Five Ways to Stay Fit During Lockdown

The running joke is that we’re all going to emerge from lockdown and self-isolation a good 10 kg heavier (and quite potentially alcoholics too). But with the amount of work there is to do around the house and the number and variety of online dance, yoga, aerobic, and fitness classes – many of which are currently being offered for free – there’s absolutely no reason why the only exercise you get during this period is opening a jar of pickles. You can emerge from your chrysalis a ripped warrior or Amazon! Here are five ways you can stay fit during lockdown….

Get ripped with a YouTube fitness video

Just type “fitness classes” into YouTube’s search bar and you’ll be staggered by the incredible number there are on offer. Most are “sneak peak” clips by beefy dudes and ropey-muscled women showing you the various exercises you can do to look as half-starved as them with the goal of directing you to their websites to pay for their full packages. But if you know where to look, there are reams and reams of free fitness videos ranging in length from 15 minutes to a full hour, which you can perform in your bedroom, garage, living room floor, or even garden. The best way to avoid getting laughed at by family members is to force them to do it with you (try laughing when you have sweat pouring in to your eyes.)

Here are some great videos to try:

• Beginner Step Aerobics Fitness Cardio, Jenny Ford (30 minutes)
• High Intensity Step Cardio Class (60 minutes)
• 15-Minute Beginner's At-Home Cardio Workout
• Aerobics workout exercise | aerobics class for beginner | cardio workout | 2018 (20 minutes)
• 45 minute Aerobics Class - 01 for the Beginner HD

Learn to salsa/hip-hop/highlands dance with an online dance class

Dazzle your friends and family the next time you hit the dance floor with the sexy, sultry moves you learned during isolation, courtesy of classes offered by online schools and YouTube tutorials. Just about every form of dance is covered, from hip-hop and Highland dancing to Bollywood and ballet. You can become proficient in one or explore them all!

Ailey Extension: is a great place to start for instruction in hip-hop, Zumba, West African dance, and more. Ailey also offers free daily online classes (in real time) so check out the website for the schedule. 305 Fitness: is another one to try, offering dance cardio fitness classes that feel like 80s-style aerobic workouts. Then, there are scores of YouTube tutorials to explore (again, get the family involved!)

• 15-Minute Bounce-Back Cardio Dance Workout
• 30-Minute Cardio Latin Dance Workout
• Contemporary Dance Class I Warmup & Choreography (40 minutes)
• Home Workout: 20 minute Zumba Class
• Beginners Dance Tutorial, Afrobeats (15 minutes)

Roll up those sleeves and do a little gardening

Now’s the perfect time to purge the garden of all its refuse (dead leaves, twigs, weeds, etc.), clip back the vegetation, and get it looking clean and beautiful right in time for autumn to dump its leaves all over the yard again. Never mind that: gardening is great whole-body exercise dosed with nature, fresh air, and sunshine, all of which are in painfully short supply at the moment.

If you don’t have a garden, redirect that energy towards whatever outdoor space you have, be it a balcony, patio, or paved yard – give it a clean and decorate it by stringing up fairy lights and lanterns or adding some potted plants. If you don’t have an outdoor space at all, turn your windowsills into mini-jungles or herbariums with potted plants that like the shade.

Spring clean your home

Another whole-body exercise – and one with the fabulous by-product of a sparkling home – is spring-cleaning. You’ve finally got the time for it, now to get to it with gusto! Leave no carpet un-vacuumed-under, no drawer disinterred and sorted through, and no cupboard undusted (in those hard-to-reach places). Start at one end of the home and wipe, dust, disinfect, and vacuum, your way to the other. Put the curtains in the wash, scrub the hall carpets, wipe down the walls, and turn the mattresses…and do it all to your favourite tunes.

Also consider sorting through your home’s contents and your wardrobe’s clothing, throwing out or donating the items you’ve been saving for those “just-in-case” occasions, which, 12 years later, are yet to arise. In the immortal words of Marie Kondo: “If it doesn’t serve purpose or bring you pleasure, get rid of it.”

Restore your zen, balance, and inner peace with an online yoga class

No matter how safely stowed away your family is at present, what’s going on in the world is tremendously worrying, causing much stress and anxiety. Thank goodness for yoga! Yoga is one of those fabulous fitness forms that you can do absolutely anywhere: all you need is a mat to lie on and the right instruction (and if you’ve done that spring cleaning we just recommended, you don’t even need the mat). Once again, YouTube comes to the rescue with virtually bottomless coffers of instructional video tutorials. Here are some of the better ones we can recommend:

• Yoga Works is offering free live online classes with Steven Heyman, who invites the public to join in various yoga practices that are inclusive, fun, and accessible.
• Yoga with Adriene for mindful yoga practice to assist you in bringing energy to the body and peace of presence to your mind.
• 20 Minute Everyday Vinyasa Flow Yoga Class
• Yoga for Weight Loss: Complete beginners fat burning workout at home