We’re delighted to welcome this month’s guest blogger, Mark Gallagher. Mark runs Heathhall health and fitness gym Synergy Performance. But Synergy isn’t your average gym. Mark’s aim is to help people, educate them and to ensure they have fun achieving and maintaining long term health and fitness.
Here are Mark’s top 5 tips for staying on top of your health and fitness while at home during lockdown.
The world has changed and we need to as well. Don’t get me wrong, everyone’s situation is different but one thing that will be true for all of us whether we are working from home, still having to work or not able to work at all is that our ‘Normal’ day to day lives have changed.
Often in helping people with their health, fitness and nutrition I talk about being adaptable and flexible. This allows us to mould our habits and routines into whatever scenarios we are presented with.
Therefore, with that in mind, here are my Top 5 tips for staying on top of your health and fitness during lockdown while practising social distancing and staying at home where possible.
1 – Make a schedule
It has to start here. Making a schedule for the following day allows you to plan forward and put the things that YOU want to do in and not let the day take over and before you know it you haven’t got done anythin
2 – Eat Normally
Don’t use this as an excuse to eat poorly and make bad choices. You aren’t on holiday and this lasted longer than a two week all inclusive. Use the extra time if you have it to cook more and try different things. Ultimately, this is a time to improve on your nutrition, not make it worse.
3 – Exercise
In your schedule, plan in 30 minutes of structured exercise. That’s all it needs to be. Keep moving for the 30 minutes, get your heart rate up, get warm and work hard. This doesn’t have to be everyday, 3-5 times per week is sufficient. Find something you enjoy doing and go from there. Resistance exercise, running etc.
4 – Get outside
This should be separate from your daily 30 minute exercise. Get outside in the fresh air and walk. 30-60 minutes will be more than enough. We could potentially be sitting a lot more if we are at home in isolation so take the chance to get outside while we still have it.
5 – Take a break
This can all be a bit overwhelming and stressful so please ensure you take a break from social media, the news and even the people in your own house if you have to. Just to mentally recharge for a little bit. You could even use activities such as reading, playing board games, walking as previously mentioned or cooking with your favourite music on to disconnect for a bit.
Stay Home, Stay Safe!
Mark, Synergy Performance
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