The pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, from how we shop to how we work out. Since going to a gym is still a high-risk situation, many people have created makeshift workout areas in living rooms, garages or basements. Experts say the way we work out has also been impacted. People are no longer looking for bulging biceps, but instead, want to have fun and de-stress.
According to Well + Good, we’re breaking up with workouts we don’t truly enjoy and engaging in routines that make us happy.
“What’s going to help people stay committed right now is to make sure they are having fun,” said Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s Bootcamp. “Those 30 to 60 to 90 minutes, however much you’re dedicating to a workout, you just need to be in a positive frame of mind and really enjoy what it is that you’re doing.”
Gonzalez told Well + Good that in the environment of a global pandemic, people aren’t thinking so much about getting results and are more concerned about using physical activity as a means of stress relief. Since we can’t move around too much outside the home, the movements inside should be joyful.
Thanks to Zoom and YouTube, we have hundreds of workouts to choose from. Famed Tae Bo creator Billy Blanks has a YouTube series that revives his super fun workouts of the late 1990s. Today, Blanks has adapted his workouts to be more mindful.
“I, myself, am more mindful about how to help myself and others,” he told Newsmax. “I am teaching my students to work out wisely, with less emphasis on the physical and more emphasis on the mind and mental aspects of exercise. Fitness, if used correctly, can overcome any mental obstacle.”
The correct physical activity can take your mind away from the anxiety and uncertainty of this chaotic time, he said.
“Motion creates emotion,” Sadie Lincoln, co-founder of Barre3, told Well +Good. If a workout doesn’t bring you a half hour of physical joy, it doesn’t deserve hitting the play button.
Lynn C. Allison ✉
Lynn C. Allison, a Newsmax health reporter, is an award-winning medical journalist and author of more than 30 self-help books.
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