By Nolan Kowal, Sport Performance Specialist
Things are different right now and you may find yourself feeling a little lost without your usual routine. I wanted to put together a few of my tips for staying motivated and healthy while practicing social distancing.
First and foremost, social distancing and self-isolation are very different things.
The majority of us are doing our best to follow social distancing guidelines as set out by the Government of Canada. Keeping these guidelines in mind, here are some ways to make sure you still practice healthy daily habits.
Be active
We want you to maintain an active lifestyle outside of the gym, so we are regularly doing free live classes on our Instagram page – here is the schedule. If you can’t join us during the designated class times, we will have you covered with YouTube uploads, so you can do the classes on your own as well. We will soon have virtual training options too – stay tuned!
Aside from this, you can do a multitude of other things to keep moving. Go for a walk – in Manitoba, we are encouraged by government and health officials to still enjoy the outdoors. Go alone or with your family/roommates and make sure you still engage in social distancing measures. Being outdoors is vital for your mental and physical health, so do not skip out on this if you can!
Still feeling a little stir crazy? Toss on some music (or catch your favourite musicians doing live concerts via social media) and have a dance party. It might feel silly at first, but I guarantee you will end up having a much-needed laugh while also breaking a sweat.
Stay connected
Social distancing does not mean we can’t be social. Connect with your loved ones via media outlets, various video call apps like Zoom or FaceTime, or even just pick up the phone and give them a call. My friends and I utilized video chat to play games last weekend and we ended up ‘socializing’ for five hours. My parents live in Ontario and my brother lives in British Columbia and these apps are a fantastic way for all of us to ‘be together’ – I cannot recommend this enough!
Do not feel like you ‘have’ to do anything
There is a lot of information coming at you every day and most of it is likely a bit daunting. On top of that, you may feel pressure from others to ‘stay productive,’ ‘pick up new habits,’ and so on.
In case you need to hear this, it is also entirely okay to have days where you just do your best to relax
Of course, we want you to stay active and social, but even when we were going about our normal daily business, we made sure that we took time for ourselves. I encourage you to do this now, too. Have that bubble bath, order that pizza, toss on a Netflix marathon of Lord of the Rings – do whatever you need, whenever you need in order to recharge. And if there is anything at all that I can do to help get you through this tough time, shoot me an email: Shannon.Penfound@sportmanitoba.ca
Things are different right now – but know that you are not alone. Do your best to stay active, stay connected, and recharge those batteries whenever you might be feeling a bit drained. We are all in this together!
