Words by Ben Lombard, Physiotherapist
Covid-19 and self-isolation… it’s all anyone can talk about. It is of course a strange time, where you might experience moments of worry, loneliness or boredom through a lack of routine.
However, isolation also presents an opportunity to develop some invaluable wellness goals that you may not have otherwise had time to.
Whether you want to become more supple, less imbalanced or full-blown Quaran-TONED, these tips will inspire you to keep moving!
1: Develop a movement routine
This doesn’t have to be anything fancy - it could be as simple as a walk, a jog, some stretching, or even following your favourite Instagram influencer or YouTuber through a follow-along fitness routine.
I would recommend getting in 15-30 minute bouts of such exercises in 2-3 per day during isolation. This may seem excessive, but for those of you with fitness trackers on... I dare you to look at the number of steps completed this week... Horrifying!
2. Set up your home office properly
If working from home is your situation for any length of time, you need to take the workplace mentality seriously. Take pride in your desk set up and ensure that it meets your ergonomic requirements. Sit at a table, on a proper chair, set up your screen height to eye level.
Days, weeks, possibly months of hunching over your screen, slouching on your sofa or working from your bed will be detrimental in the long-term!
3: Invest in yourself
See the silver lining amongst all of this. You will now have a prolonged period of time to really put some time and effort into self-improvement. Time for reflection, to identify areas of weakness. Time to try new things and practice mindfulness and meditation. There are many great apps and online classes out there for you to get stuck into.
4: Take this time to Recover
With all this time on our hands, now is the perfect time to deal with any existing injuries and niggles. Reach out to your physio and get these issues addressed with a video consultation. Issues can easily be diagnosed, exercises prescribed, progressed and tweaked in this way.
5: Avoid prolonged periods of sitting
This goes back to tip number one, but is something that must be stressed! Some good ideas to encourage more movement is to charge your phone on the other side of the room so you have to get up, using only a small glass for your drink so that you need to refill it regularly and swapping your chair for a gym ball every few hours if you have one.
6: Work on Injury Prevention
Reach out to your physio or PT and get a personalised home-based exercise plan, to work on your specific weaknesses. Exercises to improve spinal and tissue flexibility, to reduce muscle imbalance, and to work on overall strength will ensure that by the time this isolation subsides, you will be fully ready to roll.
Hit me up!
I am helping my existing clients with online video services for physiotherapy consultations, as well as a video service designed to help with home-office optimisation, both with injury prevention exercises! For those concerned about elderly family members I am also offering easy to follow exercise demonstrations, designed to get you and your loved ones moving.
Stay clean, stay safe, stay healthy!
