Getting Exercise at Home

The health benefits of exercise are well-known: working out regularly has been shown to improve mood, reduce the risk of heart disease, manage blood sugar, strengthen muscles, improve sleep, and more. Simple activities such as walking in a park, visiting a local pool, or going to the gym for an hour are generally easy ways to work exercise into your daily routine—but in a global pandemic, it suddenly becomes much harder (if not impossible) to do so. However, despite social-distancing measures, it is still important to engage in physical activity every day—and, with a little adaptation, it is certainly possible to have a quality workout from the comfort of your own home.

Classes taught by fitness trainers and ranging from yoga to dance cardio can easily be found on YouTube. Apps such as 30 Day Fitness (iOS) and Daily Workout Fitness Trainer (iOS / Google Play) provide daily workouts that can be completed with little or no equipment. Some gyms have even started offering online regimens that closely mirror their typical in-person offerings: for example, Orangetheory Fitness, an exercise studio specializing in High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), has been posting a series workouts on their website every day since quarantine started.

However, young children, and even adults, may enjoy play-based activities more than structured workouts—but finding such classes in the current climate can be difficult, especially for essential workers who have limited time on their hands outside of their demanding work schedule. MD COVIDSitters (MDCS), a volunteer organization based in the DMV area, meets this need by providing free classes in Zumba, yoga, dance, and even music and art to families of essential workers during the pandemic! Most volunteers associated with MDCS are aspiring healthcare professionals and CPR-certified, and all are required to pass a background check and childcare program developed by the Minnesota Department of Health before starting, making them an incredibly safe and reliable organization. Along with online classes for the whole family, MDCS provides childcare, tutoring, pet-sitting, and errand services at any time of day and completely free of charge. 

Learn more about MD COVIDsitters and sign up for their services here.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.htm