Your workouts have changed drastically due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. The festive season is here too and working out is a good way to balance all the heavy food and drinks you are bound to consume this season.

Ritu Agarwal, CEO Rush Sourced by correspondent

While gyms have opened up, there is a lot that the lockdown has taught us with keeping fit without the frills of equipment and workout. The good part is, working out at home is no longer impossible and in fact has motivated people to stay fit indoors in innovative ways. It is about burning off those calories, being fit and eating right, all within the confines of your home. What if you are an outdoor person? How did outdoor fitness buffs keep fit? We’ll take a look at what it was and what fitness during Covid times have evolved into keeping in mind social distancing norms.

Virtual marathons are promoting indoor running Shutterstock

Virtual marathons started with indoor running being promoted, where people ran within the confines of their homes or terraces and some went on to complete a half marathon and a full marathon too. Runners got e-certificates, which was a big morale booster and showed the world that impossible is nothing. With the lockdown being lifted, things changed and large gatherings, which includes holding marathons across the country, is on hold for some time, virtual running has meant runners can run in whichever part of the world they are in, at whatever time and on whatever road they wish to. The data is synced with the organiser’s system or uploaded later. Hence, running solo and yet together, is a concept that has picked up.

Virtual Cycling

Cycling is a great cardio exercise to burn calories Shutterstock

Does this seem strange? It actually is not. There were and still are cycling challenges that you can opt for. If you have an indoor exercise bike or an outdoor bike which you can also use indoors as a stationary bike, you can cycle miles without having to go anywhere and avoid a crowd too. Post the lockdown, many people across the country have taken to cycling as a way to stay fit and cycles are actually out of stock from time to time. Cycling is a great cardio exercise to burn calories, use your time to cycle around with your family and friends and yet maintain social distancing while on the saddle. While work from home is the norm for most organisations, who knows, once offices resume, Calcutta might just become the next Bangalore with people cycling to their workplaces.

Strength Training Home Workouts

Strength training can be done at home Shutterstock

Strength training is not just about walking into the gym and pumping iron. Welcome to the concept of lifting weights at home, online group classes and personal training and workout videos. Take your pick, get innovative. My suggestion is that many have adapted from the gym to home workout concept and with gyms encouraging their trainers to conduct online personal training and virtual group classes. Make the most of it. You don’t need heavy weights, light weights and more repetitions per exercise or even using resistance bands are a great way to challenge your body and build muscles. Push-ups, bench dips, squats, lunges and crunches are some exercises to build muscular and core strength. Of course it all depends on the exercise chart and how you are spacing out the exercises as part of workouts. Personal trainers are making the most of online training and yet trying to be connected with their clients, who, in turn, trust that virtual training will still yield results.

High-intensity Interval Training

HIIT helps to burn fat in the body within a short span of time Shutterstock

High-intensity interval training or HIIT is a high-impact cardio workout that helps to burn fat in the body within a short span of time. This could be within 20-40 minutes. It is a mix of exercises similar to strength training but done in quick succession with barely no time in between two exercises until you complete a set. The focus is on testing your mental strength and eventually being able to pack in more within less time. Tabata is also a similar workout, but with a fixed set of exercises with a few seconds rest time between two exercises. How do these forms of workouts help when done within the confines of your home or outdoors in the garden? It helps to build up the lactic acid threshold, which means that your body will get fatigued after one point and you will be forced to stop. Having higher lactate threshold means an athlete can continue at a high-intensity effort with a longer time to exhaustion.

Boot camps

Heard the term before? Wonder what this is now? Boot camps are nothing but strength training or even HIIT workouts done outdoors usually in a group. How does this help? As winters are almost here in most parts of the country and the weather in Calcutta too gets better, working out outdoors in natural environment helps to push the body in an outdoor environment, on often uneven ground and without the comfort of the four walls of a room or the air conditioner switched on. It could be fun and maybe you would want to try it out as this breaks the monotony of working out indoors. It could also include flipping a tyre, doing hurdles, rope climbing and short sprints. In these pandemic times, work out in small groups, maintain social distancing as wearing a mask while doing moderate- to high-impact exercises is not the best thing to do. Wear your mask after you are done with the workouts.

Dancing and Zumba

Virtual dance classes can be fun Shutterstock

Dancing is fun, it’s got that sense of vibrancy and one of my favourite workout routines when I want to break the monotony of intense workouts. I love to do this outdoors. All you need is some good music, decent weather and dance your way to practising some intense moves. Got something more specific in mind? Try out Zumba or bhangra workout. It’s a great aerobic exercise and this one is for ladies and gentlemen who want to pack in a workout with a difference. Want to try this one out but not sure what kind of dance moves to start with? Go on for online videos or even classes. Gyms which offer Zumba have online classes or you can just sign up for one. Work out with others virtually within the confines of your house or outdoors.

Yoga

Yoga is a great fitness option Shutterstock

This one is a winner for those who want something more relaxed. Why stress? Take up yoga outdoors as winters beckon. This would also mean that you can do asanas in your own time, amidst nature and it is a great way to start the day. End with pranayama and meditation. Breathing exercises help to improve your lung capacity and during Covid times, pranayama could save the day. Meditation to relax the mind amidst uncertainties of the pandemic help make yoga an overall great fitness option. If yoga is something you have not done and want to try out, online classes do help with instructors guiding you with asanas and you have others performing asanas with you too.

Gymming

I know people who just cannot seem to work out at home. It is either lack of motivation or heavyweight gym buffs who want to step into the gym to pack in a workout. Which is why they are the happiest that gyms have opened up. Sanitisation measures are top-most priority for us as gym owners and customers trust that we ensure adequate hygiene measures. Walking into the gym amidst social distancing gives gym goers the comfort of working out in a safe environment. There are time slots which can be booked in advance and this is great for gym goers who want to finish off their work from home before hitting the gym when it is not crowded. Sweat it out at the gym, if that is what keeps you motivated.

Home is where fitness goals begin

A quick look at how food habits too have changed during and post lockdown. Eating out has become less and so has ordering in and home food is the winner. Building immunity is the key and that means drinking immunity boosters like the kada which is a mix of various spices boiled in water, or have kaccha haldi and neem leaves.
Dal-chawal is also a favourite and don’t forget a hint of ghee. The key is to stay fit, build immunity. It is about minimalistic yet being fit.

Get going Calcutta! What are you waiting for? Get fit, work out indoors or better still, step out for a brisk walk, running or cycling and be in great shape during the festive season. You would not want to miss out on the mithai and yet watch your weight too. It’s fitness to the rescue.