Thankfully, maintaining muscle mass is a heck of a lot easier than gaining muscle mass.
What does that mean? Well, it means the progress you’ve made in the weeks/months/years of going to the gym will not simply go away because you have to modify your workouts for a brief period of time!
While it might feel like forever because we love the gym, the truth is that it would take a lot longer and basically doing no activity at all to see detrimental effects.
Although these are extenuating circumstances, there will no doubt be other times in your life where the gym can’t and/or shouldn’t be your highest priority. Most of us are unable to continue working out the way we were prior to the coronavirus crisis, but that does not mean we should just throw in the towel!
There are a few things you can do to help maintain your fitness during uncertain times.
Keep moving! When you work from home, you are naturally moving around less. If you use a step tracker or smart watch, you probably notice that on days where you don’t leave your house, you tend to move less. While I am not a fan of measuring calories using a smart watch, there is certainly something to be said for your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This is the amount of energy your body expends doing normal daily activities. The NEAT factor has a much greater contribution to your overall energy expenditure throughout the day (aka way more than gym sessions). By trying to stay moving around as much as you can, you will ensure that your NEAT stays closer to what it was before you were working from home. How to do that? 10-minute walk breaks, jumping jacks, make-shift standing desks, walking the dog, run up and down your stairs, cleaning - you get the picture! Just get moving.
Eat sufficient calories and protein. A global pandemic is not the time to slash your calories. Why? Dieting is a huge stressor on our bodies, as are many of the ramifications of our current coronavirus situation. Your body has one goal - stay alive. It does not know how to tease about the stress caused from dieting vs. financial stress vs. running into a bear in the woods aka the physiological responses are the same. Many of you were coming fresh off the challenge and getting back to a maintenance level of calories which is great - stay there. Eating at maintenance or slightly above will serve you well right now. I should also mention that I realize not everyone is interested in counting calories right now - especially when grocery stores are half empty, etc. My point is not to feel like you need to eat less because you are home all day. You are still an adult and need calories to survive and thrive!
Workout at least 2-3x a week. The trainers are offering live Zoom workouts at different times each day for you all to get your sweat on! Even if you are not using as much weight as you normally would during class, you can certainly still maintain or even progress from your current abilities using whatever equipment you have available to you. Now is a great time to focus on doing each exercise really well and making sure you are keeping proper form. While I am all about lifting heavy weights and pushing yourself, please don’t feel like you will lose all progress because you can’t do that right now. When this is all over, we will crush some heavy weights again!
Focus on maintaining healthy habits. This includes drinking plenty of water and sleeping 7-9 hours each night. Both of these are so important all the time, but especially now when we are trying to stay as healthy as possible. Some of you might have trouble falling asleep at night because of everything going on in the world. If that’s true, I suggest turning your phone/screens off for some time before going to bed. You could even try some light stretching and deep breathing or reading to help calm your nervous system down. Sleep hygiene is important and crucial for the recovery and function of our bodies.
Stay healthy, everyone! Please remember that your Fitness Fusion trainers are here to help you in whatever ways we can! #GETFUSED