Exercise is super important for our overall mental health and longevity, especially as we work through the pandemic and life after the pandemic, in our health and wellness. Find a way that brings you joy and moving that might be riding a bike that might be working out at home or going for a walk, playing with the kids something like that.
The pandemic has certainly taken a huge toll on the health and wellness of not only those directly affected by the virus, but those trying to stay safe from it by changing their lifestyle. Maintaining physical fitness is always a challenge. But even more so when we are mostly staying inside and away from other people. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today, we talk about ways that you can work on your physical fitness without going to the gym. And for those who have been waiting for a safe way to get back to a workout facility, some things that you should consider if you've had a layoff.
My name is Leah Sanders. At heartland, I oversee facilities and really work with the external clients that want to use our spaces, and host events and meetings and things like that. My background is an exercise and its application on the body. And that truly is a passion of mine. Prior to coming to Heartland Community College, I was overseeing fitness facilities and fitness programming for six years and got a lot of experience just with utilizing different methods of working out in different programming both in the weight room and one on one with clients and things like that. And so as we talked about exercising at home, it's just another facility in a sense that we are working with,
as you mentioned your things our facilities and exercise and and over the course of the pandemic, it's been harder to get out to a facility to get out to a fitness center, a gym, even the some of the the regular places you might go to work out. And that can make things a little bit difficult if you have to change your routine. I think a lot of people with exercise routine is a big part of it slowly, and that can be kind of hard to replace. So if you are somebody that is experiencing that disruption in the way that you exercise, what do you tell people to try to make sure that they're getting the type of activity that they were accustomed to, or at least they were used to doing somewhere where they could use somebody else's equipment versus at home?
Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is you're not alone in your struggle that there's a lot of people, you know, with the pandemic that have been displaced from their routines, especially their exercise routines. And so I'm what I would say is his work to create a new routine. So scheduling that just like you schedule, you know, meetings on the calendar for your work day to just schedule, the schedule your workout and make it a priority and come in with a plan. So that you can still have a space to work out and have that in your day and meet some of those objectives that you were meeting pre pandemic,
when it comes to exercise, my personal perspective is no excuse is small enough to keep me from doing it. So I don't know if other people out there are the same way. But perhaps some people are using the excuse of Well, I would normally do this much cardio in this much time because I can go to the gym and I can get on the treadmill, I don't have a treadmill at home or I can get on the elliptical machine and get this kind of workout or hit the weights this way, I don't have all that stuff at home. So they might be using it to not keep that routine, or to go a lot lighter. What would you suggest to people when it comes to the resources that you might not have.
So I think this is probably one of the biggest barriers and when it comes to exercising at home, and the amount of equipment or use of different things versus you know, what you might have at a gym. And so I would say just to be creative, whether that's like creating a specific space where maybe you have a dumbbell from the 80s or 90s still lying around home and you're using that and being creative with how you use it. Or maybe you're just using household items. At some point I imagine we all might be carrying in groceries, whether that be from the car or the front door if they are delivered to us. But that's a motion of carrying and that can be replicated. So using, you know, a bag, a backpack filled with rice or cans of soup to add some sort of resistance. And you know, maybe that's putting it on your back first squat, something like that, using your table or your chair and to modify different exercises or to add a little bit of a challenge. If you stick your leg up on a chair for a squat, you've got to split squat and then you have to work a little bit on balance instead of having both feet on the ground. If you have pets, you might have the dog food and you know maybe you go to Costco or Sam's Club and and buy the big bag and you can hoist that up on your shoulder and in use that to help replace some of the resistance work that you might do in a gym. But but at home with different resources.
The good thing about a lot of the machines that you might use, even though you do have to have proper technique, it makes it a lot easier to have proper technique when you're in the gym. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about some of the things that folks when they're looking for alternate ways to work out, maybe should be a little bit more mindful of so they're doing it the right way. So they're being mindful of how to move and how their motion works, while using those household items that you're talking about, or some of the older equipment that it's not as big of a deal or it's easier to do it the right way when you're in the workout facility.
Yeah, using odd objects definitely requires a lot more awareness to your body and what muscles are engaged. And so I would start if you're new to using odd objects to work out with start with your bodyweight, and progress slowly into hoisting the dog food up onto the shoulder and maybe up over the head or something like that. That's a progressive movement. And so starting with your bodyweight, is a really great way to bring awareness to how something feels, if you're really used to leg press, you're pressing that play away from you, or those plates away from you in the gym. But then you kind of change that exercise and at home by doing a bodyweight squat, you can feel how it feels to, you know, get those hips down to parallel with the knees, and, and push back up and engaging through that core. And keeping the center of the body really tight as you're sitting down and standing back up. And then progressing and adding maybe a backpack of weight or that dog food to make it more challenging. But bringing awareness to that body is super important to protect against injury, because you're right, using a machine is definitely different than the functional free weights and things like that.
Have you had to change your routine around during these sheltering in place measures that we've had off and on during the pandemic? And what were the things that you had to adjust yourself?
Yeah, so when the pandemic hit, I don't think I worked out for the first two week, year and a half or whatever the first bit of it, simply because I was so thrown off by the change and everything that internally I had to adapt to creating a space at home. And so I did that I created a space in my garage, and I had have still have limited equipment. But I was able to still create short and effective workouts that got me moving throughout the day. As a fitness instructor, I had some equipment that and and other resources for like programming that I was able to kind of incorporate and do at home. But I was used to teaching fitness classes and going to the gym because I worked inside of a facility. And then now you know forced me to work out at home and change that. How else is my workout changed, I think just the variety of equipment that I would use, I have a background in functional training more. So CrossFit type, as well as more of that bodybuilding style, split routine workouts. I found myself definitely in the camp of functional fitness and CrossFit style workouts at home, because it was easy to run a block and come back and do squats, and then run another block and then come back and do push ups rather than having the resources to do bicep curls and tricep extensions and chest press and all those things. Um, that would come with with that type of split workout. So I found my style of workout changing. I also worked out with a lot of people. I was in group fitness classes, as well as just had that community of people at the gym. And that was a big change for me. And so I sought to just kind of connect over zoom or even just posting things on social media, texting with friends about different things that we were doing to stay active to kind of stay motivated. At one point during the shutdown, the first shutdown, I did 500 burpees for takeout. And so got together with a bunch of people from my gym and well virtually connected with a bunch of people from the gym and did 500 burpees and then ordered takeout to support the local economy and things like that. So just finding different ways to move. I got really into just walking and taking different laps and routes around the neighborhood to break up my day.
Well a big part of exercise. The additional benefit other than the motion and the physicality and the cardio is that it does create a lot of benefits to stress relief. due to having something that can provide a break up in your day, and one of the things that seems to be affecting everybody, just the entire change in our environment, because of the continuing nature of this persistence of the pandemic, is it's it has a mental toll on a lot of people. So there could be some folks that maybe didn't go to workout, but they're at home a lot more anyway. And they're even maybe less active, because the encouragement is stay home, don't do stuff. And even those additional walks out to places that you might be visiting, do you have a benefit to you walking up and down the stairs at work that you might not be going to work or other places? So do you have any suggestions for folks just to start to get in any kind of additional active routine, using things at home or thinking about how they want to exercise more at home, to make be take that first step to restoring their overall health, but in particular, maybe the benefits of mental health?
Yeah, there is countless benefits to just our mental health and exercise. And so the first thing I would say is, is just to keep it simple. And that can be a walk around the block around the yard, or you know, whatever your, you know, your space looks like. But it can start super simple. And that is totally appropriate. I would also say, you know, look to create some type sort of routine. So for me, it looks like going out when the sun is out, because the sun is encouraging to me, and it like makes me smile. And so I want to be out when the sun is out. Many times we are confined to our offices for that eight hours a day. And so if we have the benefit to hop outside, while the sun is out to take, you know, a 1520 minute walk, we can come back to work and be more productive, and have more energy to finish the rest of our day. But keep it simple and and kind of create a discipline of your habit, you know, whether that be 20 minutes that you want to carve out or 30. And as you create that discipline that habit, more motivation will follow bringing in somebody else from your household or even just over the phone as you're walking to kind of have that community and accountability as you're moving through. Just getting started getting out the door setbacks and you know, other obstacles may come along. But if you can set yourself up for success by creating a plan and keeping it simple, you'll find yourself more successful over a long period of time. Rather than just for a few weeks,
you mentioned something with the weather. And that's the great thing is getting out in the sunlight. But of course, the sunlight isn't the same year round, and that people may have worked up their home workout routine. But now it's going to be wet and cold. And that is a real deterrent for people, especially if maybe running was part of your routine, but you don't like to run in the bad weather. What do you suggest people do to kind of contend with the elements conspiring against you a little bit, not just for daylight, but everything else?
I would suggest kind of making a plan, you know, if you know that you don't like to run outside when it's wet and snowy? What can you do to replace that in your home? Do you have a space setup? Do you enjoy doing burpees? Or would you do burpees for you know, part of your workout to kind of replicate that run that you might do. And so make a plan to see how you can accommodate and be flexible with that. I think if you have some sort of plan in place, it's easier to kind of fall back on that rather than get to the day where it's snowy and wet and and now you're simply opting out of workout. Instead of creating and going with the plan that you had, as a backup,
how would you suggest people start to get their routine going? Again, once everything starts back up? Is that something where you might be worried that people are going to kind of come back and overdo it now that they can change up their routine? Or maybe not get back down to the same routine that they used to before to get to a facility and a few months from where we might be right now? Is there anything you need to be worried about?
You know, there's always the possibility that you're going to come out of the gate too hot and end up injured or sidelined? Because there was too much intensity going into acclimating back to the gym. And so I would just say go in with it smart and train for the long haul. Instead of training for getting back right where you were pre shutdown and pre COVID. Pretty much anyone who was going to the gym, pre COVID has different measurements of their success and where they're at now compared to when they were they were and so if you want to train for the long haul if you want to keep your body healthy And moving for a longer period of time, just take it slow and acclimate, so that your body can adapt well to it. I would also seek out you know, any resources that if you're going to a gym they might have. So that might be personal trainers or different aspects of programming that different gyms have setup that can help acclimate somebody back into their routine, chances are, if you're coming from low activity, and you're moving into going back into a facility, you may not be able to work out every single day of the week, your body might need some more time to recover, and rest. Those things are just as important as going to the gym. Because what we do outside the gym impacts what we do in the gym.
And then also, are there any resources that you would suggest to make sure you're doing those alternate exercises the right way. And to try to get, I guess, a little bit of coaching by looking at one place or another, I would imagine that there's lots of great suggestions that can be found online, are there any that are better than others? The
online world of fitness is wonderful. It's also very dangerous, because there's a lot of different opinions and thoughts out there. And so I would just approach it with caution. I would say that if you have a gym in town that you go to, or you want to go to look and see what that place is offering. Also, that place might be offering online programming right now because many of the facilities in gyms have shifted to that in order to meet the demands of their members. So I would look first of all at the place that you're you're going to if you're you know making a plan, like for yourself, I would just be cautious of fitness influencers on Instagram, and social media, simply because that may not be the best advice or resource for you individually. A personal trainer and somebody in person or somebody who talks to you and seeks your needs out is going to give you the best advice for for your progress.
So really, if there's somebody or an organization that you know and trust in that situation, they could probably give you the best possible guidance.
Absolutely. Exercise is super important for our overall mental health and longevity, especially as we work through the pandemic and life after the pandemic. And it's going to continue to play a crucial role in our health and wellness. And so I just encourage everyone to get active and find a way that brings you joy and moving you know that might be riding a bike that might be you know, working out at home or going for a walk playing with the kids something like that, but just find something that makes you happy and gets you moving. And that is where you're going to find the most success and benefit from your movement. So,
Leah, thanks for talking to us today.
Absolutely thanks Steve
Sanders works in facilities at Heartland Community College. She also teaches physical fitness for Heartland is continuing education division. If you'd like to hear more interviews about personal enrichment, health and wellness or other topics, subscribe to random acts of knowledge on Apple podcasts, Spotify, audio boom, or wherever you found this one. Thanks for listening
