Moderate-intensity activities make you breathe as hard as you would on a brisk walk. Vigorous-intensity activities use larger muscle groups and cause your heart to beat faster, causing you to breathe harder and sweat out of your body.
Even a small amount of activity can be good for your health and is safe for most people. In addition to helping prevent some health problems, being physically active can be beneficial for your sleeping patterns, as well as your mood and energy level. It is important to limit sedentary behaviours, such as sitting still watching television or engaging in other activities centred on a screen (PC, mobile phones, etc.).
If You Are Doing Your Work Or School Studies From Home:
- Stand or walk while reading and responding to messages on your PC or phone.
- During team conference calls, stand up and walk, or while sitting raise your legs, bend your knees while stretching and loosening your toes. Keep a small weight within reach to exercise your arms. Do push-ups while standing against a wall.
- Take short walks during your lunch break, or instead of your coffee breaks.
- Set your PC or phone to remind you to take time out for physical activity. For example, every hour take a couple of minutes to walk or stand.
Other Ideas To Get Going:
- Take a walk if the day allows, or walk around the house if you can’t get out. Walk fast enough to accelerate your heart and make your body begin to sweat.
- Go up and down the stairs. Do it every other step, so your legs get more exercise.
- Turn on the radio and dance at home, and be it by yourself or with someone else.
- If you don’t have stairs or enough space, you can do coordinated jumps or march without having to move.
- Use hand weights or use heavy objects (like a can of soup) if you’re just starting out, or a gallon of water if you’ve been working out longer. Do push-ups so that your hands are level with your shoulders. Do repetitions 10 to 12 times or up to the number of repetitions possible if you cannot do as many.
- Do squats when you are arranging the closet or when you are playing with your children.
- If using social media and internet search resources, look for live-streamed workouts or physical activity challenges that you can participate in.
Do Activities While Watching TV:
- Stand up while folding the laundry you just removed from the dryer.
- Do some simple exercises like coordinated jumping or walking without moving, or stretching that you can do while you are watching the screen.
- Set a new rule: Don’t sit still while the commercials are on.
Take advantage of household activities for physical activity:
- When vacuuming or mopping, do it quickly and vigorously enough to get your heart racing.
- Do you have young children at home? Playing with them can burn you around 200 calories per hour.
- Gardening activities can also be ways to burn calories and strengthen the muscles in your arms, legs, and back. Mowing the lawn and sweeping leaves from trees, among other similar activities, can be effective ways to exercise.
- Take advantage of the time it takes to stay home to do the tasks you were putting off. Cleaning and rearranging your garage, basement, or attic are other productive ways to exercise.
Eat Healthy At Home.
Eating healthy foods at home helps reduce the amount of fat, sodium, and sugar in your diet – and it helps you save too! If you are working from home and therefore eating away from homeless often, take this opportunity to try healthier food recipes.
These Tips Can Help:
- If you can’t resist the temptation, opt for healthy snacks, such as whole fruits or nutty mix.
- If your children are not in school, which are not in school, encourage them to prepare meals with you. Preschoolers can help you reach for ingredients and bring them to you from the refrigerator or pantry; older children can use their math skills to measure ingredients, while tweens and older can help by taking a more participatory role in finding and preparing recipes.
- If you are considering calling a food delivery service, call to ask if you can view the menu online for the healthiest options.