recommend enough searching the internet as there are thousands of free fitness videos and programmes out there.

I am loving Joe Wicks at the minute (The man deserves an OBE!) especially his 20 minute videos as they are great to do when you are feeling a bit sluggish and for me they pick me right up. Also, Sport Sheffield have been amazing at putting up full-length class videos on their Facebook page as well as linking their instructors private pages so I would definitely recommend checking them out. I think going for walks in your local area is a great way to get you moving and I am sure you will discover routes and places that you never knew were there.

Joe Wicks’ YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

Sport Sheffield Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SportSheffield/

A great website for finding walks - https://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/find-walks-by-me.php

5. Couch to 5k

I am sure that you will have heard of this before but for those who haven’t it is a free app which is training plan to run a 5k, ideal for someone who has never run before to get them up to running for 30 minutes straight. I am going to admit that before lockdown I was not a fan of running but since following this plan all the way through I can now run a 5km (not particularly quickly though!). This is suitable for all abilities as you will start off running for 30 seconds and before you know it you will be running for 30 minutes. I cannot recommend this enough.

Couch to 5k - https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/couch-to-5k-week-by-week/

6. Exercise with others

This could be with the people in your household or virtually with friends. Exercising with others allows you to push yourself more and get more out of the workout. I have been enjoying going for runs with my family, although they are all quicker than me! I have found that going for walks with my family allows us to spend quality time with each other that we wouldn’t normally have so it is contributing to my physical health and mental wellbeing.

7. Exercise through cleaning

It might sound unbelievable but doing household chores burns quite a few calories plus your house will be sparkling clean. Apparently, cleaning the windows can burn 150 calories in 30 minutes! I would recommend putting on some music and turning it up loud, in order to make cleaning a little bit more fun. So, what could be better than killing two bird with one stone!

8. Take some rest days

You don’t want to burn out so it essential that you take a day off to allow your body to recover. Personally, I like to exercise 5 days a week and vary which days I take off each week. You just have to listen to your body and work out what works best for you.

9. Stay safe

As much as we would all love to go back to our normal routines, that currently isn’t possible so when exercising it is essential to maintain social distancing protocols. As you are now allowed to exercise with another individual in England, it is vital to ensure that you are staying safe. Reports suggest when running you should try to maintain a 10m distance from your running partner and this is increased to 20m when cycling due to aerosol spread.

10. The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen

This one is pretty self-explanatory!

I hope this has helped some of you and I hope you are all staying happy, healthy and safe!

Please remember that this is just what works for me and that everyone is different.

Lois x