Adapting to Life With Covid
As I sit down to write this post, yet another news flash comes on in the background about Covid and the changing of the rules yet again. This serves as a reminder of just how timely this post is. And this post is all about one thing. Adapting.
“The only constant in life is change” – Heraclitus.
All life on this planet has at least one thing in common – everything is constantly having to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Most life on earth seems to accept this. Us humans can be different. We like stability, we crave it. When we find something we are comfortable with, we want it to remain the same, we feel safe in our place of comfort and “normality”, we try to nail things down to fit into our idea of “safe”.
Unfortunately, the world doesn’t quite work like this, take 2020 for an obvious example! Literally, the entire human world has seen changes we weren’t expecting or prepared for. Covid has caused huge shifts in what we know as our normality. We have to adapt.
“The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings” – Kakuzo Okakura.
As a health and fitness professional, one of the obstacles my clients, and millions of others, have been facing (I write from the UK) is that places of health and fitness have been closed, then open, then closed again, and remain closed at this present time (January 2021). For the millions of people that would regularly frequent gyms, pools, climbing walls, leisure centres etc, this has been a big blow to their “normal” routine.
We’re all in this together, as a climber living with IBD, being on the shielding list has meant I haven’t been able to get to a climbing gym for nearly 12 months, (even when they did open with Covid restrictions in late 2020). I had to adapt. As a PT, I’m in a fortunate position with the background knowledge and equipment to adapt my training to my situation.
For many people this may not be the case, you may have gone from having unlimited access to your chosen gym with a plethora of equipment, help and advice from your gym buddies and health professionals, to being stuck at home with nothing more than the floor and household items as “equipment” to train with. This can be very daunting and potentially demoralizing and even depressing. (not to mention potentially dangerous!).
But it needn’t be. You can adapt! Sure – you may not be working towards a deadlift PB with only some bean tins as resistance. But right now that’s just fine.. Adapt your expectations, adapt your mental approach, adapt your training. With a little planning and maybe a small investment, you can still achieve great results from the comfort of your own home.
Keep things simple!
Don’t spend hours trying to create the “perfect” workout. Pick a few exercises that work within your goals and the equipment and space you’ve got, knock out a few reps/sets/holds/stretches, and feel pleased with yourself. Build on that day by day.
Video call “buddy” workouts
With the increase in technology, these days it’s so easy to keep in touch with people, use it! organise a buddy workout (or even a group session), this can really help keep you motivated and keep you accountable…. funny how easy it is to find things the “just need doing” at home that get in the way of your workouts isn’t it.. (yes we’re all guilty of that!)
Try something new
“I’ve always wanted to try yoga but don’t want to go to a class”
“I really need to work on my flexibility but don’t have the time”
“I’d love to be able to speed rope but feel self-conscious in the gym”
How many times have you heard things like this?! Maybe now’s the perfect time to try that thing you’ve wanted to try for ages, or maybe try something you’ve never even considered before. You never know u may just stumble on a new passion! – always be safe, get some advice if unsure, don’t push yourself too hard, but do have some fun!
Grab some cheap equipment
I’m not going to spend long going through all the ins and outs of what equipment you should or shouldn’t get, where to get it, why you should get it, — there’s enough of that info already out there. All I will say is a small investment in some multiple purpose bits of kit (eg. resistance bands/some door mounted suspension straps) can add a vast amount of variety and intensity to a home training program without a huge financial outlay.
Invest in some professional help
If you’ve got the budget, invest in some professional help, us online Personal Trainers and Coaches are trained and qualified to help in this exact situation – Training advice, Programming, Accountability, Emotional support, all bespokely designed around your own personal and unique situation. all in one handy package.
But most of all…. keep your chin up and keep plugging away! we’ll get through this… we’re all in it together!
