Why You Should Keep Exercising + 6 Fun Ways to do Cardio Inside
‘To work out or not to work out?’ Your mind asks you.
The Coronavirus Pandemic has made it even harder to motivate yourself to work out, as all gyms are closed.
While this is true, there are exercises that can be done at home that’ll help you stay in shape and take advantage of other health benefits from exercise.
This article will discuss the importance of exercise during this pandemic, some weight loss basics, and 6 ideas for cardio workouts you can do with little or no equipment.
Why is Exercise Especially Important Now
Doing 20-30 minutes of moderately intense exercise 3 times a week can really help during this pandemic. Here is why:
Mental Health Benefits
The pandemic has forced people to quarantine, and quarantining has some documented negative mental health effects.
Luckily, studies find that exercise is effective at improving mental health and especially good at fighting depression. In fact, studies show that the mental health benefits of exercise occur even when you walk for as little as 30 minutes a day, three times a week.
Immune System Benefits
One of the best things you can do during this Pandemic is to make sure your immune system is at it’s best.
Exercise is proven to support your immunity. Experts say that even the most intense exercise will not weaken your immune.
It appears that regular exercise helps keep the immune system strong, and even single bouts of exercise may help your immune system. Some evidence shows that 20-30 minute bouts of moderate-intensity exercise are effective at strengthening immunity.
Additionally, regular exercise slows down the aging of the immune system, according to research.
Weight Loss Basics
In a previous article a lengthier review of how fat loss occurs was provided. This will just review the main points.
The only proven way to reduce fat in specific places, like your thighs or belly is to engage in activities that will decrease your overall body fat. Activities like exercising, eating healthy, sleeping well, reducing stress, etc. Unfortunately, these won’t remove excess belly fat overnight, or in a week, but they really do work.
Put simply, doing 100 squats every night won’t make thigh fat go away.
Here are some of the best ways to help you lose fat across your whole body:
- Exercise Consistently
- Studies show that exercising improves body composition, which means that it decreases body fat, while simultaneously increasing muscle mass.
- Eat fewer calories
- Consuming fewer calories is proven to decrease body fat. Studies show that restricting up to 500 calories a day produces significant fat-loss, especially when lowering carbohydrate intake. Beware of restricting too much though, as this may lead to many health risks.
- Get enough sleep.
- Studies show that a lack of sleep leads to significant weight gain, and especially if you sleep less than 5 hours nightly.
- Do both cardio and strength training, this is optimal for decreasing your body fat.
That was a quick recap of how fat-loss occurs. The next section will talk about some cardio exercise ideas that you can do, with little or no equipment, while social distancing.
Exercises
Go for an half hour to an hour-long walk. Start the first 5-10 minutes slow in order to warm-up and then increase your speed for the rest of the duration.
For those of you Fit bunnies: Skip-rope high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Start by skipping slow for the first 5 minutes slowly in order to warm up. Then after finishing the warm-up alternate between 15 seconds of very intense skipping, and 45 seconds of slow skipping for 10 straight minutes. Caution: HIIT training is an intermediate exercise that isn't recommended for beginners and especially for people with arthritis, heart disease or pregnancy.
Do a circuit routine: 60 seconds of jumping jacks low impact ( step out to each side instead of jumping), 60 seconds of jogging, 60 seconds of mountain climbers. Rest for a minute. Repeat this 5 - 10 times. Caution: this circuit isn’t recommended for people with arthritis, heart disease, or pregnancy.
Play tag with your kids in the backyard. Seriously, this’ll probably tire you out a lot.
Play ‘Just Dance’ on ‘Just Sweat mode’.
Go up and down your stairs 10 times in a row, increasing as you feel it is too easy. Rest for 3 minutes, then do it all over again. Caution: This exercise isn’t recommended for people with arthritis, heart disease, or pregnancy.
Have you tried any of these exercises? Do you have any extra ideas? Tell us in the comments below…
This is not medical advice; this article was created for informational purposes only. This is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Do not delay seeking medical advice or disregard it due to any content on this website or included in this post.
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