With over 2,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, more people are having to self-isolate. It is increasingly important to know how to keep fit at home and ensure your health is the best it can be.
Self-isolating can have a significant effect on mental and physical health – being stuck inside while you’re anxious and feeling detached from society is a challenge few of us will be used to. However, sticking to a fitness routine and checking sure your diet can help.
Liam Cavanagh, a personal trainer and fitness influencer, has put together guidance on how you can keep the cobwebs away while constrained to the four walls of your home.
Diet
Before we get to exercise, Liam thinks it’s “most important to start with your diet”, as no matter how many press-ups you do, if your diet consists of Walkers, Coke and Haribo you won’t maintain or improve your well-being.
Food shopping
As many people are shopping in preparation for a lockdown, it’s easy to fall in the trap of stocking up on home comforts, rather than thinking about health.
Liam says: “The number one thing to do is make sure your shops consist of healthy foods. If you have super unhealthy or high-calorie foods, you are going to be tempted to snack all the time without gaining important nutrients. Buy stuff like carrots and hummus – healthy stuff you can still snack on if you can’t keep your hands out the fridge but will be still tasty and won’t affect your calories.”
Self-isolation routine
The right foods will get you only halfway there. It is imperative to stick to a strict daily routine.
Liam says: “If we do go into lockdown or you are self-isolating, it is really important you make a routine. Set timers on your phone for when to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and your snacks – this is a great way of keeping on top of a routine. In these uncertain times it’s going to be hard to have structure to your day, but making sure you have healthy foods in your fridge and cupboard and you have structure to your eating means that most of the hard work will be done.”
Fitness
It may feel tempting to fall into a defeatist attitude and many people will stop exercising completely, but Liam has many tips and tricks to prevent that. It doesn’t matter if you are a complete newbie, someone focused on cardiovascular training or interested in muscle gain – Liam has a variety of home-training techniques.
Newbie training
If you are completely new to training, looking to exercise to help pass the time, you will be glad to hear that home training is a great place to start, whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle.
Losing weight
Liam says: “If you have no equipment, you’re not in self isolation and you’re looking to lose weight, the best thing you can do is not just focus on a 30-minute run. Working from home will mean you won’t be as active as you usually are throughout the day. I think it would be a good idea to go on a few extra 20-minute walks to make a conscious effort to not just sit down all day in your house. This is because your normal expenditure of energy – things like standing, walking and carrying – contributes a lot more and makes the difference when trying to be in a calorie deficit.
“If you are self-isolated, I would recommend that you incorporate climbing stairs into your routine, as well as making sure you are more active around the house.”
Gaining muscle
“It is going to have to be body weight movements if you don’t have any equipment, but the good news is that newbies will be able to progressively overload,” Liam says. “I would recommend just starting with basic exercises like press ups on your knees, tricep dips off the side of your bed, squats and crunches for your abs. Focusing on these sorts of exercises is going to increase your strength and muscle size and will prepare you for adding weight in the gym when the virus passes.”
Advanced workouts for experienced trainers
It is going to be a bit more difficult for advanced trainers, but certainly not impossible. Liam explains ways in which you can increase intensity, resistance and time-under-tension with or without basic equipment.
Without equipment: “What I have explained before might not be challenging for experienced gym-goers. What I would recommend is reducing the amount of resting time and there are many ways you can do this. Instead of doing normal squats, why not do pulse squats where you pause at the bottom of your rep for a couple of seconds. You can also do one 1 ¼ reps on exercises like push ups, squats and tricep dips that increase resistance and time-under-tension. It’s about being creative with the way you do your home workouts so you can progressively overload.”
With equipment: “With equipment you are going to find it much easier to gain muscle as you can add more resistance to your training. If you have a bench, dumbbells and a resistance band, you can work out your whole body in many ways and there is no shortage of exercises. If you have this equipment, or are looking to buy some stuff, I recommend following my Instagram page. There are plenty of examples of different exercises you can do, and I can also teach you how to keep the correct form and tempo. You can also ask me questions and I will be happy to help.”
If you would like examples of all of these exercises in action, or you would like more information on exercise and nutrition, visit Liam’s Instagram and YouTube.
