Since COVID-19, many things have changed, especially being able to stay active. The pandemic has made gyms close and some parks temporarily closed. Due to this, many people have no motivation to keep themselves active how they used to or even start being active, especially since the new year started. 

Well, luckily, there are many different ways to stay active during this pandemic. People should take advantage of the pandemic to work on themselves, mentally and physically. 

The key to staying active is to keep your mindset positive and being able to stay committed to what you said you were going to do. For example, beginning to stay active during the pandemic. Depending on what your goal is, it determines what specific workouts you will be doing. 

If your goal is to lose weight, you will need to incorporate cardio into your workout. It will be best if you can at least do cardio three times a week. It is also important if you can work out five times a week. If you do not have weights at home that is fine! 

Let’s say you did cardio on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You can have Tuesday and Thursday to do bodyweight workouts. For example, if you want to incorporate an upper-body day, but you have no weights you can do workouts like wall push-ups or regular push-ups, triceps dip, bear crawls, plank rotations, and raised arm circles. These workouts will help you define your arms if you are consistent.

If you do have weights at home, that is perfect! You can include full-body workouts that can be either cardio or strength training workouts (preferably more cardio days if you are trying to lose weight). If you have weights, it will be effective because the weights are what help gain muscle. Most importantly you will have to watch what you eat because working out is only 40% effective as your body needs to be treated with healthy foods. 

On the other hand, if you are trying to gain weight during this pandemic, this is possible as well! To gain weight, you obviously will have to eat more than you are used to and you will have to do more bodyweight workouts/strength training workouts than cardio. You don’t need to add in cardio exercises when you are trying to gain weight because your goal is to gain calories not lose them!

f you do not have weights at home you can find something you have at your house to use as weights. For example, you can use a dog food bag. The workouts you’d want to include for lower body days would be squats, deadlifts, reverse lunges, RDL’s, hip thrust, and donkey kicks.

For upper-body days, you could use something you can use as weights that you can use for upper body days. Also, remember to consume a lot of protein and healthy fats.

This journey will have its ups and downs because you will have to stay committed to the way you eat and workout! But also remember to not be too hard on yourself!