Many per­sons across the coun­try and around the world are re­quired to stay at home in an at­tempt to curb the spread of this high­ly in­fec­tious dis­ease, COVID-19. The or­der of life has def­i­nite­ly changed, in­clud­ing our var­i­ous lifestyle adap­ta­tions to in­clude ex­er­cise and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty en­gage­ment. How­ev­er, stay­ing home may en­cour­age seden­tary be­hav­iour (ly­ing down all day, sit­ting all day, etc.), anx­i­ety, de­pres­sion, and phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty which in and of it­self is a huge pub­lic health cri­sis and lead­ing risk fac­tor for death.

En­cour­ag­ing per­sons and fam­i­lies to stay phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive while at home is of sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic health im­por­tance. Many of us par­tic­i­pate in ex­er­cise for var­i­ous rea­sons to in­clude im­prov­ing or op­ti­miz­ing health, im­prov­ing sports per­for­mance, main­tain­ing fit­ness or im­prov­ing our physiques. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the gyms, fit­ness cen­tres, sports clubs and some parks are closed, and maybe your ex­er­cise part­ners are stay­ing home in an at­tempt to main­tain so­cial dis­tanc­ing.

Im­por­tance of Ex­er­cise Dur­ing Quar­an­tine/So­cial Dis­tanc­ing

The good news is you can re­main phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive while at home, and this is im­por­tant. Per­sons with chron­ic dis­eases such as di­a­betes, hy­per­ten­sion, heart dis­ease etc. are a high risk group as it re­lates to COVID-19,and if these per­sons stay at home and prac­tice seden­tary be­hav­iours this will in­crease their risk of wors­en­ing their health, so it is im­por­tant they find ways to re­main phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive at home.

When ex­er­cis­es are per­formed at mod­er­ate-in­ten­si­ty this helps to boost your im­mune sys­tem, and more im­mune strength­en­ing ben­e­fits are gained if ex­er­cise is com­bined with some morn­ing sun­light (to gain vi­t­a­min D) in fresh air, fol­lowed by the con­sump­tion of wa­ter and fresh fruits. How­ev­er, if you are not ac­cus­tomed to ex­er­cis­es at high in­ten­si­ty, this may sup­press your im­mune func­tion for a short while. Ex­er­cise dur­ing this time al­so helps us to re­duce feel­ings of anx­i­ety and stress.

“Quaran-Train­ing”

(Ex­er­cis­ing at Home) Even though you are home, every­one is still en­cour­aged to gain at least 30 min­utes of mod­er­ate in­ten­si­ty phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty or ex­er­cise dai­ly. Ex­er­cis­es can be aer­o­bic in na­ture, in­volve mus­cle strength­en­ing and stretch­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. Per­sons who are un­sure about how much phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty is need­ed for per­sons in their home, whether chil­dren or the el­der­ly or per­sons with chron­ic con­di­tions, you can con­tact a health pro­fes­sion­al es­pe­cial­ly a phys­io­ther­a­pist for ad­vice.

Ex­am­ples of Aer­o­bic Ac­tiv­i­ties: In­side: Put on your favourite mu­sic walk around the house or climb the stairs 10-15 min­utes, 2-3 times for the day, danc­ing, jump rope (if you are ac­cus­tomed), do an ex­er­cise video, use your home car­dio ma­chines (dust them off please), be cre­ative do a Zoom meet­ing with your friends and have a 30 minute ex­er­cise ses­sion prob­a­bly could ask your fit­ness train­er to in­struct.

Out­side: Walk or jog around the com­mu­ni­ty/neigh­bour­hood (main­tain 2 me­tres or 6 feet from oth­ers), spend time in na­ture (im­mune en­hanc­ing), bi­cy­cle rid­ing, home gar­den­ing, walk­ing to near­by stores and fun ac­tive games with the fam­i­ly.

Strength Train­ing Ac­tiv­i­ties: Down­load work­out apps, watch videos done by cer­ti­fied fit­ness coach­es, yo­ga (deep breath­ing and mind­ful­ness are good for re­duc­ing stress and anx­i­ety). Oth­er ex­er­cis­es that can be done at home: squats, sit to stands, wall/counter-top/floor push-ups, lunges, step ups and car­ry­ing gro­cery bags.

Pre­cau­tions & Con­cerns COVID-19 Symp­toms

If you are un­der quar­an­tine and in­fect­ed but no symp­toms, you can con­tin­ue mod­er­ate in­ten­si­ty ex­er­cise and con­tin­ue to ad­here to hy­gien­ic prac­tices and so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines. If you de­vel­op symp­toms i.e. fever, cough and/or short­ness of breath then STOP EX­ER­CIS­ING, con­tact your health care provider and fol­low the Min­istry of Health pro­to­cols/guide­lines.

Short­ness of Breath - If you are home and start to ex­pe­ri­ence short­ness of breath, this could be as a re­sult of COVID-19 or oth­er res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­ness­es or maybe anx­i­ety, if this is your on­ly symp­tom then con­tact a phys­i­cal ther­a­pists who is trained in car­diopul­monary man­age­ment who can ed­u­cate and in­struct you on var­i­ous breath­ing ex­er­cis­es and po­si­tions that can help you to al­le­vi­ate the short­ness of breath.

Fever & Ex­er­cise - please do NOT at­tempt to ex­er­cise to “sweat out” a fever. Febrile Ill­ness­es de­crease mus­cle strength and en­durance and in­crease fa­tigue. Ex­er­cis­ing with an in­fec­tious ill­ness while dis­play­ing symp­toms such as fever, may in­crease the risk of my­ocardi­tis (in­flam­ma­tion of the heart mus­cles), which can be mild or life threat­en­ing.

Be Safe and Keep Ac­tive!